Bellchop

I originally wrote this story on April 21, 2021!

Wednesday. I have a class today, my favorite class since starting at Washington. It was an interesting class, and it was also a day I’d see Jake. At this point, he’s my best friend. He’s kind and honest, and I can talk to him about anything. I’m glad to have a friend like him around. Well, there’s no point in wasting time, I’ve gotta get up. I’ll update this a little later.

It’s been a few hours, my class is about to start. Getting ready for the day is a pain… I love my long hair, but it takes SOOO long to wash and style! But, it’s my pride and joy. It’s what everyone compliments first! It’s always “Red? What a wonderful color!! And it’s so long too. You’re like rapunzel!” And never “how are you, Amy?”

Class is over now, I had a nice time learning and conversing a bit with Jake. We’ve decided that we’re going to get lunch. I’ll be updating this as things happen.

We settled on an Italian restaurant, I’m getting a pasta and he’s getting… I forgot.

He also got a pasta. Just a different kind of pasta.

This is a nice outing… it’s not exactly a date, but I’m glad to have a friend like him!

He’s telling me about how he fixed his door this morning! Apparently, a few weeks ago his dog bolted into his room and broke his doorknob, and he fixed it. I wish my mornings were as eventful… now he wants to hear about my morning.

He said to me, “So what did you do, Amy?”

“This morning was boring, just normal stuff”

“Like what? Come on, Amy! There’s gotta be something interesting that you did.”

“Well, I got up, marched to my bathroom, got a shower, and screamed at my hair because there’s way too much of it, and had breakfast.”

“Oof. If you’re having trouble taking care of your hair, why not just cut it?”

“Honestly, I’ve thought about it a lot… I just don’t know how I’d look. I’ve always had waist-length or longer hair…”

“y’know, I have a bit of experience in haircuts. If you want a bit of a cut, I’ll do it for you!”

“I don’t know… I just don’t know what I’d want? I could just get a small cut but I’ve also thought about just chopping it all off. But it’s also the first thing everyone compliments, so I know I can’t do that.”

“Well, if you want a cut, I’ll do it for you, free of charge.”

“Thanks, Jake. I’ll think about it.”

We kept talking about other things, just random things. Apparently he is “the worst cook to ever walk the Earth.” He’s such a funny fellow. I kept thinking about his offer. Playing it over and over again in my head. We might go to college in Seattle, but I didn’t really like the main hairdressers that served our community. What if I just let Jake do it…? It would just be a trim, and maybe a good bonding experience.

We’re about to leave, I just said to him:

“So Jake… about my hair. I think I want a cut. When can you do it?”

“How about right now, after we leave? What kind of cut would you like?”

“I’d be thinking just a trim! Maybe an inch… maybe two, if we’re feeling it”

“You sure? For the record, you’d look amazing with it shorter.”

“Nah, I think just a trim.”

“Okay then. We’ll go to my place right after I finish paying this bill.”

“Okay.”

Since we came here in separate cars, I’m following him to his apartment. This is a small town, nothing is that far away.

I’ve arrived.

He’s been really nice, he brought me in and even showed me the doorknob he fixed! (It’s actually really nicely done) He got out a large leather chair, and a small tool kit meant for hair. He claims he’s only done haircuts on himself and his family, I’ll be his first non-family haircut. It’s somewhat exciting! It’s also terrifying.. what if he messes up? But… I trust him.

“Sit in the chair, Amy. This is gonna be great.”

I sat down in the chair. First, he took my hair out of the braid that it was in and combed it out. He mentioned how beautiful it was, and kept combing. He then sort of stopped, and then walked around me, messing with it a bit. I think he was trying to think about what I’d look like with different hairstyles. Again.. terrifying but exciting. Oh, and did I forget to mention how there was no mirror in front of me?

He sectioned off my hair, tying the area on top of my head into a bun, while combing out the nape area.

“Okay, Amy. I think I’m ready. Are you?”

“Yeah. Go for it.”

He pulled out a pair of medium-sized hair-cutting scissors, and started getting into position. He grabbed a tuft of my hair and bended it upwards, so he could reach the ends without having to get down to the floor. Just when he was about to cut through the ends – the doorbell rang! He jumped, and I heard a massive “SHHICK!”

He turned and ran to the door – Amazon had just delivered him a package. When he came back, he just sort of stared at me.

“What’s up?”

“Amy- holy God, I fucked up.”

“Jake?? What’s wrong??”

“Your hair. I didn’t just cut the ends I pulled up… I severed all of it.”

I was shaken. I reached behind my back, and sure enough, a section of my hair had been cut to my mid back. A surge of emotions ran through me – Jake had just cut at least 20 inches off of my hair, and that was NOT something I was ready for. I was MAD.

“Jake, what the hell?! I thought you said you knew what you were doing?!!”

“I do!!! The doorbell just scared me!”

“You cut my fucking hair off!!! What am I supposed to do now??? I’m gonna have to cut it all!! That’s gonna take years to grow back!”

“I’m sorry!! I didn’t mean to…”

At that moment, I wanted to stand up and storm out. Maybe I could just hide the shortened tuft – shave it to the skin so it just looks like there’s no hair in that part.

But then, I thought of the cost. I was too afraid to cut it myself. And the hairdressers would charge me hundreds, even for a simple cut. That was just the way it was for hair like mine. I was going to have to let Jake finish the job. I’m gonna be just an average girl with mid-back length hair, and no one will ever know what I used to look like. That, or I just let him do whatever he wants to me. Either way, no more Ariel-Rapunzel Amy hybrid, at least, not anymore!

