Tomorrow an Edinburgh salon will offer a marathon 24 hours of haircuts for good cause

A salon in Edinburgh is setting up for a marathon of pre-lockdown haircuts as they will open for a full 24 hours giving those in need of a last minute chop before Christmas a chance to come in, while raising money for a charity clause close to the staff’s hearts.

Murray will be cutting hair for a marathon 24 hours to raise money for SimBA

Stag Barber Co, a gender-free salon which has locations on Lady Lawson Street and at Haymarket, last month shared the heart-breaking story of their team member Nicole, who suffered from the loss of her child at just 29 weeks.

On Wednesday December 23, Stag owner Murray McRae will be cutting hair at the Haymarket location for 24 hours straight, with all profits going towards SimBA, a baby loss charity whose memory box helped Nicole and her partner Jordan at their difficult time.

Starting at 8:30am on Wednesday, Murray will be standing on the spot in sweat bands and running gear, with his scissors flying all the way through until 8:30am on Christmas Eve.

Murray and Nicole from Stag Barber Co

The idea came after the salon planned to give £1 from every appointment throughout December to SimBA, which has now been cut short by the introduction of tier four restrictions coming into place on Boxing Day meaning that all salons will close their doors for at least three weeks.

Murray said: “2020 has felt like a marathon as it is.

“We heard about salons and barbershops in London working round the clock to get clients in before lockdown so we thought why not do something similar - but for a good cause.

“SIMba was an unbelievable help to our Nicole when she lost her first child Isaac.

“So to commemorate his birth, and to celebrate the birth of her daughter Iva, born almost a year to the date after the loss - we wanted to give her this Christmas gift.”

Haircuts will be the usual price with all 'after-hours' profits going to SiMBA.

In-house coffee shop Stag Espresso will be on hand with free coffee to fuel Murray and his early hours customers through the trims.

Appointments can be booked online, or if you can’t make it along you can donate to Stag’s JustGiving page for SimBA.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.