A RASTAFARIAN window cleaner who sported 3ft-long dreadlocks has shaved his head for charity.

Last night, Barry Creighton, 37, of Goldsmith Gardens, Darlington, took the electric shavers to his hair, which he has been growing for 16 years.

His stunt raised £2,000 for the Children's Heart Unit at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, where his nephew, John Jackson, who has Down's syndrome and a hole in his heart, is und-ergoing an operation in the New Year.

Mr Creighton said: "I was initially going to jump out of a plane, but nobody would sponsor me because that is something I have always wanted to do.

"It feels like I have just taken a crash helmet off after 16 years.

"I am still trying to get my head round it and cannot look in the mirror yet."

He vowed: "I am never cutting my hair again."

Now he plans to take the dreadlocks to Jamaica to bury them.