The Clinical Trial

“Good afternoon Lily, please take a seat, and please close the door behind you if you don’t mind.”

Professor Phillips looked deeply uncomfortable with the conversation he was about to have. He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat to buy a few seconds, before saying what he needed to say.

“Miss Johnson, this is very disappointing that we are having this conversation. You’re one of my smartest students, and you ace every test despite not even showing up for class half the time. That’s why it was so upsetting to me to find out that you’ve been writing Greta Kensington’s papers for her.”

Lily began to sweat as she processed his words. To accuse her of this academic dishonesty was outrageous, it was uncalled for, it was… well it was completely true. Greta was a fifth generation legacy here, her family had obscene amounts of money, and she had been paying Lily two hundred bucks a page to write her assignments. Lily wasn’t a trust fund kid like most of the students at this college, she was here on scholarship. She needed the money.

“So… umm…” Lily stammered. “What does this mean, you know, for me?”

Professor Phillips shook his head. “Well, normally something like this would mean expulsion for both you and Miss Kensington. However, seeing as we are currently sitting in Office 3F of Kensington hall, some decisions were made behind closed doors by people above me in the academic hierarchy. Decisions which I find regrettable but have no choice but to abide by. By the way, I will deny this conversation ever happened between you and me… but I at least got them to agree to offer you the same deal Greta took.”

Lily sat up straight. A deal? She would do anything to avoid expulsion. If she got expelled, and lost her scholarship, she had no money to go to college anywhere else, and with only a year and half a semester college completed, the education she’d received so far wouldn’t be of much help finding jobs. It would mean returning to her small home town, moving back in with her parents and working at Wal Mart or McDonalds or Applebee’s.

“Umm… what deal?”

“Dr. Taylor, the head of the biology department, is in dire need of volunteers, female ages 18-34, for a study of an experimental product.”

“Oh… so I’d… have to be a guinea pig for a drug?”

“Well no, it’s not… I’m not allowed to say exactly what the study is for. It’s being funded by a large multinational corporation and everyone is bound by strict non-disclosure agreements, but it’s not something you put in your body. There’s a reason they’re having trouble finding volunteers though, but you’ll have to find out after you’ve signed the NDA. The deal is, you will need to complete the entire study from start to finish, and all records of this academic dishonesty will be destroyed, and you will keep your scholarship.”

Lily felt like she should be scared, but had no choice. “Ok, that’s fine.”

“Good. Dr. Taylor’s office in the basement of Thompson Hall, tomorrow at 8 AM.”

“Thank you, professor.” Lily used all her strength to keep from crying and got up to leave.

“Oh and one more thing!” He interjected as she was about to open the door “Skip my class one more time and I’m giving you an F.”

Lily arrived at Dr. Taylor’s lab at 8 AM sharp the next morning. She was greeted by a grad student named Carrie, a tall, very skinny woman in her early thirties with platinum blonde hair under a baseball cap. Carrie invited her into an office and shut the door.

“Ok first, I need you do sign this non disclosure agreement. Take your time to read it. You can still back out after you’ve signed it, you’re just agreeing to not speak publicly about anything pertaining to this study after you’ve signed.”

Lily glanced over a couple words and signed the paperwork. Whatever, how bad could it possibly be?

“Great.” Carrie continued “So this is a study to test a product that speeds up hair growth.”

“Oh, that’s not so bad” Lily responded. She thought about the implications of that. Her dark brown hair was just below her shoulders right now. Maybe this stuff would make it go all the way to her butt, or longer. She’d always been envious of extremely long hair, so now would be a good time to try it. She laughed “Professor Phillips made it sound like this was some kind of terrible experiment that nobody would ever want to be a part of.”

“Well, the part that has caused numerous other participants to withdraw is the fact that we first need to remove the hair you have right now so that it’s not creating variance in the results.” Carrie responded bluntly.

“Remove… my hair? What?” Lily looked back at her.

