Madelyn
Abby has big, beautiful curls that she wears under a wig because she feels self-conscious about her identity. On the request of her boyfriend Casey, Abby decides to finally bring her hair out for a day after a long time, but she has little idea what a day she is in for.
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It is a little after dinner time, and the campus, which during the day is brimming with the excited murmur of students moving between classes, is now empty bar young student couples.
Abigail and Casey are on their routine daily walk around campus. They have been together for close to three years now. To Abigail, this is yet another ordinary walk date. But Casey is in high spirits, because it is his birthday tomorrow.
“So, Abby,” he says, with an eager look on his face, “what have you planned for me tomorrow?”
“Uhm,” Abby nervously chuckles. She does remember Casey’s birthday, but she has been so occupied with other things that she hasn’t prepared anything. “You will find out tomorrow.”
Casey grins. “Since you’re being so secretive about it, I’m going to assume it is something big!”
They walk a bit more. Now they are on the meandering path that swivels through the sports facilities. Basketball court on the left, football ground a little deep on the right, and the indoor sports building up ahead. With practice finishing up at around this time, many student team athletes are out on the path, headed back towards their dorm rooms. Abby wonders if Jake, her lab partner and captain of the basketball team, is here.
Casey puts his arm around Abby. She nearly flinches from the initial contact.
“You look lovely today,” he says.
Abby blushes. Casey gives her compliments almost every day, but they sure do feel special. “Thanks, Casey.”
Casey, with his free hand, tucks a strand of Abby’s hair behind her ear. “If only you let your beautiful hair down. You know how much I love your hair.”
Abby scratches her head. She is biracial, and while she mostly passes as white, the one part of her that is markedly black is her hair. It is also the one part of her that she is self-conscious of, and so she has, for much of her college life barring a few rare occasions, worn it in cornrows hidden beneath a wig. It is no secret that she wears a wig, and while most people have only had good things to say about her natural hair, Abby can’t quite overcome the barrier of wearing it open on a regular basis.
In fact, it has now been well over a year since she last took it out.
“Only for a day,” Casey insists. “Maybe as a birthday gift?”
Casey looks at her with pleading eyes. Casey would ask Abby often to wear her hair down in the first year of their relationship, but he has been mostly considerate about her preferences for this past year. But for tomorrow Casey has the trump card. Abby also does feel guilty about not making any other arrangements for his birthday.
“I’ll… consider it.”
“Really?” Casey exclaims. He leans in, and gives Abby a kiss on the cheek. “I can’t wait for tomorrow!” His over-the-top enthusiasm is already making her regret the decision.
They hang out for a little while more, before they part and head towards their respective dorms. Abby is already nervous, contemplating how others would react to her hair. But what makes her a little excited is that there is lab tomorrow, and Jake will see her hair.
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Abby was always the first to wake up in her dorm, but today she woke up even earlier, because there was work to be done.
She stood in front of the mirror and examined her wig. Blonde, straight hair – it couldn’t have been more different from her natural hair, but that is why she picked it. It made her look so white. It made her look like all the popular girls in the sorority parties. She has always wanted to look so much like them, even if they themselves were in awe of Abby’s natural hair.
Taking off the wig was no easy task. Not many know how elaborate Abby’s hair setup is. A protective hairstyle, a wig cap, and then the wig itself. They were not simply layered over one another, however. It was assembled with care, and now has to be disassembled with care as well.
With the cap taken off, all that is left to be done is to undo the cornrows. But first she examined them in the mirror. The pattern is identical to as Abby did it a year ago, but it looked bigger. Abby was filled with curiosity. She never thought much about hair growth, because her hair always grew slowly. The last time her hair was out, it reached barely past her shoulders in its compressed curls form. But this time, Abby could tell, there has been a significant change.
She stuck the comb in her hair, and began to pick apart her braids. She was eager to see her hair loose, but had to be careful still. There was a bit of breakage, but surprisingly not as much as previous times. Slowly, her loose hair began to take shape, and she is impressed by what she sees.
Abby’s curls now reach the middle of her back. She could not believe what she was seeing, and even pulled on the length to make sure that it was actual live growing hair and not a clump of breakage stuck to her ends. Stretching it out brought with it another pleasant surprise though, because the curls, uncompressed, reach her hips.
