Flattopped
The Ball
Jenny and Maria were excited for the upcoming school dance, the Senior Ball. This was the last big dance of the year, and Maria’s last chance to ask her crush, Scott Thompson, to a school dance before she graduated.
She’d admired him from a far since they were in grade school, never mustering the courage to tell him how she felt about him. They’d always been friends and had fun when they were together but he had never asked her out and had dated several other girls in her class which hurt her and made her jealous all at the same time.
“Let’s go to the mall Maria and get a jump on getting a dress before all the cute ones are taken.”
“Good idea Jenny, I need some shoes too. How about Saturday morning?”
They met at the mall, and found the perfect dresses and shoes, and Maria even found some frilly panties and a bra for the evening. Her long bouncy red hair that fell to her mid back had just gotten cut a couple of weeks ago so she was good there. Now all she needed to do was ask Scott to the dance.
As they were strolling back through the mall Jenny spotted Scott. “Maria, there’s Scott! Now is your chance! I heard that that slut Susie is planning to ask him too so you can’t wait.”
“Really? No guy can say no to Susie and her long blonde hair. Ok, let’s follow him and when he stops I’ll accidentally bump into him and bring up the dance.”
He seemed to be on a mission and walked briskly as they struggled to keep up with their shopping bags. Suddenly he slowed and entered a shop. This was her chance. “Ok, Jenny wish me luck.”
“Umm…Maria, did you see where he went?”
They slowed their pace and walked past the entrance to the mall’s barbershop. “Oh shit, I can’t go in there! But I have to because that place is packed and I can’t wait for him to come out or I’ll be late for work. Fuck!”
“Look, there is a seat next to him and a few people waiting. You could go in and sit down and talk with him while he waits.”
“Come with me for moral support! There are two seats open, please?”
“Ok, I will for you. Do you know what you are going to say?”
“Nope, and I don’t have time to worry about that so I am going to wing it. Come on!”
Maria had never been in a barbershop, heck she’d only started going to salons a couple of years ago when she got her first job and told her mom she wanted a stylist to cut her hair rather than her mom. The barbershop had six barber chairs with six barbers working them. The shop was noisy with the idle chatter and these noisy machines that had large hoses coming off of them. They didn’t look anything like the clippers her parents used to groom their dog so she had no idea what they where used for. Maria and Jenny entered and no one really took note of them as they the sat down next to Scott.
“Hi Scott, I thought that was you. Getting a haircut to go to the Senior Ball?”
“Uh…hi Maria. No, just getting my regular haircut. I haven’t asked anyone yet and no one has asked me yet so I’m not sure if I’m going to the dance. Are you here for a haircut too? That’s pretty cool that we get our haircut at the same place.”
“Umm…yeah that is cool. I could use a good trim since I’d like to go to the dance. Maybe you’d…..”
“Next!”
“Oh, that’s me. Hold that thought Maria, ok?”, and with that he made his way to the open barber chair second from the entrance.
“Next”
Maria looked up and saw the barber right by the entrance next to Scott’s barber looking directly at her and pointing to his chair. Shit, what am I going to do? I told him I get my haircut here! What was I thinking? I don’t need a haircut, I just got one! Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuck.
“Are you really getting a haircut here Maria?”, Jenny asked.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll just get a real minimal trim, then I have an excuse to hang out and ask Scott to the dance when we’re done.”
“Come on Miss, are you getting a haircut or not? Others are waiting?”
Am I really doing this? It’s just a minimal trim. It will still look fabulous, I won’t have lied to Scott about getting my haircut here, and I can finish asking him to the dance afterwards. Slowly Maria rose and made her way to the chair. It was much larger than the salon chairs and much deeper. She felt so small in it, her feet not even reaching the footrest.
The barber adeptly swept her hair to one side while applying the neck strip and cape, then ratcheted the chair higher and higher. Maria felt really trapped now.