“Well yes, in order to get accurate results, we need to be able to study only the hair that is grown during this experiment, so prior to beginning, all the hair you currently have must be… ah… harvested.”

“Harvested? You’re going to shave my head?”

“Technically not shave…” Carrie got nervous, hoping Lily wouldn’t walk away. “Also participants in this experiment will receive two thousand dollars upon completion.”

“Oh, well then in that case, I’ve always wondered if I could pull off bald!”

Carrie then led Lily to another room and sat her down in what looked like a dentist chair. She tied Lily’s hair into two pigtails and the plugged in a set of clippers.

“Last chance to back out.”

“Nah, go ahead.”

Carrie carefully sheared off the first pigtail, assuring Lily that her hair would be donated, as they did not need to study the bulk of it for the trial. After a couple minutes, almost all the hair Lily woke up with today was separated from her, and sitting limply on a desk.

“That wasn’t so bad.” Lily shrugged as she rubbed the stubble on her scalp. “Glad you got it over with quickly.”

“Oh uhh…” Carrie stammered “I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t really fully explain what I meant when I said we need to harvest your hair. We need to study the roots of your hair follicles to test the impact that the compound has over the course of the study, so if you’ll lay back down, I need to spread this resin on your head so that we can harvest your hair by the roots.”

“Whoa whoa, you’re going to WAX my head? Won’t that hurt like hell.” Lily was now genuinely terrified and considered the ramifications of bolting out of the room.

Carrie removed her hat, and then took off her platinum blonde hair, which was in fact a cheap wig. Underneath, her hair was a quarter inch long.

“I won’t lie, it didn’t feel great.” Carrie admitted, and she put a hair net over what little hair she had “But you’ll survive.”

“Oh you also volunteered for this study?” Lily asked.

“More like voluntold.” Carrie chuckled.

“And you did this to Greta Kensington too?”

“I am not at liberty to disclose the identity of other participants… regardless of how rude they may have been to me yesterday morning.” She muttered.

Carrie spread a gel-like substance, which she explained was a thermosetting resin, over Lily’s scalp and then used a heat gun to harden it. After it had hardened, she wheeled a machine over.

“Ok, I need you to sit still. This is going to peel off the resin one section at a time. You might feel a bit of discomfort. 3… 2… 1…”

There was a beep followed by an “AIEEEEE” as the machine quickly peeled off the front inch or hair from Lily’s scalp.

“AAaahh”

“OOOO”

And nine more peels, from front to back, before the entire cap of dried resin had been peeled away, and with it, every single trace of Lily’s hair.

“You got through the worst part” Carrie assured Lily. “Now you’ll just need to take these shampoo packets. Each one is a single use, use the whole thing, once a day. There are 30 in this box. You need to come back every 30 days to get more, and we’ll take a measurement of your hair each time. This study will run for 6 months, ending next April. You are not to get any haircuts or use any other products in your hair. At the conclusion of the trial, we will harvest the hair you have grown, got it?”

Lily’s heart sank. She would have to do this again in 6 months. Fuck! But she was committed at this point, and it was a sacrifice she was willing to make to keep her scholarship.

“Yeah. Got it.”

Lily tried to run her hand over her head but the skin was too irritated.

“It might sting for a bit. Sorry about that. I just want to remind you though, that you did sign a non-disclosure agreement, and you may not tell anyone that you are participating in this experiment.”

“So how do I explain to my friends that I’m bald?” Lily asked.

“Oh… uhh… I didn’t really consider that. I’m a Ph.D. student so I don’t exactly have friends. If you go over to the performing arts building though, they can give you one of their spare wigs.”

Lily could feel the sun on her scalp the second she walked outside, it was a sensation she had never felt before. She started walking in the direction of the performing arts building, but then looked at the time. Shit! It was 8:53 and Professor Phillips’ Bio class started at 9. If she missed it, he’d flunk her and she’d lose her scholarship, and this would all be for nothing. No time to get a wig. Better think of a cover story.