“Jake. Just finish it.”

“Cut the rest?”

“Yeah. Or just, do whatever you want. It doesn’t matter now.”

“Wait. Do whatever I want? Don’t just be mad. I want to know what you’d legitimately want at this point, after this mistake.”

“I don’t know what I want, Jake. I didn’t want the generic hair length I’m probably going to end up with, and the damage that’s been done is probably too severe to just do a patch up and keep the length.”

“What about an undercut?”

“No… that’s not my style.”

“Okay… well, if it’s not mid back length, I’ll have to go even shorter than that. Do you want that?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never had short hair. I don’t think it would suit me.”

“It might! You’d never know unless you try.”

“You know what, Jake? Why don’t you just do whatever you want. And I’m not trying to be mean. I understand you made a mistake, and it’s okay. In the end, it’s just hair. But I also don’t know what I want right now. I know you’ve probably imagined me with a million different hairstyles by now – just pick the one you want. I mean it. Surprise me.”

“…okay. I’ll do it.”

Jake walked around me while surveying every part of my appearance… he looked into my eyes, analyzed my facial structure, and ran his hands through the un-pinned parts of my hair – both the cut strands, and the untouched ones. It was almost arousing in a way… despite his big mistake, I loved the feeling of his hands caressing my back, and the slight tug as he pulled on my hair.

“I’m ready to start. Are you sure you’re okay with me cutting your hair? I’ve decided on a mystery style.”

“Go for it.”

He hesitated for a moment that felt like an hour. Then, I felt it.

He took two fingers and gathered a chunk of my hair, and held it with heavy tension. His middle finger ran against my neck, what felt like maybe an inch below the spot where my hair stopped growing. I could hear him lift up the scissors… and then the tension just released, as my head jerked forward. Then came the crunch. “SCHHHHHP”

He had just taken a large chunk of my hair, and cut it.

A small shock went through my body, as the realization set in that he had just sliced a chunk of my hair to bob length. I retained my composure.

He sectioned off another piece of my hair, and just like the first, held it at bob length and snipped it off. Then again. and again. The sound is something I’ll never forget. The waist-length hair that took me years to grow was being sliced and diced within seconds.

As more and more hair was cut from my head, the lighter it felt. With every “SCHHHHHKK” of the scissors, I felt both relief and fear.

At a point, he let down the bun that was at the top of my head permanently. Every time he would section off a piece of my hair, the bun would get smaller and smaller. Now, the hair on the sides of my head was being combed down, prepped for chopping. After a few moments of combing, I felt it again. His fingers came in, against the middle part of my neck. Then, he lifted up the scissors.. and “SCHHHHOP.” Another chunk of my hair, reduced to bob length. However, this time, there was no section above it. He continued, as he walked around my head, slicing and chopping my waist-length red hair into a short bob. Finally, he came to my front, and his dynamic blue eyes made contact with my green eyes. There were only two small sections of hair on my head that still reached my waist. They were the two sections at the front, on the two sides of my head. As I looked at him, he smirked at me, and grabbed the red locks on my left. He then brought up the scissors, and made quick work of them, closing the blades and severing the locks, dropping them. He then turned his attention to the other section on my right and grabbed that section. Between his index and middle fingers were the last strands of hair on my head that had not been cut. Just as fast as he grabbed them, he brought the blades of the scissors up to the tuft of hair. The blades surrounded this section of hair, and before I could even think about what was about to happen, the blades had closed, severing the last of my long, beautiful red locks from my head, and leaving me with a mid-neck length bob.

“It’s done, Amy! I went a little shorter than you might’ve been expecting me to… but you said that I could give you whatever kind of cut I wanted, so I did what I thought would look best. Spoiler alert: it looks amazing. Let me get you a mirror”

I sat in disbelief as he wandered off to get a mirror. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. My beautiful long red hair, that I had taken pride in for my whole life… reduced to a bob. I didn’t even have the courage to look at the floor to see the pile of my severed hair… yet.

“I’m back! Are you ready to see?”

“……yes. Show me.”

He brought the mirror to my front, with the actual glass facing him. He then turned the mirror around so I could actually see my reflection.

Gone was my elegant waist-length red hair… replaced with a modern, (I’ll admit, I wasn’t completely sure how I felt about it at first glance… but it was SO cute. I never imagined it would be so cute.) cute, short bob. My hair popped out of the top of my head, but instead of flowing all the way down to my waist, it just ended, maybe a half an inch below my chin. I was astonished… but also oddly satisfied.

“Do ya like it, Amy?”

“I… I can’t believe it. It’s all gone… but… this is actually so cute?! The more I look at it… the more I like it! It’s still elegant… just in a different way. and it’s so cute…”

“Yeah! That’s what I thought. All that long hair was nice and beautiful but it hid the rest of you, which is just as beautiful.”

“I can’t believe it… but honestly? I really like it. Thank you, Jake.”

I stood up from the chair, and that’s when I looked down. Surrounding the chair was a pile of long red hair, that just a few minutes ago had been severed from me. Some strands appeared to be as long as 30 inches, or around 75 centimeters. It was all so surreal… but this had really just happened.

My hair had been chopped off.

Hey! I came to update this- like, a week later. It’s the next Wednesday, and I’m still absolutely loving my hair. I’ve gotten countless compliments on it, it takes so much less time to take care of, and honestly, it’s the cutest style I’ve ever worn. I think I’ll be keeping it like this! (Oh and side note… I totally haven’t started dating Jake 🙂

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