“How would you like it cut?”, the barber asked as he gently combed out her hair.
“Could you please cut it 1/4 to 1/8 inch please? I want just a minimal amount please.”
“Oh that will be a minimal amount alright”, he muttered as he turned back to his counter. All the chairs faced away from the mirrors and towards the waiting area so she couldn’t see what he was doing.
“Next”
Maria looked down towards the last chair where an elderly barber was holding his cape and calling to Jenny. He was slightly stooped with thin white hair and thick glasses. Jenny, always a timid one, rose with a scared look on her face and made her way to the empty chair.
Maria’s barber moved to her side and turned on the loud machine that had a high pitched whine and a sound like a vacuum all at the same time. He placed at the front of her center part and slowly moved it back. She wondered if maybe this was how they washed and dried hair before cutting it since there weren’t any wash sinks in the shop. Certainly he couldn’t be cutting the hair yet because no hair was falling on the cape.
The barber finished the first pass over the top of her head then made another then another slightly overlapping each time until he had covered the top and sides of her head. The vibrations were so relaxing she could sit here all day for this. The barber then lifted the hair in back with his comb and ran the machine up the back until he’d meticulously covered her entire head, then made a couple of adjustments to the machine and went over and over the back and sides several more times until he was satisfied.
Maria could tell the barber was making her look good because all the guys in the waiting area had their eyes glued on her and a few were sporting bulges in their pants. Her mind went from arrogance to confusion when she felt the barber putting something creamy above her ears and down her nape. The only time she had felt something like that is when she’d had her hair dyed and that can’t be what he is doing here. Then she felt a downward scraping sensation. What was happening? When was he going to get out his scissors and start cutting her hair? Scott’s barber was just finishing up and she didn’t want him to leave before she asked him to the dance.
Jenny took her place in the big chair folding her hands in her lap and slightly bowing her head as the old barber’s hands shook putting on the neck strip and cape. “What will it be today young lady?”, the old barber asked.
“Well, I need my hair trimmed for a ball, so I look good at the school dance”, Jenny meekly replied.
“What was that? You need a ball cut so you look good for the school dance? Sure, I can do that.” The old barber pulled his comb out of shirt pocket and began combing Jenny’s mid-back length chestnut hair straight down including the front which now covered her eyes.
She heard the loud unfamiliar machine turn on which made her jump. She then felt it touch her head about an inch above her right ear then comb downward. The machine was then moved a little further back and she felt the same combing sensation. Jenny found it very soothing but just wished she could see what he was doing. The old barber repeated this process working around the back and then up the left side. He continued this combing onto her forehead and Jenny now became alarmed. She could see now out of her left eye which meant he was cutting bangs. She’d never had bangs before and certainly didn’t ask for them. How would she look with them? But wait a minute, if he is now cutting bangs, was all that other combing she felt really hair being cut? It couldn’t be! There’s no hair on the cape. What is going on?
Maria’s barber was finally done and was about to turn her to face the mirror when she caught sight of Scott’s face. His mouth hung open with a shocked look on his face. This was either really amazing or really horrible.
When she finally saw herself in the mirror she was stunned. All her hair is gone. “Where…where…where did all my hair go?!”
“Oh, isn’t it great! We have these vacuum attachments on all our clippers to suck up the hair as it’s cut. So much cleaner and easier this way.”
“But it’s so short!”, she felt tears welling in her eyes.
“That’s what you asked for Miss, 1/4 inch on top down to 1/8 inch on the back and sides faded down to the skin. I personally liked your long hair better, but this will definitely keep you cooler during the summer.”
Maria reached up and felt the soft pelt of fuzz. What was left of her red hair was so short that her white scalp was visible all over her head. Her small little ears with their single piercing were now on display to the world. The lack of hair really drew attention to her slightly chubby cheeks and plain face. She looked like a boy. It was horrible. All her beautiful hair gone. She could never show her face at school again. And Scott would never…oh my god Scott is right here watching this!
