WhyNot
Leyna sat in the waiting area of her stylist’s shop, eagerly bouncing her foot, ready to get her hair done and go on about her evening. She loved Halloween. It was her favorite holiday. From costumes to decorations to parties, she loved it all. Years like this, when Halloween fell on a Friday, were a special gift. It meant she and her sisters could fill their night with a wide variety of bars and parties without having to weather the headaches, literal and figurative, of work the next morning.
The costume was her favorite part of all, and she had never repeated one in her life.
When it came to costuming, Leyna went all in. She still had vivid memories of the head, neck, and back pain her intricate Loki costume had left her last year. Those horns were a nightmare. It took ages to clean the blue handprints off everything in her home the year she went as the Corpse Bride, too. But it was commitment that made a good costume and the rave reviews (and costume contest prizes) she’d garner each year made it all worth it.
This year Leyna was returning to a favorite well of hers, leaning into history. She’d done a Viking warrior, a Celtic priestess, and a 1950’s housewife before. There was something extra fun about indulging her inner history nerd and dressing for an era more so than a specific character. After much perseveration, Leyna had decided to go classy and classic this year – the simple, striking elegance of a 1920s flapper.
She had a gorgeous gown (which she paid more for than she’d ever admit), elbow length gloves, an antique cigarette holder and case, a pair of brocade t-strap heels, and a headband of delicate leaves to top it off. All that was left was her hair.
Leyna’s dark hair hung in loose, natural waves and tumbled down her back. It was her pride and joy. It had always been her pride and joy. Her sisters, who enjoyed experimenting with their hair far more than Leyna ever did, had been endlessly teasing her since Leyna told them she was going as a flapper this Halloween.
“Ooooo, I can’t wait to see you in a bob!” Lydia giggled.
“How short are you going??” Lainey egged her on. “Are you gonna let them buzz the back?!”
“No thank you,” Leyna laughed. “I like my hair where it is.” Laying out her vision for the costume, Leyna explained many women kept their hair long in the ‘20s. “It was the decade that made the bob and the Eton crop famous, but it’s also the decade of silent movie stars with long, tight curls. So I’ll be wearing my hair in cascading ringlets, thank you very much. Think Lillian Gish or Mary Pickford.”
Her sisters starred at her blankly for a few moments before Lainey said, “Yeah, no one knows who they are, nerd.” And then, as though they rehearsed it, both Lainey and Lydia began chanting, “Leyna’s cutting her hair off! Leyna’s cutting her hair off! Leyna’s cutting her hair off!”
Even though she knew her sisters were teasing, her stomach still felt queasy at the suggestion. She hated the idea of having short hair. That’s why she did her research! She found plenty of era-accurate long hair styles.
Regardless of how thoroughly she explained it, every day Leyna’s phone would ding with texts: “You’re going to look so good with short hair, sis.” “I think you should let them shave the back up high! There’s nothing like your first short haircut!” “You are going to looooove feeling your bare neck!” “Think of how great your showers will be!” “Have you thrown our your hair ties and claw clips yet??”
Leyna would respond to each text with an “lol,” and eyeroll emoji, or simply ignore it.
There was no way she was cutting her hair.
“You’re up, Leyna,” her stylist Caitlyn said, waving her over, “and Happy Halloween! Do you have big plans for tonight?”
“As always!” Leyna said, smiling as she slid into the soft salon chair. “And I need your help to put the finishing touches on my look.”
“What are we doing this year?” Caitlyn asked as she lovingly lifted Leyna’s thick chocolate waves out of the way as she snapped the pristine white cape around her neck.
“This year it’s all flapper, all the way!” Leyna beamed.”
“Oh! Wow!” Caitlyn said, shocked. “So we’re finally chopping this off and doing a bob??”
“No. No, no, no,” Leyna said clarifying emphatically. “I want tight curls, ringlets, cascading over my shoulders and down my back.”
She began her recitation of silent movie stars when Caitlyn cut her off. “Honey, no one’s going to get that. You may’ve done loads of research in famous people with long hair in the 1920s but everyone at every party you go to are just going to see a girl in a nice dress too scared to cut her hair or get a wig.”
“Ugh, wigs are the worst,” Leyna said, screwing her nose up at the idea. “They lack the authenticity I go for. I want the costume to be as real as it can be. I always have.”
“That you do,” Caitlyn said as, without warning, she pulled a fistful of hair taut at the back of Leyna’s head and began cutting through it with her scissors.