She had not thought of a cover story for her baldness when she arrived at class at 8:58. Of course, people looked at her in shock and immediately asked why. Having no good answer, she just shrugged, and said she’d always wanted to, and nobody said anything rude about it. Some, however, were quick to point out that she appeared to be sunburned already.

Meanwhile, Greta’s hair looked exactly the same. Carrie said her hair had already been “harvested” yesterday, but Lily couldn’t spot any evidence that she was telling the truth. After spending the first 10 minutes of the lecture staring at Greta’s head, she finally spotted a barely noticeable seam that indicated she was, indeed, wearing a wig. Must have been expensive.

Lily missed her long hair and wanted to grow it back, but she didn’t hate being bald either. Even though she had to apply the special shampoo daily, her morning routine left her with an abundance of free time, and the uniqueness of her look almost made her feel like she was actually cool sometimes. She didn’t put any care into her hair other than applying the shampoo, since it was on borrowed time anyway, but despite the low-maintenance nature of her new style, she still longed for the feeling of hair on her shoulders and back. She made a promise to herself that as soon as she was done, she would grow her hair out and keep growing until it reached her butt. If this stuff really worked, it might not even take very long.

Meanwhile, Greta gave her the cold shoulder the whole time the study was taking place, Lily heard through the grapevine that Greta blamed her for causing their predicament by writing papers that very obviously weren’t hers, due to the lack of spelling and grammatical errors. Lily couldn’t understand the misplaced anger. With her wig looking as realistic as it did, she wondered if Greta’s sorority sisters even knew she had gone bald.

Meanwhile, Lily’s hair was taking its time to grow back. She worried that the substance didn’t work, which would mean it would take the better part of a decade to get butt length hair. About two months in, she went for her monthly resupply and hair measuring, and Carrie wasn’t wearing the blonde wig anymore. Instead, her own black hair reached all the way to her ears.

The hair growth compound wasn’t a dud, but Lily was in the control group- the group of participants who were given a useless placebo to prove the results weren’t due to outside factors. Her own hair was barely an inch long. By month 3, Carrie had hair past her ears, and by month 4, Carrie’s hair reached her chin, although it didn’t seem to have gotten any longer by the fifth appointment.

April rolled around, and with it, the end of the experiment.

Lily and Greta arrived at the lab at the same time for the final harvesting. Lily’s hair was ragged and curly, about 3 inches long, while Greta’s was almost shoulder length, straight and reddish blonde. Greta just glared and refused to acknowledge Lily’s presence. Carrie led them to the room with the harvesting equipment. She was wearing the platinum blonde wig again. When they got in the room and closed the door, Carrie set her wig down. Her black hair was gone.

Her hair wasn’t just, it was GONE gone. Even though her hair had been dark, there wasn’t even the slightest shadow of it on her scalp.

“You just have your hair pulled out today too?” Lily asked her casually.

“No, about 2… actually almost 3 weeks ago.” Carrie replied nonchalantly.

“Just decided you liked the bald look and wanted to keep it?” Lily tried to make conversation.

“No.” Carrie sighed “Anyway, miss Kensington, if you’ll take a seat in the chair.” Carrie addressed Greta.

“Make her go first.” Greta frowned petulantly.

“Actually, Miss Johnson, you are part of the control group, so no further samples will be needed from you. Here’s your check.” She handed Lily a check for $2,000. “Now Miss Kensington, if you’ll have a seat, we need to harvest the samples from you.

They didn’t let Lily stick around to see Greta’s hair get “harvested”, but it made her smile just to think about it. And why was Carrie still so bald? Did that mean she just wasn’t growing hair anymore? Maybe that was why her hair only got to chin length.

Of course, Greta gave Lily a furious look any time they saw each other. Lily, now able to use hair products again, had straightened her hair and gotten it trimmed into a cute pixie. Greta, on the other hand, was still wearing what Lily now knew was a wig, and would be for some time.

The day before finals began, Lily was approached when walking home by three girls. She knew they were freshman pledges in Greta’s sorority. They asked if they could talk somewhere quiet.

