Since starting high school, I suppose you could say I’ve always hung around with the wrong crowd, but then again you could also say I am the wrong crowd.
”Hey guys wait up!” I called out after my friends as we left school for the end of the day.
I ran after them as we all hopped on the bus for town, it was Friday so a lot of the kids all head to the mall for shopping or for my friends and I, to meet our dealer.
The bus ride was short and dropped us at the entrance to the mall where we all bundled off the bus and headed round to the back of the mall.
”How much are you getting this time?” my friend Lila asked me.
”I’ve got $30 but that’s got to last any shopping we’re doing as well so not much” I shrugged as I counted my bills.
Once we’d secured our bud, Lila and I made our way into the mall to do some shopping without the rest of the group.
–
“Oh my god, you should totally dye your hair blue!” Lila gasped as she picked up a bottle of blue hair dye.
“That would be so cool, but my mom would kill me, besides there’s no where at my house I’d be able to do it without her throwing a fit” I sighed.
”Come round mine and do it with me! You can stay for a sleepover as well if you want” Lila suggested.
”Okay, let me call my mom and check” I agreed.
–
Soon enough, the two of us were sat on the bus heading back to Lila’s house, along with a box of blue hair dye.
–
“My mom is actually gonna flip when she sees this” I grinned as I admired my new blue ends. Lila had dyed up to just below my ears so half my hair was blue.
”Don’t stress about it, there’s not much she can do about it now” Lila giggled as we lied side by side on her bed.
”Good point, I guess I’ll find out what my punishment is in the morning” I chuckled as I took a final drag from my rollie before settling down to sleep.
–
“Good luck with your mom!” Lila yelled out as I walked down her driveway.
I laughed and waved back at her before making my way back to my house. We both lived in the same neighbourhood, my house a few blocks over from hers so it was an easy walk home.
As I made my way up the driveway, I took a deep breath before unlocking the front door and making my way up to my room.
Mom wasn’t home at the moment thankfully, she has some knitting club every Saturday morning and Dad was out at work so I had the house to myself for a little bit.
–
After unpacking my bags, I decided I needed a hit so I quickly made a rolly with my remaining weed and opened my window to try and get rid of the smell.
I was halfway through when I heard the front door slam shut.
I couldn’t bear to waste what I had left so I quickly shoved the weed into a box and closed my window just as mom entered my room.
”What on earth have you done to your hair?” she furiously asked.
”I dyed it blue, don’t worry it’s not permanent” I tried to reassure her.
”You’ll bet it’s not, come with me” she demanded before dragging me down to the kitchen.
”What are you doing?” I nervously asked as she sat me down on a stool in the middle of the kitchen.
”Teaching you a lesson, not only for destroying your hair but also for doing drugs in my house, don’t think you managed to get rid of the smell” she snarled as she took a big pair of scissors out of the drawer.
I quickly jumped off the stool and attempted to make a run for it before I felt her hand grip against my wrist before pushing my back down onto the stool.
”This will teach you to have more respect” she yelled before grabbing a clump of my hair and hacking it off. I sobbed as I watched my freshly dyed blue locks fall to the floor, my mother having no respect as she chopped all the blue off, leaving me with an extremely uneven short bob.
”Let’s go” mom told me as she put the scissors back in the drawer.
”Where are we going?” I sobbed as she dragged me out to the car.
”The barbershop, they’ll clean you up nicely” she told me as she forced me into the car.
I couldn’t stop myself from crying the whole journey, and when we finally arrived at the barbershop mom dragged me inside.
”Morning ma’am, how can I help?” the barber greeted my mom.
”I need you to fix my daughter’s hair” she told him.
”Of course, do you want me to try and keep as much length as possible or was there a particular style you wanted?” the barber turned and asked me.
”Even it out first please and then I’ll decide” my mom told him.
The barber agreed and took me over to a chair whilst mom took a seat in the waiting area.
I stayed silent, mourning the loss of my long hair as the barber wetted what I had left.
”Head down” he told me as he gently pushed my head to my chest.
I felt the comb glide down my head, stopping much earlier than it used to as the barber began snipping away, the scissors loud as he made his way through the layers.
He then moved on to the sides, cropping them even with the back of my hair, overall it now fell to my jawline, much shorter than I would have ever cut my hair to voluntarily.
”Right, that’s evened out now, we’ll just get your mom over here and see what she thinks” the barber told me.
”No, please just leave it this length” I finally spoke.
”Sorry kid, but you’re under 18, legally it’s your mom’s choice how I cut your hair” he shrugged before calling my mom over.
”Well there’s still a fair bit of length here, isn’t there” Mom said as she examined my hair.
”Yes, did you want to leave it at this length or do you want to go shorter?” the barber asked her.
”Well this is a punishment haircut, and I’m trying to teach her to be more respectable, so why don’t you cut it like this?” Mom said as she pulled a photo out of her purse.
”Wow, that’s quite the change, are you sure?” the barber asked my mom.
”I’m sure, that was me when I was her age, I was a very respectable young girl” mom said before shoving the photo in my face.
The haircut she had was awful, she had heavy bangs that were slightly too short and the sides only just covered the tops of her ears.
Once again, the barber wetted my hair sectioned the part for my bangs first.
Snip, snip, snip. The scissors went as the barber held the comb just above my eyebrows.
I opened my eyes to see that I now had extremely heavy bangs hanging a centimetre above my eyebrows.
The barber then combed down the side of my hair and began cropping my hair to about 5 inches in length.
I couldn’t bear to watch any longer so I shut my eyes and just listened as I felt my hair slipping down the cape as he made his way around my head.
”Right, how’s that for you?” he asked my mom as he put the scissors back down.
”Much better, hopefully that will teach her a thing or two about breaking the rules” mom glared at me before getting up to pay.
–
Let’s just say after that day, I stayed well away from hair dye, but the drugs, I only became more careful with hiding them from my mom.
