Hairy Bets: Mom and Daughter edition

It was the last few days of summer break before the school year started—in my case, the junior year at high school. I’d had a really hard time getting through the previous years, and there were times when I was close to having to repeat a whole year. One day, after lunch, my mom and I were watching TV when she brought up that conversation.

“Well, Martha… How are you feeling about this new school year? Summer’s almost over.”

“Doing good, mom. This year, my goal is to pass all my exams in June. No going back to September.”

“You’re not even buying it yourself,” she snapped with sarcasm. “You really struggled to pass the previous years…”

“I’m definitely buying it. Wanna bet something?” I said, determined.

“Oh, really? Impress me, missy. What’s your wager?”

“If I have any classes to retake for September, I’ll shave my head. And if I pass them all, you’ll shave yours. Plus, the loser would have to stay bald for the whole summer and wouldn’t be allowed to wear wigs or hats.”

“Honey, you’re nuts,” my mother said, shocked. “But okay, let’s do it. I’d love to see you bald as a cue ball.” She chuckled after saying that.

“Well, let’s put it in writing.” I grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen, and we drafted that sort of contract.

“Well, that’s all. You’ve always taken classes for September, starting from year 6. I’m pretty confident you’ll be the one who ends up bald,” my mother blurted out after signing the “contract.”

The school year passed by, and so did the exams. In the first half of the year, I failed two classes. My mom had forgotten about our bet, but I hadn’t. I was starting to worry that I’d be the one whose hair would fall, especially because of History, which I just hadn’t been able to get a grip on.

The day I got my final report card, I was full of anxiety. I received them in a sealed envelope which I didn’t want to open until I was home. I got home and there was my mom, just back from the gym. I handed her the envelope so she could open it.

“Let’s see how things went for you this year.”

“I hope things are going well—I studied really hard,” I said confidently. My mother took the report card out of the envelope.

“Great, all passed!” We jumped with joy and hugged each other. “You did it, sweetie. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I said happily. “Now you have to keep the bet we made, remember?”

My mother reacted with surprise. “To be honest, honey, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The one we made before the start of the school year,” I said, pulling out the paper we’d signed. She read it and froze in shock.

“Martha, my darling… You can’t do this…,” she said, her voice quivering. “You know I love my hair, and being bald for two months would be too much… What would people say? What would your father say? If he saw me bald, he’d have a stroke.”

“I’m going to call Aunt Lily right now to see if she has an appointment available this afternoon.” My Aunt Lily, my mother’s sister, is a hairdresser, and she used to do our hair.

“Martha, for fuck’s sake, I just got my highlights done!” my mom said, visibly upset.

“A bet’s a bet, Mom. I can guarantee that if I had lost, I would have shaved my head.”

“Fine, you win,” my mother said with resignation. “Call your aunt.”

“I’ll do it right now. Mommy, you’re going to feel really cool this summer,” I said with a chuckle.

I phoned Aunt Lily and explained her the situation, at which she burst out laughing loudly. She told me she’d be happy to help, and we agreed to meet at 3:30 pm., before her salon was open for the customers.

We showed up at her salon five minutes early: there she was, wearing her pink hairdresser’s robe. Aunt Lily, who was in her late 40s, was a woman who loved to experiment with her hair: bowl cuts, short boyish cuts, mohawks, etc. She changed her hairstyle every few months, and she loved painting her hair different colors. Now, she had her back and sides buzzed down to a #0, and the top part was longish, tied up in a bun and dyed pink. Lily was the complete opposite of my mother, whom I had always remembered with a beautiful, wavy blonde mane that reached her bra strap, although in recent years she had been dyeing it to cover gray hairs.

“Hi, ladies. Well, Nelly…Ready to keep your end of the bet?” she said to my mom with a mischievous smile

“What can I do, sweetheart…” she said resignedly. “Believe me, your niece is going to pay for this.”

“Come on, Mom, you’ll be nice and cool,” I said chuckling.

“Come on, lil sister, have a seat,” said Aunt Lily, pointing to the armchair. “I’m going to have the time of my life.”

“You’re two big meanies,” my mother said as she sat down.

