The Price of Fame

Stella was desperate for a gig. Six months living in Los Angeles and desperately chasing social media followers, The best she could do was a few hundred a month for sponsored posts. She had a goal, though, and nothing would stop her. She wanted to be on a reality show, and she wanted to be memorable. It was hard not to get her hopes up every time her agent called.

He got to the point right away. “Stel! Good news. I got you on a show, as long as you’re ok with it.”

“As long as I’m ok with it? What is it?” she inquired. Stella couldn’t really imagine what was so bad she wouldn’t be ok with it, as long as it got her face in front of a camera.

“Well, it’s a game show…” he paused

“A game show? Does anyone watch those anymore?”

“Well that’s the thing. Game shows are actually making a big comeback right now. Massive streaming numbers. But the reason for that… Here’s what I mean by ‘as long as you’re ok with it’… the reason is that some of the major streaming services have made it a regular thing to have full frontal nudity in game shows. So is that something you’d be willing to consider?”

“You had me at massive streaming numbers.”

Her agent explained the show to her. It was an adaptation of a popular show from Japan or Korea or something, he forgot which one exactly, called Last One Standing. Each segment would pit the contestants against each other in some presumably unpleasant situation, and the longer she could go without backing out, the more money she would win. The best part, though, was that this production company had already signed a deal to produce at least 5 different reality shows. If she was memorable enough here, they’d ask her to come on some of their other shows. Stella signed and sent back the contract and waivers as soon as she could. The filming was taking place less than a week later.

At the studio, Stella was introduced to the group of contestants she’d be competing with. There were six of them in total, all girls in their mid 20s, all influencer types like her. Before anyone had a chance to get too friendly, a production assistant instructed them to each go to their dressing rooms. It wasn’t much larger than a dressing room in a mall. There was a top and a skirt in her size, as well as a bra and a pair of panties. The colors went well with the bleached blonde locks that fell past her shoulders. Stella put on the borrowed clothes and waited for what seemed like hours.

When someone finally came to get her, she was led directly to the stage and instructed to stand on a podium. No explanation of the rules or anything. The producers fiddled with the order the contestants were standing in until they were satisfied, seemingly trying to put the tallest on the ends and the shortest in the middle. Stella, being 5’11”,  was moved to the spot on the far right side. The producer instructed her to state her name, age and occupation when she received the cue. The presenter took to the stage. She was one of those actresses whose face was recognizable from bit roles in TV shows, but you wouldn’t know her name.

And… action!

“Welcome back to Last One Standing! I’m your host Olivia Adams. We’ve had an exciting show so far, and we have one final challenge to go. Before we go over the rules, lets meet the contestants.”

The spotlight moved from left to right. First was a tall brunette.

“Hi, I’m Rachel, I’m 25 and I’m a bartender.”

Next was a black girl with long, straightened hair.

“Kendra, 26, software developer.”

Next to her was a very petite Asian girl

“I’m Helen, I’m a 21 year old student.”

After her was a redhead with curls almost to her waist

“I’m Marie, I’m 28 and I’m a hairdresser.”

Then a heavily tattooed Latina

“Yessica, I’m 29 and I work as a tattoo artist.”

Finally, Stella was given the cue

“I’m Stella, 22 years old and I’m in sales.”

That was a lie. Stella had never sold anything in her life, other than selling her parents on the idea that continuing to pay her rent was a good investment in her career in the entertainment industry. It sounded better than saying she was unemployed, though.

The studio lights dimmed and the stage lights turned on. Stella could hear the creaking sound of something being lowered above her.

Olivia began to read off the cue card. “This final game is called Hold the Line. The rules are very simple. If you look up, you’ll see a rope hanging above you. All you have to do is hold on to the rope. The display below your podium has a dollar amount on it, and that amount will keep going up until you let go. The fewer people left, the faster the number will increase, and if you make it all the way to the end, there’s an extra $50,000! Sound easy? Well grab on to the rope and lets get started.”

Each contestant grabbed the rope with both hands. There was a display behind the camera with the money count so the contestants could see it, and it slowly started to tick up.

“Well I hope you didn’t think this was going to be easy as just standing there and holding a rope. My assistants have brought some tools to try and convince you to let go. Ladies.”

