Lamine
-SIT THERE RIGHT NOW AND DON’T MOVE A SINGLE MUSCLE OR SAY A SINGLE WORD!!!
The recruit did so, straighter than a candle. The barberette unfolded a huge white handkerchief that left her almost completely covered. The barbershop was very brightly lit, because it was getting dark and there were mirrors everywhere.
While the barberette was sharply tying the cape, the sergeant barked at her:
-LISTEN TO ME WELL, SOLDIER: STICK YOUR EYES TO THE MIRROR AND DON’T TAKE YOUR LOOK AWAY FOR A SECOND!! –Addressing the barberette:
-Cynthia, are you going to leave this one off in the purest cueball style, understood?
-Yes, sergeant.-she said smiling.
-LATER I’LL COME TO CHECK THAT YOU’RE QUIET AND QUIET AND NOT GIVING TROUBLE, IS THAT CLEAR?
-YES, MA’AM!
-Enjoy your haircut, soldier, you’ll see that you won’t forget to cut it again… -And she left.
She hadn’t quite understood what the sergeant was referring to, but she feared the worst… No one was spared from the military shave, that was for sure… She thought that maybe they would allow her to keep some hair on top… She prayed that they wouldn’t shave her all over, that they would leave her something to comb at least, because otherwise it would be very humiliating for her… She never allowed them to cut her beautiful hair too much, she always took obsessive care of it, and as soon as she arrived, she had disobeyed the order to cut it… that’s why she was there…
The barberette applied the machine directly to her forehead and made a long pass. Her hopes went overboard when she realized that she was being shaved off without further ado. She was falling scandalously to the floor… Soon she would be a completely bald girl and there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it. She felt the machine slide down her neck, her crown… and it kept going up and up, with astonishing speed. She looked away but the barberette called her attention and she remembered that she was obliged to look at herself in the mirror. She was amazed as she saw the skin appear all over her head.
The barberette left the machine on the table, and she prepared to get up thinking about how horrible she looked and how she would never be able to get used to that atrocity… She was surprised when the barberette firmly put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back into the chair:
-But where do you think you are going so fast….?
She looked at her perplexed and said
-Ah, but…haven’t we finished…??
-Finished?? Noooo….we’re nowhere near the shave that the sergeant asked for you…
And saying this, she tightened her handkerchief a little more, went to the table to get something, and when she turned around, she saw, horrified, that she had a razor in her hand. Unable to understand that she was going to be shaved, she felt the barberette begin to spread abundant foam all over her head, temples, sideburns, until her head was covered and white, all the way to the nape of her neck…
The recruit didn’t dare to move, but she couldn’t believe what was happening to her. The barberette began to pass the razor everywhere. She began to look sideways at the recruit who was being treated next to her…just a small cut with scissors…she felt her indignation rise when comparing what they were doing to her with the little scissor cut of the girl next to her. That recruit in turn looked at her with a face that was laughing at her inside.
-Hey, you! The sergeant said not to stop looking at yourself, so stop staring at that one, she is not punished and has the right to her hair. Lower your head, but without stopping looking at you, ok??
.-But…but…I…
-Not one more word or I will write off a fault on your part! You have been ordered to sit here, quiet, and look at yourself in the mirror and you do not stop complaining!!!
-But…the sergeant did not say anything about shaved head, are you sure you understood well…?
-The sergeant wants me to leave you like a cueball…And that means 3 full shaves…
And she tilted her head back to start again to lather the whole forehead. In that uncomfortable position, she couldn’t see who was behind her and couldn’t contain any more complaints:
-Three… shaves…??? But if the others are being allowed to get away with a simple trim…!!
The sergeant bellowed behind her back
-WHAT’S GOING ON HERE??
The barberette gave her away without stopping shaving…now, she insisted behind her ears…She was getting whiter, balder and shinier every time…
-This one, who wanted to get up from the chair too soon…And we haven’t even finished the first shave yet…And on top of that she won’t stop complaining or looking away…
-What’s wrong, soldier? You don’t like your new haircut…?
-Please, Sergeant… they’re not leaving the others bald as me… Look at me, you haven’t left me anything…
-Well, since you’re in such a hurry to leave… just look, you’re going to stay here sitting for the rest of the afternoon… Cynthia, shave her head a couple more times, with a razor and a razor under the tap… but this time, you’re going to leave her completely bald, you’re going to leave completely shaved, including the eyebrows… And then you polish her well, because i’m going to stay here behind her watching to make sure she didn’t cause any more trouble…
-That’s done…´-She said smiling maliciously…
-And YOU! If you complain, talk or stop looking at yourself, I’ll remove your eyebrows with hot wax, is that clear? It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it!