“You shouldn’t have made that bet, darling. Now you’ll be mine for two months. You have such long, beautiful hair, little sister…,” my aunt said teasingly as she ran her fingers through my mother’s hair. “One thing’s for sure: you’re going to save a fortune on shampoo and hair dye this summer.”

Once my mother had sat down, my aunt draped a black cape over her. Next, she grabbed some large, red clippers, removed the guard, and without a shadow of a doubt, turned them on and pressed them against my mother’s forehead, not stopping until they reached her crown. shearing off blonde tresses from my mother’s head and leaving behind barely a millimeter of hair. Mom didn’t take her eyes off the mirror, wide-eyed and speechless as her crowning glory was being taken away from her.

A few minutes later, Aunt Lily turned off the clippers: my mom wore now a #0 buzzcut, and her former waves were all over the floor. It didn’t take long for my aunt to grab a foil shaver and start running it over that freshly buzzed head. The shaver removed the tiny stubble, leaving my mother’s head even more naked and accentuating its paleness. I watched the scene very closely, almost enjoying it.

After finishing with the shaver, Aunt Lily wrapped my mother’s head in a damp towel and, after a minute, removed it and covered her scalp with shaving cream. She grabbed a straight razor and began to shave her thoroughly. In a couple of minutes, Aunt Lily had completely shaved my mother’s head, thus removing every trace of hair. My mother was shell-shocked, and so was I. She was completely bald. The bet was paid.

“There you go, little sis,” Aunt Lily said with a proud smile, “you’ve paid up. What do you think of your new look?”

“My—my hair… You’ve made me bald, you bitch,” my mother said, still dazed. “My head is completely smooth, it feels cold, and all my hair is on the floor…”

“Thanks, Aunt Lily. Thanks to my bet, you won’t lack work this summer,” I said jokingly.

“It’ll be my pleasure,” my aunt said with a cheeky smile. “This one’s on the house. Every two days at this time, it’s your turn for a shave.”

“Great. Bald as an egg all summer. Fantastic.” my mother said, resignedly. “I wonder how I’m going to explain this to people…”

“If you don’t want to lose, don’t bet,” I told her. Aunt Lily and I laughed at that.

In the days immediately following the headshave, my mother had to provide a lot of explanations: first to my father, who took it surprisingly well, and then to her friends and neighbors. Once the initial shock had passed, it became a common sight to see my mother every other day at my Aunt Lily’s salon getting a touch-up, or at the gym, flaunting her shiny, pale scalp.

On the days my aunt went on vacation or we went to the beach, I was in charge of shaving my mother’s head. During those two months, my mother felt very comfortable and cool, and people got used to seeing her without hair. As the days went by, my mother began to like her shaved head and really appreciated the comfort of that style. And the truth is, it suited her very well: her skull and face had a round shape that was ideal for such an extreme cut.

SOME MONTHS LATER

A few months had passed by since my mother’s first headshave. She wasn’t bald anymore; instead, she’d let her hair grow out a bit. As her hair grew, my mother kept dyeing it different colors every so often. Right now, she sported a #4 buzzcut dyed red.

At the start of the school year, my mother had signed up for driving lessons in order to get her driver’s license at the age of forty-four. One afternoon, Aunt Lily came over for coffee.

“Good afternoon, auntie. Long time no see!”

“Well, maybe you should come over the salon more often. Where’s your mother?”

“She’s studying in the living room. Aunt Lily entered the room and greeted Mom.

“Whatcha doin’, Nelly?”

“Studying for the written exam, but nothing gets into my brain”, she said, resigned.

“Come on, put the books down and let’s chat for a bit. Martha, go get some coffee.” I went to the kitchen and came back a few minutes later with three cups of coffee.

“How’s the salon going, Lil?”

“You could come over some day, girl. I miss the days when I shaved you.”

“It’s true that I ended up enjoying the smooth head.”

“There’s an easy solution to that: come to the salon and I’ll kill that hideous red fuzz.”

“Sorry sis, I’m not getting haircuts until I take the exam,” my mom said with conviction.

“Well, you’d better pass it on the first try, or you’ll be back to bald,” I said defiantly.

“Are you challenging me again, missy?” my mom said, surprised. I nodded with a smile.

