Flattoplover
Rebecca had just finished barber school and was looking at opening up a shop of her own. Her late grandfather was a barber which inspired her to follow in his footsteps. Before he passed, he left her some inheritance. This was just enough money to purchase a space and start a barbershop. Bec ended up finding a space near her house that was actually an old barbershop. Although abandoned and empty, it was already designed to be a barbershop.
Rebecca spent a few months renovating this space and by the end of the year, she’d finished her barbershop. She decided on 3 chairs as she was hoping to hire some more people along the way. The style of the shop was very similar to an old fashioned barbershop. Large leather and metal chairs, a bench down the side of the shop, linoleum checkered floors, and plenty of pictures of short men’s and women’s haircuts on the wall. To finish it off, there was a swirling barber pole outside next to the sign. Rebecca had named the shop after her Grandfather. Pete’s Barbershop.
Before long, Rebecca was busier than she ever thought she would be. It seemed like she was the only shop open in town. Whatever the reason, Bec was run off her feet. What added to the struggle was that the summer was really tough to work in. Her long blonde hair didn’t help either. Even though it tied up most days, Bec’s head was so hot.
One afternoon when the bench was empty, Bec was giving an older man a face shave when a rather young and handsome man walked into the shop. She looked up as the bell rang and was instantly attracted to this man. He was well dressed and had a clean business man’s cut. He walked into the shop and gave her a smile.
“i’ll be right with you if you’d like to take a seat” said Bec as she pointed to the barber chair on her left. The man sat down in the chair and turned to watch the barberette work. Bec had her back to him so she didn’t know he’s watching her. She finished up the shave on the man and wiped his face clean. She removed the cape and tissue and the man got up, paid her and thanked her.
Bec Walked over to the next chair and tore off another neck tissue. As she turned to face the man with a cape over her arm, she asked “afternoon sir. What’ll it be?”
“A flattop please, miss”
Bec nodded and Grabbed her best wahl balding clippers and plugged them in. She grabbed a comb and flicked the clippers to life. She wasted no time shaving the side of the man’s head to 0 and. She was very fast and precise with her cuts. A few minutes had passed and Bec was starting to shape the top. She grabbed her grandfather’s favorite comb, the big square one and extra thin. Perfect for doing the tightest flattops. She slid the comb into the man’s head and laid it flat. She made sure it was touching his scalp to get it perfect. She shaved everything above the comb until it was level. Bec removed the comb and examined her work. She tidied up the edges and the top, and made sure that the middle of the flattop was bald so you could see the skin..The flicked the clippers off and placed them on the counter. The man, still sitting in the cape, moved his head around in the mirror to examine his new haircut.
“Gee you sure do a good job on a flattop, nice and tight” said the man
“Thank you sir” replied Bec
Bec then let out a sigh from the heat. She was exhausted and very hot. The man heard this and asked if the heat was getting to her.
“I can’t stand all this hair in the heat. It’s unbearable. It’s just too hot” said Rebecca
“Well miss. You’re in luck. I can help you with that. You see, I’m a barber too. I like to go to other shops to get my haircut. I don’t trust my coworkers” said the man, letting out a chuckle.
“Really?! Oh that would be great. I’ve been wanting something shorter for a while but there’s no one here to do it and I don’t have time to go to another shop.” replied Rebecca, as she sat down in her own barber chair. She was so relieved to be sitting down in her own chair. The man placed his hand on her shoulder to help her relax. She closed her eyes for a second as he tied the neck strip on her. The man then threw Bec’s barber cape over her and clipped it tight. Bec was surprised at how tight he clipped it but she kind of liked it.
Rebecca smiled as she looked at the man in the mirror then she examined herself in her chair. She looked and felt small and vulnerable. The chair back was square and large, so the corners stuck over her shoulders so her figure looked quite strange. Bec giggled slightly at the embarrassing sight of her lovely blonde curls peeking out of her own barber cape and her giant barber chair.
