mockingbird96
I had been anticipating my appointment all week long. The previous week had been killer hot as the middle of June can sometimes be. I made this appointment not knowing if I would do it, again. For the last two summers I had done it. But both of those times is was later in the summer, after my hair had a chance to annoy me. Doing it in June is early. Pre-emptory.
When I say I had been anticipating my appointment, what I mean is that I had been masturbating at night to the thought of what was to come. The clippers, the sensations, the end result. Thinking about walking out of the barbershop with a short buzzcut left me soaking wet.
Wednesday finally arrived. It was all I could do to stop myself from showing through my shorts at work. My appointment time arrived, and I entered the barbershop. My barber was chilling in his big red leather barber’s chair. “How’s Anne?” He asks me as I enter. “Good” I respond. We make small talk for a bit as I sit in the bid red leather chair and put my feet up on the metal foot rest. He flicks open a white cape and wraps it around me. The neck paper is inserted and he fastens the neck snaps. He combs out my bright pink hair. For the last couple of years I have been getting my hair cut in a faux hawk style with short back and sides. Then I would bleach it and dye it neon pink, my absolute favourite colour. This cycle repeats every 5 weeks. I like to keep my hair looking good.
“Same, same?” My barber asks me.
The moment of truth.
“No” I respond. “Today we’re shaving it off.”
“All of it?!” He exclaims.
“Well, not all of it. I want you to leave…” and I hold up my fingers about half an inch apart.
“You just done with the pink?” He asks.
“No I just want to do this for the summer.” I reply.
“So do you want it shorter on the sides?”
“Yes, please. And how long do you think I have on top? A 3 or a 4?”
“We’ll start long and see. I can always take more off, I can’t put it back on.”
“Sounds great.”
He picks up his Oster clippers, no guard, as per usual. He cuts different lengths freehand with them, which always makes me nervous, thinking he’s going to slip or make a mistake. But he never does.
He places the clippers at my left sideburn. “Ready” he asks?
“Ready!” I chime.
He drives the clippers into my hairline, up, up, up to my temple. Clumps of neon pink fall away. What remains is brutally short stubble in my natural dirty blonde colour. He follows the first path by tracing another right beside it, and another. He forces the clippers up higher than it feels like they should be going. Each pass clipping off more pink and revealing more short dirty blonde stubble. All the way around my head he continues until he reaches my right temple. All that is left is the pink faux hawk on top. He pauses.
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
He passes the clippers from my front hairline back to my crown. They feel heavy on the top of my head. The vibrations are intense as the clippers run over the top.The metal is warm. In only 3 swipes, the remaining pink hair has all been removed from my head.
Now he goes over the top and it feels like heaven. The vibrations of the warm Osters on the top of my head is basically the whole reason I am here. I relish every second, but it is over far too soon.
Now he switches his clippers for smaller ones, and attacks the sides and back again, taking the already short stubble even shorter. My hair is clipped so close to my head it is barely visible. It can’t be longer than a one. Pass after pass, he brings my already tiny hairs into perfect submission. As he blends the top and bottom, the tiniest hairs are shorn away.
He examines his work. “Would you rather have no pink in your hair or have it be a bit longer?”
“A happy medium?” I say.
“But you don’t want it too short.” He says.
“I am super unattached.” I laugh. My hair is really short right now. What’s another 1/8th of an inch?
He considers “We could take it down to a 3,” but then declares, “I think we’re done.”
I look in the mirror and agree. I am sporting a short buzz, #4 on top and #1 on the sides. Perfect for the summer ahead! As I rub my new hair, the shorn bits fly everywhere! I can’t wait to get home to a shower and my vibrator.