Six assistants entered the stage carrying small tote bags. They were all attractive women, just like the contestants. They set the bags down and each pulled out a large pair of scissors. In unison, they set the scissors at the bottom of each contestant’s shirt and started snipping upwards. One side, then the other. None of the contestants flinched as their tops fell to the floor. Next, they started snipping away at the bottoms. Stella’s skirt quickly fell to the floor, revealing the matching bra and panties she had been provided. Kendra and Marie were wearing jeans, so the assistants waited until their jeans had been cut away to continue. All six contestants were now in their bras and panties, holding on tight to the rope.

“Anyone want to let go before millions of viewers see your tits? Nope, okay then.” The host taunted.

Presumably, all the other contestants had been warned by their agents about the nudity, so nobody let go as the assistants snipped their bras off. Stella noticed that the girl next to her, Yessica, had large rings through each nipple. The host noticed too.

“Wow, love the jewelry!” Olivia commented.

“Oh that’s not all of it!” Yessica grinned.

Now the assistants turned the scissors to the panties, and as the scissors were about to close, Helen let go of the rope. She had earned just over $300 for her troubles. Everyone else’s panties came off, leaving them naked except for their shoes.

“Wow, you weren’t lying” The host said to Yessica, marveling at the silver rings through her clit hood and each side of her labia.

Five out of 6 contestants still remained after their clothes had been chopped off, and had earned about $500 each. The assistants didn’t put down the scissors though. Instead, they chopped the air with them menacingly, stood behind each contestant and gathered their hair into ponytails, securing each one with a scrunchy.

“Oh you didn’t think your clothes were all they were going to cut off, did you?” Olivia taunted. She walked over to Marie and played with her voluminous ginger curls. “Look at all this hair. Must have taken you years to grow. Oh well, guess you could use a haircut.”

Her taunting worked. Marie let go of the rope and scuttled off in time to save her massive mane. She had earned $650. Olivia gave the signal and the four remaining assistants began to cut just below the scrunchies. Stella felt her hair fall to her chin. When the ponytail came off, it didn’t even reach her shoulders anymore. The counter passed $800 as the assistants held the severed ponytails in front of their former owners. Now they got something else out of the bags: clippers. Each one had a #5 guard on it. They started at the nape of the neck, buzzing slowly. When nobody had let go of the rope, they did the same thing to each side. Each contestant now sported a chin length bob with an undercut.

“Hmm… doesn’t look like we’re making any progress. I guess it’s time to put those things right down the middle.”

With that, Rachel let go of the rope. She had earned $1200. Now only Kendra, Yessica and Stella remained. The assistants plowed the clippers right down the middle, then to each side of the first cut until each contestant had about half an inch of hair left. Nobody flinched. Then they removed the guards from the clippers. starting with the sides and back, they reduced each girl’s previously beautiful hair to short stubble. To add insult to injury, the also buzzed off each contestant’s eyebrows.

“Wow, I gotta say, you three all look pretty good bald.” Olivia complimented. “But it’s not over yet. Let’s have my lovely assistant Sarah here explain the last item in the bag.” She turned to one of the assistants whose victim had already left and put the microphone in front of her. The assistant held an unlabeled tube of some kind of substance.

“Well, Olivia, this is a powerful hair removal cream from Vietnam. It only takes about 2 minutes and it will remove hair just as well as any razor. But it does come with a warning. If you don’t wash it off after two minutes, it will start to sting, and by 5 minutes, some of the hair might not grow back as thick. If you leave it on for 8 minutes, none of the hair will grow back at all.”

“Wait?” Olivia asked “The producers told me that the challenge would end 10 minutes after the cream is applied. So does that mean that if either of them hangs on for the full time and wins the grand prize they’ll be…”

“Yep. Permanently bald.”

Kendra immediately let go. She had earned $4,000. It was now down to Stella and Yessica.

The assistants put on pairs of latex gloves and squeezed out some of the cream. They applied an even coat over each girl’s head and eyebrows. One minute passed as Olivia continued to taunt and joke to them. Then Yessica let go.

“Nope, nope, I can’t do this. Wipe if off, NOW!”

The assistant wiped the cream off with a wet towel. There were still vestiges of her dark hair remaining, but her scalp had several bald patches. She had earned $9,000.

Olivia turned to Stella and mocked her. “Better let go in the next couple minutes if you ever want to have hair again. At least you’ll be able to buy a nice wig with all that prize money. Not that it’ll do you much good since everyone who watched this will know it’s not your real hair.” She stroked her own dark brown locks. “Let go now and you might be able to do this again in a couple years when your hair grows back.”

