My Wife’s First Barber Shop Hair Cut

My Wife’s First Barber Shop Hair Cut

By JimB (C)copyrighted March 2023

After we moved to the city from a very small town, I was anxious to get my wife into a barber shop for her first short hair cut.

Some times I would cut her hair and I gave her a short hair cuts.

I would cut her hair with the back and sides cut short with the scissors-over-comb method of tapering. I was always taper her hair extremely close and clean it up with the Osters clippers with the quarter inch attachment.

The five years we lived in a very small town there was only one barber shop and it was extremely rare to see a woman with such a severe clippered hair on the back and sides of her head.

But, that was how I liked her hair cut.

Living in a tiny community where the sole occupation of every housewife was to gossip about the neighbors, it was impossible to take her to the local barber shop.

Moving to the city changed that.

By the early nineteen eighties attitudes had slightly changed as women were cutting their hair shorter and in more daring styles. The city had more barber shops, even barber shops women could go to for a hair cut.

After I checked around where we were living I found several old-fashioned barber shops. I was looking for barber shops with the big red Belmont barber chairs, the broom leaning against the wall over a pile of swept hair, the pungent odor of hair lotions, the row of waiting chairs against the wall, the scissors, razors, combs, shaving accessories lined up on the counter on a towel under the mirror, three or four different clippers hanging on hooks under the counter.

I found two or three barber shops within six blocks of our new house.

I wanted to made sure there was a female barber who would give my wife the hair cut I wanted. I found one in the small shopping mall.

The lady barber, Pauline, was middle age and rather straight-laced with a no-nonsense appearance.

She looked professional in her neat smock with a comb sticking out from a breast pocket.

First I went to her for a hair cut so I could determine two things.

I wanted to know if she did the lather and straight razor shave around the ears and nape.

And, most of all I wanted to see if she was willing to give a women a close hair cut.

While she was answering my first question by razoring shaving around my ears, I asked the other question.

“If my wife came with me, would you give her a short hair cut?” I asked half expecting some hesitation from her.

“Sure,” she answered. “I can always use new customers.

“Two is better than just one. Bring her in.”

To be sure my wife was going to get the hair cut I wanted, I told her how “she” wanted hair was to be cut.

“She wants her hair cut very close on the back and sides,” I began telling her.

“She wants it all much shorter than you just cut mine.

“And, especially, she wants you to shave her around her ears and nape with the lather and razor.”

By now I’m really expecting some resistance from her, or at least some curious questions.

“You want me to shave her with the straight razor too?” she asked.

“Yes.” I told her.

“She’s rather shy. She really doesn’t like talking about her hair cuts.

“She just wants to come in, sit in the barber chair, and you cut her hair very short in the back and on the sides.

“She’s sort of embarrassed about wanting a man’s hair cut.

“So, can you just cut her hair without asking her any questions to her!”

“You bring her in,” she replied. “I’ll see that she gets a very close man’s hair cut with a straight razor shave.

“I can even give her a face shaving if she wants.”

I told her, “I would bring her in that afternoon.

“So, she would likely be your last customer of the day.

“That way there wouldn’t be anyone waiting and watching her getting her man’s hair. Which would have embarrassed her.”

I had also figured if I told her “this was the hair cut she wanted”, rather than what I wanted, Pauline would be more willing to cut her hair closer.

If she knew she was just going to be satisfying my whim, she’d likely go a little lighter on the clippers.

I wanted her hair cut close, really close.

That’s what was going to make it a great “short back and sides hair cut” I wanted my wife to have.

This was going to be her first “short back and sides hair cut” she ever had in a barber shop. I wanted it to go the way I had often fantasized.

Especially the straight razor shaving.

Her hair had not been cut for almost four months and I knew there would be some significant hair rolling down the cape.

My wife already knew what was coming.

I had talked with her previously about her hair cut and she agree to the barber shop hair cut and having the “short back and sides hair cut” was nothing new to her.

But, this was her FIRST time she would be having her hair cut in a barber shop.

I didn’t tell her about requesting the hot lather straight razor shave. That was going to be a surprise.

Late in the afternoon I shampooed her hair.

The top had grown out to about six inches long from a previous hair cut I gave her.  Her hair on the back of her neck was almost four inches.

As I lathered up the shampoo and worked up the foam, I knew this nape was going to be cleaned off entirely in less than an hour.

Shortly afterwards, my wife and I stood on the street a few doors up from the barber shop’s red, white & blue rotating pole.