Abby went into the shower excited to immerse her hands in her new hair, and ready it up for everyone to see.
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The punctual girl that she is, it is unusual for Abby to be late to class. But she spent more time dolling up her hair than she could have afforded to, and she found herself rushing through the many paths that wound through campus. But at every turn, people stared in her direction, to see her marvelous hair.
The class was already full of students and fives minutes in when Abby reached the lab. Jake is there, and the seat beside him empty. Abby quietly made her way past the rows of staring students and takes her seat.
“Hey,” says Jake. He has the same calm expression that is always present on his face, but it is clear that he’s staring at Abby’s new hair and thinking about it.
“Hi,” replies Abby.
The professor goes on with his lecture. Words and words. Material science lab is part of one of the more courses of the degree, but more students are busy on their screens than they are invested in what is being taught.
“Your hair… is this your natural hair?”
“Yes… yes it is.”
“Incredible… your hair is lovely.”
Abby was half-afraid that Jake wouldn’t even notice the change, and so the added fact that he even complimented her makes her blush. “Thank you.”
The professor goes on and on, and his lecture comes to an end. He retreats to the side of his lab to attend to his work, and the actual lab work begins. Out come the trays in front of every student pair, each decked with flasks and tubes and beakers and packets of material of all kinds.
“Are you sure it is okay to leave your hair out untied?” asks Jake, as he and Abby slip on their lab coats.
Abby looks for a tie or a scrunchie on her wrist. Jake does have a point – in lab, long hair is to always be tied or put in a bun. But it seems like in the excitement of her new hair Abby has not carried any of her hair accessories with her today. She shrugs. “Eh it’s fine. What is the worst that could happen?”
Jake snorts, and they carry on with their experiment.
The students follows the words in the manual with meticulous care. There is a lot to do, and one misstep would mean beginning from the start again. Test tubes are mixed, materials filtered, and beakers stirred. Every now and so, equipment is passed between Abby and Jake, and their fingers touch. This is nothing new, as it is a usual occurrence every lab, but today, the air feels different. Every touch brings with it to Abby a jolt.
“Wow, Abby, I must confess, your hair is quite distracting,” Jake remarks in a cool voice.
“Huh?”
“It’s just so big… so beautiful.”
Abby blushes. She cannot believe her ears.
“Your boyfriend sure is a lucky guy.”
Abby gasps. “How do you know I have a boyfriend?”
“I mean, I have seen you sometimes roaming around campus with another guy, and I assumed he is your boyfriend. Is he not?”
“Oh.” Abby’s mind goes to panic mode. Now, Jake thinks she is taken, and that’s not good. She senses good air between them today, and she does not want that to end.
“Well…”
“Well what?” asks Jake.
“You must be mistaken. I… don’t have a boyfriend.”
Jake squints his eyes. “Oh, I swear I thought you did.” A smile begins to grow on his face. He moves just a tad closer to Abby.
Abby considers what she’s doing. She feels a pang of guilt for Casey. But she reminds herself that they’re still only college students – young butterflies, as a philosophy professor once put it, who ought to do as they please before turning into miserable adults with miserable lives. And so she closes the distance between herself and Jake a tad more, and she lets her fingers dangle dangerously close to Jake’s. There is a clear shift in the air now, and a line has been crossed which cannot be uncrossed easily.
Jake tucks a loose strand of Abby’s hair behind her ear. They gaze into each other’s eyes. The lab is forgotten, and so is the professor and the other students.
The silence is interrupted by the sound of a splash.
Abby turns around, broken from her trance. On the work table right behind them is a mess. There are pieces of plastic and white droplets of what must have been a brewing concoction everywhere. The two students at the table, however, are not looking at the spillage. They’re looking at Abby, and their faces bear expressions of horror.
Confused, Abby turns towards Jake. But he is staring at Abby too, and even the otherwise cool Jake looks shaken.
“Abby… your hair.”
Abby touches her hair, and instead of merely feelings the ends of her beautiful curls, she also finds something. Something gooey. She gasps.