“If you pass the exam on the first try, I’ll shave my head and I’ll stay bald for three months. And if you fail, you’ll be bald until you pass.”

“Accept it, sis,” Aunt Lily said. “You’ve already been bald, and you liked it. Besides, if you win, you’ll be able to take revenge on your daughter…” They looked at me with a mischievous smile.

“All right, I accept. Martha, let’s write it down.”

I took a paper sheet and we wrote the ‘contract’, which the three of us signed.

“Great. The exam is in two months, enough time for me to prepare,” my mom said.

TWO MONTHS LATER

The day of the written exam had arrived. My mom had studied a lot, but she was a bundle of nerves. The exam was at 10 AM; by 9:30, she was already at the DMV. Her hair was quite long, though not too long, and dyed blue. The exam was multiple-choice, lasted an hour, and she could get a maximum of five questions wrong.

Around 2:00 PM, she got home. Later, I got home from high school. We were eager: we had agreed to check the results together.

“How was the exam, mommy?,” I said hugging her.

“I don’t know what to say, honey… Let’s find out.” She opened the envelope and sighed. “FUCKING SHIT. I got six wrong answers.” She had failed the exam.

“Nooo, I’m sorry, mom.” I hugged her again. “And your hair will be sorry too,” I whispered her.

“Damn it, I forgot about the bet!,” she said in a surprised tone. “Well, call your aunt. We’ll have lunch together and then we’ll go to her salon.”

We had lunch with Aunt Lily, who looked pretty cheerful, and then we went down to her salon. My aunt had a long pixie cut dyed turquoise, with the sides and back buzzed down to a #1.

Once my mother had sat down and got the cape on, Lily grabbed the same red clippers she’d used on her before and ran them through her blue hair without any guard. This time, it took her much less time to buzz it all off. She then picked up the foil shaver and ran it over my mom’s stubbly scalp several times.

I could tell my mother wasn’t particularly happy during the process, and that made me wonder if this was okay. When I snapped back to reality, my aunt was already finishing up with the razor, scraping away the last remnants of my mom’s hair. My mother was bald as a bowling ball again.

In the moment she got up, something just clicked for me. I got up too and sat down on the armchair.

“Martha, darling, what are you doing?” Both my mother and my aunt were puzzled.

“Mom, I’m going to support you in this. Aunt Lily, make me bald,” I said confidently.

“Honey, it’s not necessary, it’ll grow back,” my mother replied.

“I’ve already made up my mind. Auntie, just do it. BALD.”

A huge smile spread across my aunt’s face.

“It’ll be my pleasure, my dear Martha. Now you’ll know how your mother felt. You may not be a blondie, but you also have such beautiful hair…,” she said, stroking my straight, chest-length brown hair.

My aunt spun the armchair so I faced my mother. “This way, your new look will be a surprise.”

My aunt draped a black cape over me, and it took her barely two seconds to grab the clippers and push them into my hair at the front. She kept making passes that ended at the crown of my head, disconnecting my mane from my head. She moved to the sides and continued down the back of my neck; my mom was recording as my hair fell to the floor. I looked her in the eyes while my aunt was using the foil shaver on me: tears were coming out of her eyes, which moved me as well.

After turning off the shaver, Aunt Lily wrapped my scalp in a towel soaked in hot water, which felt great. She removed it, lathered my head with shaving cream, and proceeded to run a straight razor over it. The razor glided over my scalp several times until there was no more lather or hair left to remove.

Aunt Lily spun the armchair so I could look at myself in the mirror. I couldn’t help but let out a little gasp when I first saw me without any hair on my head.

“Surprised, aren’t you?” my aunt said with a chuckle. “You’ve had that luscious hair for so many years—it’s normal to be shocked. But believe me, Martha, you look GORGEOUS.”

She placed a warm kiss on my bald head and began rubbing a kind of liquid into it that stung a little, but at the same time gave me a pleasant, cooling sensation.

“It’s really interesting, you know. I don’t recognize myself without my hair, and at the same time, I love it.”

I felt a slight chill when she applied the liquid, which I assumed was after-shave. After a few seconds, I ran my hands over my freshly shaved head and stroked it. An overwhelming sense of pleasure filled me as I ran my hands over that patch of skin that had once been covered in hair.

