He said an elderly woman came into The Barber Shop in King Edward St, South Dunedin, yesterday morning for a haircut, and when she left, she donated $800 for the barbers to give free haircuts for the day.
''This lady came in - she was a customer. She paid for her haircut and then asked if we could take $800 off her card.
''We thought she wanted change, and we didn't have $800 in change to give her. But she said, 'No, I don't want the money back. I want you to give free haircuts. I want to do something nice for people for Christmas'.
''The lady said she had had a lot of luck lately and she wanted to do something to make people feel happy - spread a little Christmas cheer.''
Mr Robinson said about 45 people got free haircuts - all of whom were very grateful, and had vowed to ''pay it forward'' in some way.
''One of the customers came back with a bag of buns for us for morning tea because he was so taken with the gesture,'' he said.
''I've never struck anything like this before.''
Barber Shop owner Gaynor Maitland said the woman wanted to remain anonymous, and the free haircuts ran out by mid-afternoon.
''We went through a fair few this morning. It was pretty busy.
''We had really lovely responses from everyone.''