The debris of the explosion, that is the droplets of white, has found itself in Abby’s hair, and from the looks of it, there is a lot of it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Abby and Jake were far from done with their experiment, but they were immediately excused. They immediately headed towards Abby’s dorm.
“Don’t worry Abby, it is just a bit of substance, I’m sure we will eventually get it out,” says Jake nervously, trying to lighten the mood.
Of course it can be removed, Abby thinks to herself. She doesn’t worry about that. What she is upset about is Casey. She had brought her hair out in the first place only because Casey asked, and now it may have to be hidden beneath a wig again when she shows up later this evening for his birthday date.
Part of Abby wonders if this is the act of a supernatural being. A deserved punishment for betraying Casey.
Abby and Jake reach her room. Abby takes off Jake’s hoodie, which she had borrowed to cover her embarrassment. Now that she has the privacy of her room, she examines the blast radius in the mirror. In truth, it does not look like much from the outside. The problem is with how deep some of the gunk has made its way into her hair.
Jake, meanwhile, takes one of Abby’s many brushes and spits on it.
“What are you doing?” Abby asks, her patience slowly wearing thin.
“I’m… wetting the brush. So that your hair is smoother to brush through. This is how it’s normally done, right?”
Abby is too agitated to respond. But before she says anything, Jake comes up behind her and gathers her hair, and makes a few slow runs with the brush through the very ends of her hair. Despite her current physical and emotional state, Abby cannot deny that there is something soothing in the way in which Jake brushes her hair.
“So, what’s the game plan?”
“The game plan?”
“I mean, how do we go about removing the stuff?”
Abby ponders over it. She has always been on the lucky side when it came to accidentally getting things stuck in hair, and so she does not have first-hand experience with such a situation. However, Abby has seen plenty of videos about this, so she knows something.
“I guess… we could start with the brush.”
Jake steadies the brush, this time closer to her scalp.
“But, be careful, please. My hair tangles a lot especially.”
Jake nods. “Understood.”
Abby closes her eyes and braces for impact as Jake presses the brush into her hair. She feels a searing pain on the back of her head as Jake tries to brush out the damaged part. Abby wants to scream, but she bites down on her lips and holds it in.
When the agonizing feeling comes to an end, Abby is overcome by a sense of relief.
“Is it done?”
“Abby… the brush is stuck in your hair.”
Abby shakes her head to and fro, and sure enough, there is something dangling from her hair.
There is silence, as both Abby and Jake process the current situation.
“No matter, a simple brush wasn’t going to do the trick and we knew that. What’s next?”
Abby already has a few ideas on what must be next tried, but she was earlier hoping that they wouldn’t reach this stage of the problem. But it doesn’t matter, as Jake is already on his phone and looking up things himself.
“Okay, so next we put stuff in your hair to make it easier to brush. Sounds simple enough.”
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Jake comes back from his little trip to the on-campus store, bag in one hand, and a reassuring smile on his face.
Abby looks at him quizzically. “What?”
“I think I found everything,” Jake says. “Everything on the list that you don’t already have. Let’s get to work.”
This time instead of standing, Jake and Abby sit on the floor. The situation is bad, and despite her earlier meditations on the rightness and wrongness of what she has done with Jake, she finds herself with butterflies in her stomach again.
“So, I suppose we can start with oil. Are you ready?”
“Uhh, I… don’t want to get the oil on my shirt.”
“Okay,” Jake says, “what do you usually do?”
Abby twiddles her fingers, and her cheeks turn red before she even says it out loud. “I usually… apply the oil without wearing anything.”
“Oh,” Jake responds. “Okay. So do you want to handle this part yourself, or-”
“No,” Abby says sternly. “I want you to stay.”
“But-“
“That’s… not a problem.” Abby grabs the hem of her tee, and slowly takes it off. She does it with care, hoping to not cause too much friction with her hair. With the top removed, Abby feels her hair brush against her shoulders and her back. Just like in the morning, the touch of her hair fills her with intense sensations, but more so now, as she sits unclothed in front of Jake.
This time, Jake is even gentler. One by one, an assortment of liquids are applied on Abby’s hair – natural oils, processed oils, dry conditioner, dry shampoo, and a touch of water to name a few. With a bit of effort, the brush is pulled free from Abby’s hair, and is swapped out for a wide-toothed comb, freshly bought by Jake.