“Mmmmmh, so smooth, so delicious… I FUCKING LOVE IT.”

As soon as Aunt Lily took off my cape, I ran towards my mother, and we gave each other a big, warm hug. Tears of joy began to pour from both of our eyes.

“MOM, I’VE SHAVED MY HEAD. I’M CRAZY.” My aunt and my mom burst out laughing.

“Crazy people do crazy things. And you and your mom are two real wild ones, with those bets,” my aunt said with a laugh. “But you two wild ones look gorgeous bald.”

“You’re goddamn right, Lily. We look AMAZING. Especially you, sweetheart.” Mom started kissing me on my forehead and my bald head. “I adore you, my little cue ball.”

“I adore you more, egghead,” I said while caressing her denuded scalp. “Will you forgive for the bets?”

“Don’t worry, sweetie. Thanks to your crazy bets, we’ve discovered something we love and that we can do together.”

“The bet said you’d stay bald until you passed, and I’m gonna do that too.”

Out of the blue, we heard the sound of the clippers. We looked toward the mirror, and what we saw left us speechless: Aunt Lily was shaving her own head. We stared at the mirror as she ran the clippers over her scalp, destroying her turquoise-dyed pixie cut. Since the sides and the back were already really short, they took her only a few seconds. Once all her hair was gone, she started running the foil shaver over her head. She was repeating the same process she’d done to us.

“Girls, can you help me with the razor, please?” she asked us when she turned off the shaver. She sat down in the chair and we draped the cape over her.

“Lily, you didn’t need to…” said my mom.

“Of course I needed to, sis. I’ll be the very first to support you with that driver’s license. And no one is crazier than me.” That last line had us both in stitches.

We soaked a towel in hot water and placed it on my aunt’s freshly shaved head. After a few seconds, we removed it and spread a generous layer of shaving cream over her scalp. Mom grabbed the straight razor that Aunt Lily had used to shave me, and we took turns shaving off what was left of my aunt’s hair, while she couldn’t stop smiling. When there was nothing left to remove from that smooth, bare scalp, we took the aftershave and spread it all over. Once we were done, the three of us laughed hysterically. Aunt Lily stood up, and the three of us hugged.

“Girls, I love it. I think I’ve found my new favorite haircut,” my aunt said, rubbing her hairless head. “Thanks for getting me to do this—I cherish you. ” We started taking all kinds of photos, making sure that our shiny domes stole the show.

True to our promise, the three of us remained bald until the day my mother took her written test. Aunt Lily came over for lunch so we could find out the results together, and we were absolutely thrilled: my mother had passed with flying colors.

At first, we decided to let our hair grow out again. However, we’d gotten the itch for short hair and extreme haircuts.

The most radical was Aunt Lily, who kept her head completely shaved: being bald attracted quite a few new customers to her shop, especially men who, for reasons unknown to me, really liked having Aunt Lily cut their hair or even shave their heads. Sometimes they even let her do more than they had originally asked for, which my aunt seemed to enjoy. I’ll never forget the day when a boy with slightly long hair, who had first asked for a scissor cut, let my aunt give him a military-style buzz cut—and she wore a look of pure delight on her face the whole time. And I think so did he.

My mom and I didn’t go so far as to be bald all the time, but we did start experimenting with different extreme styles such as mohawks, super-short pixies, or military cuts (my aunt calls them “flattops”). My mom really took a liking to the mohawk, which she dyes in all sorts of colors and styles while she keeps the sides completely shaved.

I went through a mohawk phase too, but I got tired of it pretty quickly. I decided my look was a #2 buzzcut dyed blonde, Amber Rose-style. Sometimes I switch to colors like pink or blue, or I get leopard-print designs. And when my hair’s looking a little damaged or I just want a fresh start, it’s as simple as heading over to Aunt Lily’s salon and getting a good ol’ headshave. Today, a month after my last razor shave, she’s given me the most unique haircut I’ve ever had: a flattop with the back and sides completely shaved and a small line shaved on the top, similar to a landing strip.

And all this started with a silly bet…

THE END