Legendary Head Shave Tales
The apartment was new, filled with the scent of fresh paint, and the sounds of neighbors settling in. Pallavi twirled in the living room, her excitement bubbling over as she inspected every corner of their new home. “Charan, look! There’s a pool! A gym! Even a salon inside the complex!” she chirped, her voice dramatic and full of excitement. Charan, her busy and hardworking husband, barely looked up from his laptop.
“That’s nice, Pallavi. Just don’t get too carried away. Remember, I’ll be away for two months for my onsite project. Be careful, alright?” Pallavi pouted exaggeratedly. “Ugh, why do you always sound like an old uncle? I’m not a kid, Charan!” Charan smiled, patting her head absentmindedly like a child. “I know, but still… take care.”
That night, as Charan packed for his flight, Pallavi stood by the balcony, staring at the apartment next door. That’s when she saw him for the first time—Sathvik. Tall, handsome, with a dangerously charming smile. He caught her staring and smirked. “New here?” he called out with a flirty tone.
Pallavi felt her cheeks warm up. She nodded like a nervous schoolgirl before rushing inside. But something inside her tingled with excitement. A new place. A new thrill. A new temptation. Sathvik was unlike anyone Pallavi had met before. He was charming, flirty, and strangely persuasive.
Their interactions started small—a friendly chat in the lift, a casual coffee invite, harmless flirting that made her heart race. She knew it was wrong, but the thrill was addictive. “Pallavi, you’re too boring. You should try something crazy,” Sathvik said one evening. Pallavi giggled, flipping her thick, waist-length hair dramatically. “Crazy? Like what?”
He leaned in, eyes locked onto hers. “A drastic makeover.” She laughed. “No way! My hair is my pride! Charan loves it and i cant hurt him” Sathvik smirked. “Are you sure? Or are you just too scared to try new things?” Pallavi froze. Her childish nature hated being called a coward.
A few days later, Pallavi found herself sitting in Sathvik’s apartment, a glass of wine in hand.”It’s just a trim,” he whispered, standing behind her with a pair of scissors. Pallavi, slightly tipsy and completely entranced by his words, nodded. “Just a trim,” she repeated. The first lock of her long hair fell onto her lap.
Her breath hitched. A mixture of thrill and fear ran through her. “See? That wasn’t so bad,” Sathvik teased, running his fingers through her hair. But he didn’t stop. “Let’s go shorter, and it will be fun tryst me…” he murmured, his voice dripping with temptation.
And just like that, Pallavi let him cut more. By the time she looked in the mirror, her long tresses were gone, replaced by a shoulder-length bob. Her stomach twisted. “Charan will notice, he will feel bad ” she whispered with a sad tone and yet curious eyes.
Sathvik grinned. “Just tell him you wanted a change. Or lie.” Pallavi gulped. Lying to Charan? Would she? But she did. And it was only the beginning. Pallavi became addicted to the thrill. Sathvik kept convincing her to go shorter and shorter on her every visit.
Each week, she visited him, and each time, the scissors went deeper into her locks. “A bob isn’t enough, Pallavi. Let’s go for a pixie cut.” Snip. Gone. “Shorter suits you better. Let’s go for a boy cut.” Snip. She laughed in false confidence, ignoring the nagging guilt at the back of her mind.
One day, Sathvik ran a hand over her short, uneven hair and said, “You know what would really make you look stunning? A completely shaved head.” Pallavi’s stomach dropped. “No way!” she squeaked, suddenly nervous. But Sathvik smirked, his voice dangerously soft. “You’ve trusted me this far. Why stop now?”
She wanted to say no. But her childish heart wanted to prove she wasn’t scared. So, she agreed. Pallavi sat frozen in Sathvik’s bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror. He held the electric clippers, the hum sending a shiver down her spine. “Ready?” he asked.
She gulped, forcing a nod. The moment the clippers touched her scalp, her heart pounded. Thick strands of her hair tumbled onto her lap, her reflection changing before her eyes. The more that fell, the more naked and vulnerable she felt. Until finally, there was nothing left.
She was completely bald. Her scalp shone under the bathroom lights, slick with coconut oil. She ran her hands over her smooth head, feeling a strange mix of horror and liberation. Sathvik laughed. “You look… perfect.” Pallavi forced a smile.
But when she woke up the next morning, Sathvik was gone. No messages. No calls. Nothing. Her heart sank into her stomach. She had been played. The man who had lured her into darkness was gone, leaving her alone with the weight of her own sins.
Charan’s flight landed that evening. Pallavi panicked. She couldn’t tell Charan the truth. So, when he saw her bald head and gasped, she clung to his hands and lied. “I did it for you, Charan. I prayed for your safe return.” Charan, being the fool he was, believed her.
But Pallavi didn’t believe herself so that night, she stared at her reflection, hating what she had become. So, she made a decision. “Charan, I want to continue this head-shaving ritual… every week. Until I feel I have purified myself.”
Charan hesitated but agreed. And so, every three days, she sat in front of him, listening to the hum of the razor, feeling the cold scrape of the blade, as she looked into the mirror, at the stranger she had become, she knew one thing—this wasn’t the end of her repentance
The silent acceptance in Rakesh’s eyes made it even more unbearable—she was trapped in the punishment of her own making. A constant, painful reminder of what she had done. Her bald head, once a symbol of curiosity, became her prison. She thought she could play with fire, but in the end, she was the one who got burned.
