Mom’s unexpected afternoon at barbershop

It was summer season and today was a sunny afternoon, the weather remained so hot throughout the season in our town. I was with my mom, we went out to buy groceries and stuff and i was helping with groceries. Suddenly while traveling, we stop by a local barbershop, when I saw that we were at barbershop, I said her “I just got my hair cut previous month, I’m not due until next month. So why did we stop here?” to which my mom replied “We’re not here for you, we’re here for my haircut”. I told her that these guys only do male clients, they don’t take female clients to which mom just ignored and we went inside the shop

When we entered the shop, there were 3 chairs and 3 barbers working on their clients, all of them were middle aged man. When we entered all of them looked at the door to see who entered, then we took a seat next to 2 waiting customers, it was a busy day afterall. Barber uncapped one of the clients and a man stood up from waiting line and sat on barber chair, few minutes passed, 2-3 other customers came after us and sat in waiting line and another client was done, so guy from waiting line stood up and sat on vacant barber chair, now next was our turn, i was thinking that we’d probably get told that this is no place for female haircuts, but i stayed silent as my mom kept waiting for her turn. Finally the moment came, the client sitting closest to the waiting line was done, so barber uncapped him and jolted the cape and looked towards me saying “Next!” but to his surprise, my mom stood up from the seat and went to sit on the customer’s chair, she climbed up footrest and sat on the black leathered chair crossing her legs and resting her arms on armrest.

She had her hair buckled up in a bun, she had messy armpit length black curls which she always used to get trimmed from time to time. Seeing mom on chair barber said “do you want your hair to be coloured?” As they did colour female clients hair, mom said “No, I’m here for a haircut today” to which barber replied they don’t do female haircuts, My mom said “It’s ok I want something short and tidy for summer” barber then took tissue paper that they used to wrap around neck and caped her with white cape that he was holding on to. Then he opened up the buckle and put it in front and started assessing her hair by running fingers through her head, she had shampooed today so the volume was quite better, barber then said “So, how do you want your hair to be cut?”. She said “Give me something short and sweet for summer, I can’t bare this heat and anyways the curls are damaged, so you might just take them off.” Barber still assessing her hair said “I could do a number #2 all over and then maybe fade the sides and back with #1 and #0, that’d be nice and short.”

My mom being never been to a barbershop before not knowing what this terminology meant nodded with what barber suggested and said “Do whatever you like is good for me.”, Barber then took out water sprayer bottle and made her hair little bit wet as they were a huge mess to comb through, then he combed her hair backwards nicely and parted them in the middle to the sideways, then he took out clippers and changed the guard to #2, he went behind her back and pushed her head forwards till she touched her chin to her breasts, mom not knowing what was about to be done submitted herself entirely to barber and pushed her hair downwards, then barber came to her right side and turned on the clippers to life and straight went started using it in the middle of her head in front, her gorgeous partially wet curls started to rain over her lap, he passed clippers on her top 3-4 times until all her hair was buzzed on top then he pulled up her head, now she can look directly into the mirrors and see herself shorn, she was shocked to see how short her hair were on top, now there was no turning back as top of her head was all clippred. Huge mass of curls gathered over her lap. Now barber again wet her hair and combed out rest of her hair.

Then started using #2 guard clippers on her right side, he started shearing her from temple and right over her ears he went all the way back, her black curls now gathered up on her shoulders and eventually on her lap. He did the same with back and left side. All of us watched her getting buzzed and she felt embarrassed as we watched her. Then barber changed the guard to #1 and started buzzing her head from sides and back, then he again pushed her head down until it touched her breasts and started using #0 and started fading the cut with it.

After some time clippers stopped, barber cleaned up lose hair on her head and asked her if this cut was ok, she realised that this was much shorter than she expected, she remained silent for a minute and then said “You know what, might as well just shave it all off”, I was shocked by her reply, the barber then grinned and picked up #0 clippers and turned them on went straight for the middle of the head on top, as he was using the clippers, there was no hair left on her head. After shaving her with clippers, he brought the shaving cream and lathered cream on her head, then he picked up razor and changed it’s blade started shaving her head with razor after completion, he applied lotion on her head, now her bald head was shining bright. He uncapped her and she stood up from the chair and saw her shorn curls over the floor, she paid the barber and we left the shop. I asked her on the way out if she wanted this haircut but she said “I didn’t know what was he speaking so I just nodded along the way and hoped she won’t regret it later, but after he buzzed top of my head i was shocked to see how small my hair was. So I just accepted it and thought maybe if I’ve gone this much short, i might as well just get shaved” she then added “it’s just hair, it’ll grow out in 2-3 months”