All it took was six sickeningly slow snips and Leyna felt what was left of her hair fall back against her head. Starring at the mirror, frozen in shock, she saw her hair falling in its long, familiar waves down to her breasts on either side of her face. But behind her…for the first time Leyna could feel cool air on the back of her exposed neck.
Before Leyna’s panicked voice could finish asking, “What’s happening?,” Caitlyn had dropped the severed locks on the floor, taken up the next section of hair and begin cutting through it, working her way around the right side of Leyna’s head.
Scruncccchhh, scruncccchhh, scruncccchhh…
And with that, Caitlyn was pulling away another fourteen inch length of hair. She dropped it to the ground, as she had the first, and began attacking the next handful of dark hair.
With a SNAP Leyna felt in her soul, Caitlyn removed the last long lock of hair on the right side of her head. Gazing forward her wide eyes took in a sight her mind was still struggling to process. On the left side of her head, she remained Leyna. Who she always was. Her hair fell in its beautiful waves to her chest, ready to be curled into tight, period-accurate ringlets for her costume.
The righthand side of her face was another story all together. Leyna’s hair had been roughly and severely chopped off at her jaw.
“I don’t understand why.” Leyna began, her body involuntarily flinching away from her own hair as the short tresses ticked her jaw when she spoke.
Pausing in her cutting Caitlyn asked, “How long have I been cutting your hair?”
Reaching out from under the cape to touch her hacked off hair Leyna shakily said, “Five years.”
“In all that time have I ever given you a bad haircut?”
“No, of course not,” Leyna said.
“In all that time, have you ever half-assed your Halloween costume?”
“No, but…”
“How long did it take you to paint your body blue for the Corpse Bride?” Caitlyn asked.
“Like three or four hours,” Leyna replied.
“Exactly. If you’re going as a flapper, you need the bob. Period. You’ll look super cute with it. Plus, if you don’t like it, your hair will grow back to this length in no time, two years max.”
Two years, Leyna thought, that queasiness she’d been feeling all week flooding her stomach with new force. I don’t want to hate my hair for two years. Plus, I’m used to looking sexy not cute.
As Caitlyn worked around the left side of Leyna’s hair, cutting and cutting, she dropped each severed lock into Leyna’s lap. After the third handful of hair, Leyna was left with a rough cut of a chin-length bob. She had never had short hair in her life – never wanted short hair! – but now that’s all she had left. This is what I get for becoming too friendly with my stylist, she thought.
Despite the sickness rolling in her stomach, Leyna couldn’t look away from the mirror. She had never resented the full length mirrors at Caitlyn’s salon before but she did now. Why wasn’t there a shelf in front of her? Why did the mirror have to show her head and shoulders and lap and the floor?!
To stare at my reflection during a haircut is normal, Leyna thought, but to stare at my reflection while 70% of my hair lay scattered on the floor and in my lap?? This is a truly emotionally scarring experience.
“We’ve got a little more work to do to get you period-accurate but you look so cute already!” Caitlyn smiled.
Leyna felt waves of panic hitting her as she realized Caitlyn planned to cut more hair off. When she turned her head to ask just how much Caitlyn still wanted to chop, Leyna felt her newly short hair swing across her neck and cheeks for the first time and she felt…something else.
Her breath caught in her throat as the chopped ends tickled her otherwise bare neck. A rush of heat and excitement swelled in her chest. Leyna had never felt anything like this before. Haircuts were always just a means to an end, part of maintaining her gorgeous long hair was keeping the ends tidy with regular trims. But this – these shorn locks swinging across her face and neck felt…good. They felt…fun.
Maybe my sisters were right, Leyna wondered with shock and arousal vying for the pride of place in her mind. Maybe short hair is kind of sexy.
Caitlyn pulled a heavy curtain of hair in front of Leyna’s face and with a few simple snips Leyna watched it slide past her eyes and into her lap. It’s funny, Leyna thought, I love and protect my hair so much but it all disappears with nothing more than a few simple snips, gone from my life as quickly as a dream upon waking.
Leyna felt alarm mix with her arousal again as Caitlyn placed the scissors not at her jaw but at her cheekbone, angled sharply upwards, and began cutting. Each schnnik, schnnik, schnnik set hair sliding down her cheek to rest on her shoulders and lap.
Leyna lost an additional six inches of hair with Caitlyn’s first snip and, because of the upwards angle, she lost more with each cut! Soon Leyna could feel half of her right ear exposed.