After all this time of working in a barbershop, Rebecca had never actually had a barbershop experience before. So far she was enjoying every bit of it. Bec realized this is how customers must feel when she cut their hair. The man asked Bec where her good clippers were. She replied “my grandad’s clippers are in the drawer. You can use those” He opened the drawer and found a pair of vintage Oster clippers. They looked very worn and used. He checked the guard and it said #00000000. His eyes widened. He’d never seen a guard so small. The man plugged the clippers and flicked the switch. With the loudest pop, the clippers buzzed to life starting out quiet. Rebecca almost jump at the pop from these clippers. Bec had never actually used her grandad’s clippers before. She was kind of scared of them. For some reason, these clippers brought back memories of when she was in her Grandad’s barbershop when she was little. being in that large barber chair made her more timid then she’d ever felt. It was like she was at the mercy of her grandad. In her own shop too.The clippers began to echo louder through the shop as if they were warming up.
The man then spun the barber chair around to face the wall, gathered her left locks in the comb and sheared them off with the clippers, about 2 inches from her head. The gorgeous curls slid down Bec’s shoulder and into her lap. Bec smiled profusely as she’d wanted this for so long. She watched as the hair slid down into her lap. He continued this process, shearing all the way around the back and sides of Bec’s head until her blonde curls were reduced to a short, uneven boy cut. Some of her long pretty curls fell on the back of the chair just laid there. Bec knew this process as it was the same way she would take down someone’s long to do a short cut.
Suddenly, the buzzing became louder in her left ear. The man then pushed the clippers into her sideburn and slid them up with no resistance, to about 3 inches above her ear. The instant Bec felt the guardless clippers on her scalp, she was in love. The vibration and tickling sensation were so invigorating. She was scared at first, but then grew a massive grin at the thought of being shaved in her own barbershop, with her Grandad’s old clippers. It was finally happening.
The man continued shaving the side of Bec’s head. He pulled her ear down as he shaved around it then worked his way toward her nape. Clumps of hair continued falling into the back of the chair because Bec was so petite and the chair was so big. The blonde locks lying behind her neck were piling up more and the overflow began sliding off the back or down into her lap. He shaved her nape to match the high line joining up with the side. So much thick blonde hair was falling down the sides of the chair that it was creating a ring of hair around the chair. He smiled at the sight of her beautiful blonde hair on the floor as he walked over it.
Bec didn’t actually know what cut she was getting, but all she knew was that her grandad’s clippers only had one attachment. The #8×0 guard. It was like a foil shaver. This meant that her sides were going to be smooth as wood. The man shaved the rest of her nape smooth and moved to her ear. Her folded Bec’s ear down and shaved around it, just like he did before. Bec knew after being shaved on this sideburn, that it was her favorite feeling from the whole experience so far. It was like a tingling massage on sensitive skin. It made her wince and smile at the same time. She loved the thought of the clippers shaving her sideburns to nothing.
The man finished shaving her remaining hair on the side to the wood then flicked the clippers off. They were beginning to get a bit hot. He put the clippers down on the counter and searched for Bec’s flattop comb. He opened a drawer when Bec asked “what are you looking for?”
“It’s ok. I found it” said the man as he spotted the very thin flattop comb in the drawer. He pulled it and grabbed the other regular comb. He combed Bec’s hair on top of her head, up and into the middle then he slid the flattop horizontally into her hair and laid it flat on her scalp. Bec was slightly confused by this feeling as she’d never had a comb rest on her head like this before. She still wasn’t sure what cut she was getting. The man turned to the counter again and picked up the clippers once more. Bec flinched again from the pop but began to enjoy the sound. As the clippers became louder once again, the man pumped the chair down a few spots so he was level with the top of Bec’s head. He raised the clippers up to the comb and plowed them straight across Bec’s head. This was an even stranger sensation for Bec as the vibration from the clippers were running through the comb and onto the top of her scalp. It felt weird to her.