Maria looks up to see Scott finishing up paying for his haircut and made her way over to pay.
“Maria, you never told me you were going to buzz your hair off.”
“Uh…well, it just kind of happened. Do…do you like it?” she asks while looking at her feet and biting her lip
“It’s different. Was there something you were going to ask me?”
Maria was a hot mess emotionally. She’d somehow just lost all her hair and was now talking with her secret crush trying to get up the nerve to ask him to a dance when all she really wanted to do was go hide. Her self confidence was shot, but still, he is right here waiting for her to respond. “Umm…yes, well, actually, I was wondering if you weren’t already doing something if maybe you’d like to go with me to the Senior Ball.”
Now it was Scott’s turn to look at his shoes. “Well…I’m really flattered that you asked me Maria, but if I’m being honest, I’m more into girls with long hair. I’m thinking of asking Susie to the dance. Thanks for asking me though and I hope you find someone to go with.”, then he half heartedly smiled, turned and left her standing alone at the entrance to the barbershop under the spinning pole.
She was crushed. She felt like her life was over. She’d lost the boy of her dreams to that slut Susie, she’d lost all her hair, and spent way too much on clothes for a dance she couldn’t show her face at. She sat in a nearby bench, put her head in her hands and began to cry.
Meanwhile, back in the shop, the old barber had finished up with the big noisy machine then ran a little one that sounded like angry bees all over her back and sides of her head. It didn’t feel like there was much hair there to slow the bees down. She had a bad feeling about this. The barber was now turning Jenny’s chair to show her new haircut. HOLY FUCK! I LOOK LIKE A MUSHROOM! OR A BIG PENIS! The back and sides of her head had no hair at all and looked like a mushroom stem, and the only hair left was a bowl cut that started an inch above her ears. The old man’s vision and shaky hand resulted in a jagged edge around the bowl, and he hadn’t thinned it out so it poofed out like a fucking portobello mushroom cap. It was hideous. Where did all here hair go? There was none on the cape or the ground!
“There you go honey, a nice ‘ball cut’ for the dance. I always loved this haircut. I’m glad to see it coming back in style.”
His hands shook as he removed the cape and neck strip. She wanted to scream at him for what he did to her hair, but she was afraid he’d have a heart attack and she had to wonder if she couldn’t have been more clear. She could sense the stares and snickers as she followed the old man up to pay. Maria is going to laugh at her, she just knew it. Where was Maia anyway? Why didn’t she wait? Did she leave with Scott? Just her luck to be abandoned in her time of need as she has to face the mall crowd with this ridiculous haircut.
Outside she looked around and didn’t see Maria anywhere. Maybe she had to race off to work? Then she heard the sobbing and saw someone who vaguely looked like Maria, but she had no hair! “Oh my God Maria, are you ok!”
“Look at me! I look like a freak!”
Jenny sat on the bench beside her and put her arm around her and ran her fingers through Maria’s soft fuzz. It reminded her of her orange tabby Frisky. “It’s not that bad. It’s kind of cute. And I didn’t fare much better in there. Look at this catastrophe.”
Maria looked up at Jenny’s hair for the first time and kind of laugh/cried as she wiped her nose, “we’re both in the hideous hair club. I’m so sorry I dragged you in there. I’ve lost Scott forever because of that place. He only likes long haired girls and is going to ask Susie slut face to the dance. I guess we should just go ahead and return the dresses and stuff while we are here.”
“What if we didn’t”
“What?”
Jenny took hold of Maria’s hands, “What if we didn’t. I have a confession Maria. While you have always had a secret crush on Scott, I’ve always had a secret crush on you. Would you go to the dance with me?”
Maria wiped her eyes then stared into Jenny’s eyes and then up to her tragic haircut then back down to her eyes. “I will but…and this is a big but, only if you get that horrible haircut fixed!”