She panicked, but she couldn’t even react, she could only do what she was doing: sit there very straight, without taking her eyes off that mirror for a second…
It was tremendously humiliating that, despite the fact that she was already completely bald, the barberette was again lathering her entire head, although this time she went down with the brush to under her eyebrows, leaving them well covered.
The recruit’s face was a poem… everyone looked at her. She began to shave them slowly… the girl seemed about to burst into tears… They didn’t even let her close her eyes while shaving her eyebrows… she watched as they disappeared little by little… The sergeant kept supervising the whole job, while she said ironically:
– VERY GOOD…. That’s it… that’s the way I like it… Eyebrows out… See how we warned you, girl….?? This is what you get for being rude… Look at yourself, look at yourself, now you’re going to look bald, bald, but really bald…!!- And she slid her hand humiliatingly over her head.
The girl was still trying to assimilate her image without eyebrows. It was much worse than before, there was no expression on her face, everything was smooth. The shave she was getting was monumental. Not even in her worst nightmares had she imagined a cut like that, or a worse humiliation!
The barberette told her to get up and sit on the chair by the washbasin. When she did, she could see herself in all the other mirrors in the barbershop, with the white cape on, and her white head too… She glanced at the floor, where all her hair was piled up, and walked painfully to the washbasin, knowing that even more passes of the razor awaited her.
Word of the barbershop punishment had spread throughout the barracks, and some recruits were crowding at the door, not daring to enter, but not stopping to look at what was being done to them. The sergeant invited them in.
-Come in, come in and see what happens when you don’t take the rules about hair seriously… -Having an audience made everything worse!
The sergeant kept an eye on her and the barberette pulled her head back when she sat down. There she lathered her all over again and shaved her under the tap, with plenty of water… She stayed like that for more than ten minutes, going over and over her forehead and her missing eyebrows. The razor slid over her skin. It seemed that the barberette was enjoying herself, and she wasn’t going to allow even a tiny hair to remain, this was never going to end. She ordered her to turn around so she could better access the back of her neck and behind her ears. And another ten minutes of humiliating, thorough shaving under the tap. The sergeant didn’t move from her side at any time, watching that she didn’t do or say anything. The barberette told her to get up, and she was surprised to see herself in the mirror again, because they were really making her bald head more and more radical. It shone spectacularly, and so did her absent eyebrows… There was no denying that she was in the hands of an extreme professional: The barberette had done an excellent job… she couldn’t have looked more ridiculous, she looked like she had a white helmet on her head, she was unrecognizable… She started to take off her scarf, and the barber said to her:
-No way!! Back to the chair! Now it’s time to wax and get as much shine as possible out of that bald head!!
“My God, how humiliating. To top it all off, she’s going to wax me–!!”- she thought, letting herself fall back into that damn chair. She stared at the mirror, straighter than a candle, submissive but hysterical.
The barber dried her head and began to spread a greasy paste on it. The sergeant came over:
-Give me my other towel, I’ll help you with this waxing… You, bring that lamp over, let’s see how the light reflects on this magnificent bald head!
A soldier brought a lamp from a corner, and they pointed it straight at her head and immediately began to polish it in the most humiliating way possible, as if it really were a cueball, which was exactly what it looked like. The shine was spectacular. It was unthinkable to believe that there had been anything before…
-When is your day off, soldier?
-Saturdays, ma’am!- she said while they continued to wax her and make her bald head even shinier. -Okay… your visit to the barracks barbershop is mandatory every week… Cynthia, this time, the same every Saturday, first thing in the morning… total shave along with the eyebrows… You’re going to spend the whole training with this very flattering style… You’re going to be like this until I don’t want it…
– I’ll write it down on his report… Every Saturday, right?
– At 7 o’clock sharp! If she ever arrives, even just a minute late, you write a report and let me know.
– And for a full cueball haircut, right?
She swallowed hard… she wanted to cry… she would have to go through that every few days!!! and they kept waxing her as if it were a patent leather shoe…
-That’s it… And you’re going to shave it exactly like that, every week, without exception… don’t forget, including the eyebrows, polishing and waxing… When you’re done with it, send her to my office so I can personally make sure it’s as it should be… that is, smooth, shiny and slippery all over… By the way… do you have bleach and inhibitor?
-Yes, of course
-Well, put 10 minutes of each, it will keep your bald head in perfect order until Saturday when you come for a good trim.
And so she did. She sat in the barbershop all afternoon, she came out at dusk. With her head very white and shiny, shiny and ultra bald.
She spent a whole year like that, without a single hair on her head, waxed and shiny 24 hours a day, and this punishment made her learn many things during that year, although that’s another story…