“So, you never told me this – why do you generally wear a wig? Your natural hair is so beautiful.”
Abby blushes from embarrassment. “Well..”
“I’m all ears.”
“I dunno if you could tell, but I’m half-Black.”
“Oh. Wait, really?”
“Yeah, my father is Black. I never really knew him though… because he left the family when I was young.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s alright. I grew up with my mom and my stepdad in a mostly white neighborhood, and luckily for me, I mostly passed as white. The one feature of mine that didn’t, though, is my hair.”
“Ah. So I’m guessing your parents asked you to try to hide it?”
Abby shakes her head. “No. Both my mom and stepdad were very supportive of me, and encouraged me to wear my hair out. It is just that I was so conscious of my hair, that I wanted to hide it.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Well, now you know.”
Jake continues to brush through Abby’s hair, trying different combinations of substances to add to her hair. The process is not anguishing to Abby in terms of pain, because of Jake’s gentle handling of it. However, it is anguishing in the sense that there has been little success so far, and Abby’s hair is just as matted, if not more, than it was before.
“Okay, there is one item left,” Jake says.
“What is it?”
“Peanut butter.”
“Peanut butter?”
“Yes, peanut butter.”
Abby clutches her hair, overcome by a sudden feeling of protectiveness towards it. All the substances which were tried so far seemed fine so far to Abby, because they’re substances that are known to typically be applied on hair. Peanut butter, however, feels different. But Abby also knows that there’s no other choice. This is the last resort.
Abby hesitates, and then nods apprehensively. “I’m… ready.”
Jake brandishes a knife which he also just bought from the store, and scoops out a chunk of peanut butter from the jar. Abby feels a coldness as Jake applies the peanut butter onto her hair. He then massages her scalp at the point of contact, spreading the butter about. Weirdly, Abby finds the feeling of the peanut butter massage soothing.
But the soothingness quickly comes to an end as Jake makes his first pass with the brush on Abby’s peanut-buttered hair, and almost to little surprise, the substance barely budges.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Abby is on the floor, her face pressed against her knees. Her hand is in her hair, her beautiful hair that she only earlier in the day got to touch after a full year, but is now a horrid matted mass of mystery material lab substance and drenched in an assortment of fluids. An assortment of fluids that were supposed to fix her hair, yet barely made a dent.
She looks at the time. It is now 5 PM, and her date with Casey is at 7. She is not going to make it in time for sure.
“Abby.”
Abby turns. Jake is standing to her side, his head bowed, and a posture that suggests he is about to say something difficult for him to say and difficult for her to hear.
“What?”
“I hope you realize that we’re left with only one option.”
“What’s that?”
Jake sighs. “Abby…”
“What is it, Jake? What will fix my hair?”
“Abby,” Jake says sternly. “Nothing will fix your hair. We will have to, well…”
“Well what?”
“We have to cut your hair, Abby. All of it.”
Deep down, Abby saw this coming. But she refused to even think about it. The very thought seemed blasphemous to her, and yet now Jake has just said it out loud.
Abby scratches her hair. Her voice turns low. “Do we really have to?”
Jake comes in front of Abby, and places his hands on Abby’s shoulders.
“Abby… I know this is hard. But, there is nothing else that can be done. It sucks… but we have to cut your hair.”
Tears begin to roll down Abby’s eyes. Sure, Abby never liked wearing her hair out in the open, but Abby did love her hair. She remembers how excited she was in the morning, when she first took it out. She remembers all the people who had ever seen it, and all the wonderful things they had to say about it. Abby’s plumage was well-loved, but she only sees it now, when it has to be cut.
“Okay. If it must be done… so be it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Abby didn’t mind getting oiled and watered and peanut buttered in her room, but Abby wasn’t going to have her hair all over. And so, Abby and Jake assembled themselves and the setup inside the attached bathroom. It is tiny, and the two barely fit, but they make it work.
Abby gingerly hugs her chest as Jake lays old newspapers on the floor. When he’s done, Abby steps onto it. It is a tiny area that is covered, but Abby’s lean figure comfortably fits into it.