The girls introduced themselves as Mallory, Ashley and Lindsey.

“So uhh… this is going to sound weird.” Mallory did the talking for the three of them “But Greta Kensington… she told us the only way we can get into the sorority is if we… well… we have to kidnap you and take you back to the sorority house so she can shave your head.”

“Umm… excuse me… why are you telling me this?” Lily wasn’t sure whether she should get up and run or laugh at them.

“Yeah, I know, just, hear me out. I know it’s totally psycho. But like, Greta’s great grandma founded this sorority and her family is insanely rich so everyone kinda worships her. Look, we don’t want to risk getting arrested plus it’s just kind of a fucked up thing to do, so I wanted to propose a deal. You let us take you to the house and pretend we kidnapped you, and then Greta shaves your head, and we’ll pay you… is $5,000 good?”

As much as Lily was looking forward to having long hair again, $5,000 was a lot of money to her. That would cover almost an entire semester’s rent. She couldn’t say no to that.

“Do you have Zelle? Cash is fine too.” Lily responded.

Later that night, after the payment had gone through, she met at the agreed upon location. The girls pulled up in Ashley’s black Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, and Lily realized she definitely could have asked for more than $5,000. They duct tied her hands behind her back and her mouth shut, threw a black pillowcase over her head, and laid her down on the back seat.

When the pillowcase was taken off her head, she was in a dimly lit room surrounded by sorority girls. Greta sat in front of her. She wasn’t wearing a wig and even though it had been a month since the end of the study, not a single hair had started to grow back on her head.

“Look what you did to me you stupid cunt!” She spit on Lily’s face.

“I’m sorry!” Lily said, feigning remorse “I didn’t know this would happen. I’d never written papers for anyone before and I should have looked at what your other papers looked like first.”

“Fuck you!” Greta snapped at her “You’re calling me stupid?!”

“No… I…”

“Shut up! Do you know what this stuff I had to put on my head was? It speeds up your hair growth for like 4 months, and then your body just stops growing new hair there. Apparently they think it will be about 12-18 more months until my hair is even going to start to grow back!”

“Look, I’m really sorry” Lily replied disingenuously “But you can afford really nice wigs, I doubt anyone even would have noticed.”

“Fuck you. I don’t want to have to wear a wig. I want my fucking hair back, and if I can’t have that, I want payback!”

Two of the sorority girls grabbed Lily’s arms while Greta picked up a pair of cordless clippers and turned them on. She immediately pushed them down the center of Lily’s scalp, leaving a strip of stubble in the middle of her pixie. She mercilessly pushed the clippers back and forth, tossing almost all hair Lily had grown over the last 6 months onto the hardwood floor for the vacuum cleaner to pick up. When she was done, Lily had nothing but 1/8″ of stubble.

She wasn’t done though, her lackeys were still restraining Lily, who figured this meant Greta would come back with a razor and make her completely bald.

Greta came back with something alright. It was a bowl of hot wax and some cloth strips. Unlike the purpose-designed polymer the research lab had used, this was just run of the mill wax designed for the bikini area, and when Greta spread it on Lily’s scalp and yanked the strip off, it hurt a lot worse, and didn’t even get all the hair. It took almost 30 yanks before Greta was satisfied that her victim was pretty much bald. She pretended she was done, then came back and waxed Lily’s eyebrows off too.

“Aww, gonna cry?” Greta taunted. “That’s what you get for fucking with me! And you better not grow your hair back out either. You’re going to keep it shaved smooth until you graduate. If you come back from summer break and you have even the slightest bit of hair on your head, we’ll do this again, and again, and again until you learn your lesson. Now fuck off.”

Lily ran out the door crying. As soon as she was out of sign of the house, she wiped the tears away and grinned. The wax did hurt, badly, and she’d have to accept that she would be bald for the next two years, and probably be 30 by the time she’d ever be able to have hair as long as she wanted, but if Greta was serious about what she just said, this could be a way to graduate with some real money saved up.