Unkind cut: Animal shelter manager Karen Richards is cropped while recovering in hospital

ANIMAL lover Karen Rickards thought she had escaped a close shave by a whisker when she was rushed into hospital for an emergency operation.

She was hoping last minute surgery would be the perfect excuse to pull out of a charity hair cropping session arranged for the following day.

But the manager of the Destitute Animal Shelter had not planned on the determination of volunteers and staff who tirelessly raise funds to keep the local charity afloat.

The morning after her operation they turned up at the hospital armed with a pair of clippers and sheared off her hair in front of a ward full of bemused patients and nurses. After bravely enduring her second ordeal in less than 24 hours, Karen laughingly ran her fingers through the GI Jane haircut and said: "I didn't expect them to follow me here -- can't I get away with anything?

"I had a real shock when they turned up but at least it made me forget about the pain."

Friends were amazed when Karen originally agreed to join a group of staff and volunteers who arranged the sponsored shave raise money for the animal shelter on Northolt Drive.

A friend said: "It was a real shock because everybody knows Karen's absolutely paranoid about her hair.

"She won't go anywhere without her hairspray and always carries an umbrella around because she hates her hair getting wet in the rain.

"We were all looking forward to seeing her get the chop and couldn't believe it when she was taken into hospital the night before -- but we couldn't let her get away with it."

After checking with the hospital, hairdresser friend Kelly Parkinson performed the honours while nurse Jayne Prescott kept a careful eye on her devastated patient.

But Karen will not be the only baldie when she returns to work after recovering from the operation to remove a burst abscess.

A number of other members of staff and volunteers also underwent the chop and 17-year-old Chris Heyward even had his legs waxed into the bargain.

The teenage animal lover grimaced in pain as staff member Zoe Orchard ripped the hairs out of his legs before going on to clip Dave Ellwood, Joanne Hine and Barbara Burrows.

The trained beauty therapist decided to stop giving makeovers to humans and start grooming dogs five years ago.

"I prefer the the dogs because they can't go on at you or answer you back," she laughed.