John Lennon: Lock of singer's hair sells at auction for £24,000

British memorabilia collecter is winning bidder for four-inch strand saved by German hairdresser almost 50 years ago

John Lennon with his wife, Yoko Ono, photographed in 1969 (Getty)

A lock of John Lennon’s hair saved by a German hairdresser almost 50 years ago has sold at auction for £24,000.

Paul Fraser, a British memorabilia collector, was the winning bidder when the brown tuft went under the hammer at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions on Saturday.

The four-inch clump dates to Lennon’s turn as Private Gripweed in How I Won The War, a dark comedy movie filmed in September 1966. The auction house said hairdresser Klaus Baruck had kept onto the lock afterwards. The lot included German newspaper photos showing him cutting Lennon’s hair.

A promotional brochure said the sale was a “rare and important opportunity”, adding: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest lock of Lennon’s hair ever sold at auction. It can be dated to a specific time and location and has been in the collection of the original owner for all nearly 50 years”.

It added: “This haircut took place just a month after the release of the legendary Revolver album.”

A snip of Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger sold for £4,000 at auction in London in 2013 after being kept by his ex-girlfriend Chrissie Shrimpton’s grandmother