I told her I was go in and check to be sure there was no one else in the barber shop and to ask the lady barber if she would cut a woman’s hair.

I hadn’t told her I’d already made all the arrangements. Nor did I tell her just how close I was having the lady barber cut her hair.

She knew her the back and sides of her hair was going to be cut short.

But, not as short as I had told her.

She thought her hair was going to be more like mine, a conservative business man’s hair cut. That wasn’t what I had in mind for her.

When I walked into the barber shop, the lady barber, Pauline, was oiling her clippers.

“I’ve been expecting you,” she said. “Is your wife ready for her hair cut?”

“She’s really looking forward to finally getting her hair cut,” I lied.

“I brought a picture like how we want it cut.”

I showed her a photo I’d found months before and had kept for just such an occasion.

The picture was of a young man, probably taken back in the nineteen fifties, with an extremely severe “Short Back and Sides”  hair cut.

The back and sides were white-walled and a nice thatch of hair was combed neatly from a side-part meeting the tapered sides near the top of his head.

“Wow, that really is short,” she exclaimed. “I haven’t done anything that short hair cut in years.”

“Well, I hope you enjoy getting back into practice,” I joked.

“If you do it right, like she wants.

“She’ll be coming back regularly.

“She usually gets two or three hair cuts for every one that I have.”

Actually that was not true.

I could tell the Pauline was adding this up in her mental cash register. I knew right then she was going to shear my wife as short as she thought she liked.

I reminded her once more that she didn’t want any discussion.

Just do it with a minimum of chatter so she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.

Then, I brought my wife into the barber shop for her “first real men’s short back and sides hair cut”.

But, I asked her, “Would like for Pauline to shave your face, too?”

She looked at me and said, “I’ll think about it.”

My wife had a some what slender body.  She was dressed in a feminine blouse and pants with matching four inch high heel shoes.

She some what looked exactly the boy in the photo with the back and sides short hair cut.  It always suited her so well.

Dressed like that with a severe shearing, from the back you couldn’t tell she wasn’t a boy.

Setting her purse on an empty waiting chair along the wall, she walked to the barber chair and sat in the barber chair.

The Pauline raised the barber chair to bring her up to a working height where she could easily handle her hair cut.

I sat in a waiting chair with an excellent view of both the lady barber’s activity and her image in the mirror when she was between my wife and me.

I was determined to not miss a single snip.

The Pauline wrapped a tissue around her neck and tucked it into itself at the back.  She unfolded a black and white pin-striped cape from the back of her barber chair, snapped it in the air and let it billow around her body.

When it settled in place, she pinned it at the nape of her neck, being careful to lift the longer nape hairs from under it.

Taking out her comb, from her breast pocket, she combed through her hair.

First she combed it all straight forward.

Then, she parted it high on the left side, combing the longer hair over her head straight down over her ear.

True to the instructions I had given her, she asked no questions nor offered any comments.

She just went to work on her hair cut.

Se reached under the counter and took a large clippers from where they were hanging.

These clippers, I noticed, had an attachment on them. I’m not sure what the attachment size was.

But, my wife’s hair cut was going to be short and the back and sides.

Pauline was definitely a no-nonsense barber.

She put one hand on top of her head, and pushed her head slightly to the right where she positioned the clippers just below her left sideburn and quickly and slowly moved the clippers upwards.

When the clippers reached the point just below her side-part she gave her wrist a flick outward and let the shorn hair dribble down the cape and Immediately her left side was almost bared.

Seeing Pauline had not clipper her hair short like I wanted, I raised my right hand to the side of my head and slowly moved it upward.

Seeing this, Pauline removed the attachment and began to slowly move the attachmentless clipper up over where she had move the clippers with the attachment.

I had no doubt the hair left behind on my wife’s head could have been a sixteenth of an inch.

She definitely knew I wanted her to give my wife the shearing I had convinced her she’d wanted and hope she’d return often.

There was almost no pausing throughout her hair cut.

No sooner had she flicked her hair onto the cape, she made another pass upward beside the first, this time working a little closer to her ear.

The third pass went right around her ear from the sideburn that no longer existed.

Within seconds my wife’s entire left side was completely exposed and looked very stark with her white scalp showing through her dark brown hair.

I thought she would work around her head one strip at a time.

But, when Pauline had sheared the whole left side of her head up to the part, she moved to her right side.

Pauline was right-handed and judging from the wear marks on the floor beneath the barber chair, she preferred to cut hair standing in the same spot.