The man finished buzzing the last of Bec’s long hairs and removed the comb from her head. He placed it down and began free shaping Bec’s flattop with the regular comb. By now, Bec’s lovely blonde curls were now reduced to an almost brown circle of short stubble on top of her head, surrounded by bare, shiny skin. Still, all she could see were the pictures that she had hung on the wall. Maybe she was receiving one of the haircuts on the wall. Her eyes began to wander as she looked at the multiple photos and started to look for the shortest ones. Bec spotted a military high n tight that her Grandad had actually done about 50 years ago. She thought maybe she would be getting that same high n tight as the photo from this stranger barber.
The man continued to buzz the height of the flattop lower and tighter until the middle bulge of Bec’s head was higher than the sidewalls of the flattop. He then walked around to the back and proceeded to shave her from her crown to 1 inch from the front. He shaved the landing strip a bit wider to shape out the edges better. Bec was at a loss for words when she felt the bare clippers on the top of her scalp. Why was she being shaved just in the middle of her head, she thought. He flicked the clippers off once again, walked in front of her and leveled his head with the top and seemed happy with the height. You could see the middle of Bec’s bald scalp peeking out above the small flattop. Bec looked up at him and her smile grew as she watched him admire his work.
The man flicked the clippers back to life as the pop echoed through the room. He combed Bec’s hair up a few times and shaved the edges just a bit lower and tighter, while still maintaining the sidewalls. He walked around to the back again and shaved the landing strip a bit wider. He turned off the clippers once again and placed them down on the counter. He grabbed a small beard brush from the counter and brushed the tiny hairs from Bec’s head. She squirmed a little when he vigorously used this hard brush all over her head. It was a little rough, but only on the bald spots. He finished brushing her flattop then pushed all the pretty blonde curls off the back of the chair and onto the floor around Bec.
The man spun the chair around to face the mirror once again. The instant Bec saw her new haircut, her mouth shot wide open in shock. She was basically bald. She moved her head around and examined the baldness. Bec’s body was stiff so she couldn’t bring her hand up to feel it. She knew for a fact that it would be smooth as wood. Bec’s wide mouth turned to smiles as she looked at her new haircut more and more. It wasn’t what she was expecting but Bec finally had a barber’s haircut. The remaining hair was precisely cut into a horseshoe flattop with a wide landing strip. As she tilted her head down to examine the landing strip, she noticed there was no fade between the landing strip and the edges. As she lifted her head up again, she looked closer and saw that the top of her scalp was higher than the flattop. Bec was shocked and slightly confused but then she remembered that her Grandad used to cut flattops like this. As she looked closer at the cut, she asked the man “wow. This looks alot like the flattops my grandad used to do”
“I know. He and my grandfather used to work together. I recognised your shop from your grandfather’s name. My grandfather taught me that haircut” replied the man
“Really? That’s incredible. I guess he was a tough barber like my Grandad” said Bec as she smiled and looked at him. The man smiled back as he walked behind her. He removed the cape and neck strip and said, “he was tough, yes. A great barber though”. The man flicked out Bec’s barber cape and draped it over the neighboring chair. Bec finally free from her own barber chair. She looked in the mirror again and touched the side of her head. She was at a loss for words again. Bec knew that her grandad’s clippers shaved you to the skin, but having that feeling on her own head made her quiver in excitement. Bec moved her hands all around her and felt the landing strip. She giggled at how silly the scalp bulge landing strip felt to the touch but she overall liked it.
As Bec looked into the mirror while she stayed sitting in her barber chair, she looked down and saw the photo of her grandad that she’d placed on her counter. Beside it were his old clippers that she was just shaved with. She looked closer at the photo and noticed that she resembled her grandad quite alot, now that she had this masculine horseshoe flattop.
All of a sudden, Bec heard the bell ring. She looked across and saw the man was already leaving.
“Wait. you never told me your name” shouted Rebecca
“It’s harry. Don’t worry, i’ll be back” replied Harry, winking
“Would you like a job, Harry?” asked Rebecca as she spun her barber chair round to face him.
“Sure! I’ll come in first thing next week” said Harry as he smiled at Rebecca and walked out the door.
