Customers will be forgiven for thinking “they should have gone to spec-shavers” when they visited the opticians.

Staff at the Braintree Specsavers let their facial hair run free, and in some cases donned fake moustaches, all in the name on Movember.

The colleagues at the High Street shop competed to grow the most unusual tash in the hope of raising £500 for UK prostate cancer charities.

Store director Mike Bromidge said: “Staff normally come to work clean-shaven but we broke that habit this November.

“We had a total of four weeks to preen and perfect our facial hair in an effort to raise as much money as we can.”