I hadn’t noticed this before.

But, she swiveled the barber chair around so my wife was now facing the front of the shop shop looking out the window onto the street.

This gave me an excellent view of the shearing of the right side of her head as well.

Since, the right side of her head was not parted, the clippers went up even higher before the inevitable wrist-flick to clear the clippers of the cut hair.

Again beginning at her sideburn.

Pauline put the clippers against her cheek and raised them quickly up past her temple to near the top of her head. This movement was repeated several times as she peeled away her hair from around her ears.

The whiteness on the side of her head showed through rapidly.

Every once in a while, Pauline would comb down over the side to remove any stray hairs which had not fallen away.

It was clear as she combed through her sheared hair, there was no length protruding past the teeth of the comb.

Her remaining hair was now very short.

Pauline paused to oil the clippers one more time.

As she did this, my wife stole a glance at me.

She looked somewhat concerned.

But, not angry.

I think she had not yet realized just how short she was being sheared.

Because she was looking directly at me, I had the first preview of how she was going to look from the front.

She was starting to look very boyish already and Pauline had not yet begun cutting the top or back.

With her clippers newly oiled, the Pauline now turned the barber chair to have a better vantage of the back.

Placing her left hand on top of her head, she pushed her head down so her chin was touching her chest.

In almost the same motion she started the clipping at the base of her nape at the center.

The shears were brought up through her hair in one fluid movement, not stopping until above her occipital bone. Then the flick. He was ,for some reason, depositing all her cut hair onto the cape in her lap. Perhaps it would be easier to sweep up later if the bulk was in one spot.

With her sides completely denuded, this first pass up the back left two chunks of untouched hair growing left and right of this newest swath up the back of her head. They didn’t remain long. Hardly pausing between passes, the entire back area of hair was soon sheared to the bone. The chunk on the right was removed first as the barber worked his clippers around to meet the whiteness of her right side. Then the remaining hair on the left of the back was reduced to the same length. Her haircut now had a definite SB&S shape to it.

I noticed something interesting.

After Pauline had re-oiled her clippers, some of the oil was now gleaming on the short bristles hair left on the back of my wife’s cut hair. It had a shine to it where the oil had rubbed off the clippers.

With the bulk now removed, Pauline began blending the sides and back into the top.

First she lifted the hair on top with her comb, slipped her fingers around the hair as it stood taut and slowly her hair cut off with her scissors as all the hair above her fingers. She did this several times.

She seemed to be cutting off about three inches from the top.

It was some time before I could tell just how long she was leaving her top hair.

When she quit combing, lifting and cutting, her hair at the center of her top was no more than two and a half inches.

Then, the real blending began in earnest.

At the top of her right side, her hair was reduced to barely one inch.

On the left side, the parted side, her hair was barely an inch right at the part.

Slightly below that, it had been tapered to hardly a quarter inch.

Pauline had her scissors flying over her comb as she lifted each section running the comb upward and scissoring off the hair protruding through the teeth.

This scissor-over-comb method allowed a perfect, short taper which blended the back and sides with her hair on top of her head.

I thought she might try combing the hair on the top slightly towards the back.

But, it was far too short for that.

To perfect the taper, she used thinning scissors.

Rapidly cutting with these, short loose hairs gathered on her comb as she ran it through her hair. The effect they produced was a marvelous blending.

Obviously satisfied she now had a very close-cropped man’s “short back and side” hair cut, Pauline began her finishing touches.

She reached under the counter for another set of clippers.

After oil the clippers, she turned them on.

They had a slightly higher humming pitched as they buzzed through my wife’s hair.

Once again she began at her sideburns on her left side below the part.

These clippers buzzed her almost to her skin.

She was a master at tapering with these fine-tooth clippers.

Buzzing my wife’s hair extremely close, she perfectly blended upward ensuring there were no lines in her work.

With this clippers she was buzzing all the way around her head from ear to ear. The buzzing was taken up about one inch on each side from her hairline.

At the back, she was buzzed three inches up from her nape.

These clippers left no hair behind except the tiniest of stubble.

Hanging up these clippers on their hook, Pauline now undid the cape.

She shook all her hair into a pile at her feet.

I was afraid she was going to skip a very important part of her hair cut.

But, she did not disappoint me.

The cape was replaced by she a small towel tucked in the caller of her blouse and tucked in and spread over her shoulder.

I was intently watching my wife.