Stella’s scalp began to sting. It must have been more than two minutes at this point. That meant the last of Stella’s hair was gone. She could let go now and grow hair again some day, but the money on that counter was ticking up fast, and she remembered the one thing her agent had told her: be memorable.

As Stella felt the burning sensation of her hair follicles being destroyed, the host taunted her mercilessly.

“Hey, on the bright side, since you shaved down there, it’ll probably be the first time in your life that the carpet matches the drapes”.

“If you can find a boyfriend after this, better keep him away from Chris Rock.”

“You should be paying us, considering how much money you’re going to save on salon visits and hair products.”

As much as it would have been beneficial to her dreams of stardom if Stella had witty responses, all that came out of her mouth were meek platitudes and a forced smile. Finally, it was over, and they wiped the cream off her scalp and eyebrows. Nothing was left, just irritated skin.

The wardrobe department provided Stella with a wig to wear, on top of the $87,000 she won. It didn’t look exactly like her old hair but it was close enough that nobody noticed it wasn’t real. About a week later, though, she got an unexpected surprise: Her hair started growing back. It was only then that she did some research and found out that the permanent hair removal cream that the show claimed to spread on her scalp didn’t seem to be a real thing. She got another pleasant surprise when her episode of Last One Standing debuted to massive streaming numbers. As it turns out, full frontal nudity is kind of a cheat code for ratings. Her Instagram followers were suddenly in the millions, and her phone was ringing off the hook with requests for interviews.

There was one problem though: Her hair was now about a quarter of an inch long, and had grown back as full as before. She had lied, over and over again, that the effects were permanent and none of her hair had even started to grow back. Sooner or later, someone was going to ask her to take the wig off, and if there were any hair underneath it, she’d be exposed. So she started shaving her head and eyebrows daily. The ruse worked, as long as she made sure to shave thoroughly right before she was on camera.

Stella got another call from her agent. True to their word, the production company wanted to put her in another reality show. The show would be 10 men and 10 women sharing a house, with cameras in every room, including the bathrooms. This posed a problem for Stella. She would need to shave regularly to avoid being exposed as a liar, but there would be nowhere private to do it.

The show wouldn’t begin shooting for another four months. Stella realized there was only one surefire way to avoid being caught lying about being rendered permanently bald. She had to make it real. Further research into permanent hair removal products yielded disappointing results. According to the information she could find, her only surefire bet for permanent baldness was laser hair removal. The first three studios she called thought it was a prank and hung up, or just flat out said no. She was able to find a studio willing to accommodate her after going in person and explaining her situation to the owner. The studio agreed to laser off the hair on her scalp and eyebrows, for free, and they would also do her legs, armpits and bikini line. In exchange, she would promote their services on her Instagram. That would give her a nice cover story in case anyone asked why she was getting laser hair removal done.

It was a painful and tedious process. After the first session, her hair grew back, albeit thin and patchy. With each successive session, she had less hair on her head. A week after her fifth and final session, she was packing up to go on the reality show, and not a single hair had grown back anywhere. She was truly bald for life now.

When she arrived on set, she hadn’t even bothered to pack a wig. She figured that everyone knew she was bald now so there was no point hiding it anymore. The producer came by to greet her.

“Wow, you kept the bald look. That’s actually a great choice. I think it will set you apart from the other girls.” he told her.

“Wasn’t really a choice. Did you see my episode of Last One Standing? They put permanent hair remover on my head.” she explained.

“Yeah, I know” He responded, confused. “I was a producer on that show too. It was just regular hair remover cream with a little bit of hot sauce mixed in so it would sting. We tested it on an intern and his legs were growing hair again in like a week. I don’t think permanent hair remover even exists.”

“Oh uhh… yeah I know. Between you and me, I’ve been shaving it regularly to make it look like I’m permanently bald. You know, so people think it was real.”

The producer stopped to ponder for a second. “Ok, I’ve got an idea. There is a room in the house for production equipment without any cameras. You can go in there and shave, and it won’t be filmed. That way, we can keep it looking like your hair doesn’t grow back. Otherwise… I don’t know, I guess you’re gonna have to get laser hair removal or something.”

He laughed. She didn’t.