turk
One evening, Wanda was preparing for an event she had been looking forward to for a long time. Her hair had gotten quite messy from running around and the wind throughout the day. Feeling the coolness of the evening air, she stepped outside. Her goal was to get her hair fixed. However, to her surprise, all the female hair salons in the city were closed. No matter how hard she tried, the doors were locked. Time was running out, so she came up with an alternative: the men’s barber.
This was a place where men typically came for their haircuts. It didn’t seem like the kind of place that would help someone in her situation. But at this point, she had no other choice. She walked in and saw the barber smiling at her.
“Hello, how can I help you?” he asked.
“I want to get my hair fixed,” Wanda replied. “Just a little touch-up, nothing too much.”
The barber thought for a moment, then immediately suggested a solution.
“Sure, we can do that right away. Please have a seat, I’ll take care of you.”
Wanda hesitated for a second, but then sat in the chair. The barber smiled softly and said, “Relax, we’ll get this sorted.”
The cape was tied around her neck, and the barber said, “Let’s take a look at your hair.”
Her hair was messy in every direction. The barber first inspected the length, then grabbed his scissors and started cutting haphazardly, trimming various lengths here and there. Some parts were shorter, some left longer. Wanda felt uneasy watching him work, realizing her hair wasn’t being “fixed” but rather carelessly chopped.
After a while, the barber stopped cutting and looked at her. “You think this is what you need? You think this is enough for your hair?” he said in a stern tone.
Wanda’s heart began to race. “But… I just wanted a little touch-up,” she stammered, her voice trembling slightly.
The barber’s eyes glinted as he saw her unease. “No. This mess needs more than a little touch-up. Let me show you what you really need,” he said coldly.
Before Wanda could react, the barber quickly grabbed an electric clipper.
“This place follows strict rules. Here, everything is uniform. This is a men’s barbershop, and here, the haircut is the same for everyone,” he said, attaching a 0 guard to the clippers.
Wanda’s heart began pounding as she realized what was about to happen. The cold metal of the clippers touched her skin, and her head shivered. The barber swiftly started cutting the sides and back of her hair to a buzzcut length, using the 0 guard.
Her hair fell off in chunks, landing on the cape draped over her. Wanda’s anxiety grew with each passing moment. She couldn’t move or speak as the barber worked with a focused, almost mechanical precision.
Once the sides and back were completely shaved, the barber looked at the top part of her hair. The top still had some length. Without a second thought, he switched the guard to a 1 and began clipping the top of her hair, slowly and methodically.
The buzzing of the clippers became the only sound in the room. Wanda could feel her hair being shaved down to almost nothing. Each stroke of the clippers left her head feeling more exposed, more vulnerable.
When he finished with the clippers, there was almost no hair left on her head. The remaining stubble was cut down to an even length, with the sides shaved to the skin. Her hair, now completely short, was piled on the cape, and some strands had even fallen to the floor.
The barber stood back, his gaze cold and unforgiving. “This is what happens when you don’t take care of your hair,” he said, his voice harsh.
Without warning, he grabbed a handful of the discarded hair and flung it into Wanda’s face. “This is the price for coming in with hair like that,” he said, his voice filled with a sense of punishment.
Wanda’s face was soon covered with the fallen hair. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she remained silent, unsure of how to react. Her head felt oddly light, exposed, and cold, the stubble left behind a raw feeling.
The barber, with a hint of satisfaction, removed the cape and told her to leave. “You’ve learned a lesson today,” he said with an emotionless tone.
Wanda, now with almost no hair left, stood up from the chair. She didn’t dare look in the mirror. Her mind was too overwhelmed with the shock of what had just happened. She left the barbershop quickly, the pieces of hair still stuck to her face, feeling the weight of the barber’s harsh lesson on her shoulders.
Wanda learned the hard way that long hair is an ego trap and should be punished.