She now looked like a twelve year-old boy with a very severe “short back and sides” hair cut.

She was gorgeous!

From the back she would pass for a boy without any dispute.

Pauline worked up a mug of lather with a brush and some hot water.

Satisfied it was thick enough, she applied it all around my wife’s hairline being careful to add an extra amount of lather at the base of her naked nape.

Pauline began spreading the shaving lather over my wife’s buzzed hair.

To my surprise my wife just sat there with a smile on her face.

She stood the brush upright, still with a full coating of lather, and selected a straight razor from the several which lay on a towel on the counter.

She stropped it several times on the leather strap hanging from her barber chair.

Pauline spoke to her for the first time throughout her hair cut, “Hold still.”

Beginning on her left side, she placed her hand on the top of her head with her thumb pointing down towards her missing sideburn.

Putting the straight razor to her scalp, as she shaved the straight razor down, she pulled up the skin on her sideburn with her thumb.

Doing this, she completed a perfect shave straight across the bottom of her sideburn.

Then, she spread a little shaving lather just below the sideburn on her cheek with what remained on the shaving brush.

This too was shaved off with the straight razor.

I thought how clean her cheek looked without the little fuzz which grew there.

Shaving around her ear, she used the same method, hand on top of her head, thumb down, straight razor shaving down as thumb lifts up the skin.

With so little hair left on the hairline, I was surprised she knew just where to shave her.

At the back of her nape she pushed towel so she could shave her as low as possible down her neck.

The remaining traces of lather were washed clean from her hairline with a warm washcloth.

With both cheeks freshly shaved and her neck and hairline cleaned off, she was ready for her dusting.

But, I looked a Pauline and moved my fingers over my face, indicating she should shave her face.

Pauline smiled and put the head rest in her barber chair.

With her barber chair in the prone position she put a warm towel over her face.

After a minuted Pauline removed the towel and lathered her face.

Pauline strop the straight razor and began shaving her face.

Just as she was finished shaving her face, my wife said, “Shave the eyebrows, too.”

Pauline looked at me, knowing I did not tell her to shave my wife’s face, and now she was telling Pauline to shave her eyebrows.

Pauline placed the straight razor to her eyebrows over the left and shave her eyebrows off.  She then shave her right eyebrows off.

With her barber chair in the upright position, Pauline shook a can of talcum powder on her dusting brush. As she brushed off the tiny hairs from around her neck, a small cloud of talcum powder wafted around her head.

Pauline reached to the counter for a bottle of green hair tonic. She filled one hand with the lotion and put some in her other hand.

Rubbing both hands all over my wife’s head, she looked like she had just come in out of a rain.

The barber shop was filled with the sweet smell of the tonic. Every hair on my wife’s head looked soaking wet.

For the final time the Pauline took her comb from her pocket and began combing her hair.

Like the first time, she combed it all forward first.

But, unlike the first time, my wife now had very little hair which could be combed.

There was no hair at all on the back or sides of her head.

The only hair which could combed was on the top of her head.

This was parted on the left side and the rest of her hair was combed in the opposite direction over her head. The front hair was gently lifted slightly to not dangle over her forehead.

It was not to look like bangs. Boys don’t wear bangs.

Pauline removed towel.

My wife stood up from the barber chair.

I wanted to catch her first glance in the mirror at her new hair cut.

I watched her face as she got her first look at herself.

I can’t call it shock, because she’d had it short so often.

But, I could tell she was surprised at the brevity of her hair cut.

I also sensed there were things about having her hair cut done by a professional women barber which she had enjoyed.

Later I asked my wife, “How she liked the back snd sides being shaved.

She admitted it was “different”.

But, sensually enjoyable.

“This is an easy hair cut to look after,” Pauline spoke for only the second time.

“I used to cut my son’s hair almost like this when he was young.

“It’s going to save you lots of shampoo and drying time.

No fussing.”

I paid Pauline.

My wife wasn’t paying much attention.

She was admiring the photos of hair cuts Pauline had posted on the front window of the barber shop.

There were about a dozen different kinds.

“Would you like to have one of those?” Pauline asked.

Each time we returned to the barber shop for her hair cut, Pauline cut her hair a little shorter and shave a little more.

In a few months she had hardly any hair.

With each visit she looked more like a little boy.

Her first barber shop “Short Back and Sides” hair cut was now an extremely closely cut hair cut.

She thought all such hair cuts were shaved that short.

In the future, my wife hair cuts would be more extremely closely cut and shaved.

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