Jake plugs in the clipper and turns it on. It comes soaring to life, emanating a buzz that rips through the quiet air of the confines of the bathroom.
“Have you ever felt the touch of clippers, Abby?”
Abby shakes her head. For as long as she can remember, she has always had her hair trimmed with scissors.
“Stand still,” Jake says, as he positions the clipper at Abby’s hairline. Abby gasps, as she had not expected the clippering of her hair to begin in the front, right before her eyes. The clipper’s guard, which is supposed to act as a protectant, looks menacing. Abby closes her eyes and braces herself for what’s next.
Jake pushes the clipper forward, and Abby hears the sound of hair being sheared. She feels the cold touch of the clipper’s teeth against her scalp, as it moves its way toward the back of her head. Chunks of Abby’s hair begin to fall down, rolling down onto her shoulders and body.
The experience was shocking at first, to feel her hair touch her skin. Yet the tingling sensation that it leaves in its wake is pleasant, and Abby comes to enjoy it. She forgets about the loss of her hair, and soon she’s immersed into the full sensory experience that the shearing of her hair has to offer. She takes off her pants, and she takes off her bra, until there’s nothing left on her skin that keeps her from feeling her hair, and feeling the warmth of Jake’s body. Jake also leans into this, and for the second time today, they lean into each other’s embrace.
Abby experiences a kind of deja vu with every pass of the clipper through her hair. The brush is replaced by the clipper, yet Jake is still Jake, and Abby is still Abby, albeit now completely naked without cloth or hair.
The pile of hair at Abby’s feet keeps growing and growing until there’s no more hair left to add. Jake pulls away from Abby, who bends down and feels her hair. It is a matted mass still, matted more now, but it looks beautiful. That is hair which she has been growing ever since she joined university, and if its size wasn’t apparent when it was in its shrunken state atop Abby’s head, it is apparent now. Abby wipes the coming tears from her eyes as she looks in the mirror, and realizes how much her hair added to her appearance, and how much it will be sorely missed from here on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Casey is beginning to lose his patience. It has now been an hour of him waiting at the restaurant for Abby to arrive, and there has not been a single word from her. He was patient for the first half hour or so, out of excitement towards seeing Abby arrive all dolled up and more importantly with her hair out, but he wonders if he’s now even in the mood to enjoy it. Until he sees her.
Casey spots Abby from a mile away. She is wearing a beautiful white dress and her makeup is all done. However, atop her head is her blonde wig and not the hair that Abby had promised Casey to bring out. But Casey does not care anymore, and the very sight of his girlfriend brings butterflies to his stomach. He grins and waves at Abby.
Abby comes towards the table, but she does not share the enthusiasm that Casey does. On the contrary, she looks rather forlorn.
“Hey Abby!” Casey waves his hand enthusiastically. “What took you so long?”
Casey had hoped that his zealous greeting would bring about a change in her face, but if anything, she is more stern now.
“Casey… I do not waste your time. So let me cut to the chase.”
Casey’s smile falters. “Cut to the chase of what?”
Abby sighs. “Casey, I… think we should breakup.”
Casey chuckles, unable to believe what he’s just heard. “I’m sorry, what?”
Abby twiddles her fingers. “I’m serious, Casey. We should end our relationship.”
Casey’s smile vanishes from his face as he realises that Abby is not playing around. “Why?”
“Well…”
“What did I do, Abby? Have I… not been a good boyfriend to you?”
“No, no. It is not you. It is because of me, Casey. I…”
“You what?” Casey’s voice begins to rise. “And what’s up with your hair? You told me that you were going to bring it out today, right?”
“Casey, I did. I undid it. I wore it to class today, and it was lab, and well Jake loved my hair, and we… kissed, and one thing led to another and-”
Abby takes off her hoodie, and Casey becomes speechless. Casey’s birthday date, that he looked forward to so much, came to an end not so long after, and so did Casey and Abby’s relationship.
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Thank you for reading my story, and I hope that you enjoyed reading it! While I do not do paid commissions, I like writing stories based on ideas suggested by my readers. If you have any ideas that you’d like to see turned into stories or just chat about hair in general, do join my Discord server!