A few minutes ago Leyna felt sick at the thought of having her gorgeous hair hacked into a chin-length bob without her consent. Now a chin-length bob seems wonderfully long compared to what was left hanging on the right side of her head!
Caitlyn repeated the process of the left side of Leyna’s head and she was left starring at a woman with blunt bangs hanging just above her eyebrows and a sharply angled bob that began atop her cheekbones and curled up to her occipital bone on the back of her head.
“Now we need to clean up that neckline,” Caitlyn said, grabbing her hair clippers.
“Clippers!” Leyna squeaked. “You’re going to use clippers now?!”
“Don’t worry,” Caitlyn said laughing. “While I’d love to really buzz you – you’d look so cute with the shadow of stubble on your exposed skin – that wouldn’t be as period-accurate. So I’m using a #3 guard and we’ll shingle it up from there.”
Leyna had no idea what shingling or a #3 guard meant but she was certain she didn’t want one used on whatever was left of her hair on the back of her head…and then she felt it.
Her entire body came alive to the gentle tingling, a head massage that hit an erogenous zone she didn’t know she had. The humming buzz of the clippers was the most erotic thing she’d ever felt. As soon as they touched the nape of her neck Leyna couldn’t hold back the shiver that shot through her whole body.
The long, slow, meticulous strokes Caitlyn applied to be sure everything was perfectly neat and tidy for this flapper bob were thrilling in a way Leyna had never experienced before. Just moments earlier she was about to beg Caitlyn to stick with the scissors…now she never wanted her to stop! Those clippers had the most welcome buzzing! While she wasn’t certain, she believed she let slip a quiet, pleasure-filled moan during her shaving, too.
With the back nice and neat, Caitlyn grabbed her thinning shears and began thoroughly running them over Leyna’s whole head. With hair as thick as hers, Leyna needed a lot taken out and off for such a short, head-hugging bob to lay right.
Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Caitlyn put down her scissors. “Voilà! You are the spitting image of Louise Brooks! An iconic actress from the ‘20s and ‘30s and one of the women who really popularized the bob in the first place. See,” Caitlyn said with a wink, “you’re not the only one who does her research.”
Starring in the mirror, Leyna hardly recognized herself. There was hair – her hair! – everywhere. Piles of long locks lay scattered on the floor and piled in her lap. Her lap, chest, and shoulders were covered with increasingly shorter sections of hair – from the 10 inch sections that created her bangs to the 6-7 inch sections that finished the bob to the small tufts removed by the clippers and thinning shears.
It looked like some kind of Halloween hair massacre!
And Leyna absolutely loved it!
“Oh. My. GOD!” she screamed as Caitlyn smiled. “I look so sexy! So. Sexy! I look so much sexier than I ever did with my long hair! And I feel amazing! This feels amazing! Thank you so much!
“You’re very welcome,” Caitlyn said laughing. “See? You looked gorgeous with your long hair…but it was holding you back! There’s so much more you can do with short hair.”
Leyna asked Caitlyn to take pictures…but to be sure to leave her head out of it. She wanted photos of the mountainous piles of hair on the floor as well as all the hair covering her lap, shoulders, and the cape.
As soon as Caitlyn was done, Leyna sent the pictures of all her cutoff hair to Lydia and Lainey. She wasn’t even out of the chair before her phone was exploding with the dings of their texts.
Leyna paid Caitlyn – leaving an exceptionally generous tip – and went out into the night a new person.
As she walked out of the salon Tina, Caitlyn’s friend and coworker came up beside her. “You know,” she said, “sooner or later these dramatic haircuts your clients never asked for are going to come back to bite you.”
“Who’s the professional?” Caitlyn asked, smiling. “I don’t always do it and I never do it if it isn’t the right move.” Pointing out the big salon window to Leyna walking to her car she added, “And look how excited she is!”
Leyna couldn’t keep her hands out of her hair. She sat in her car for twenty minutes as she ran her fingers through her bob – tucking the tiny lengths behind her ears, playing with her ferociously blunt bangs, and rubbing her hands over her buzzed nape again and again and again. Never in her life had she felt anything so soft. Each time the tiny bristles slid up and down with her hand a welcome chill shot through Leyna’s body and her breath came in a short gasps.
Leyna knew she had places to be. There were so many Halloween parties ahead and this was her favorite time of the year after all. But she knew this year, for once, she was going to be late. She still had to get changed. But before she could do that, she’d have to take her hands out of her hair long enough to do so…and that wasn’t anything she foresaw happening anytime soon.
