The Swin-Shave Diaries: Part 2

CARMEN

Carmen Mendoza was nervous. VERY nervous.

Her teammate Stephanie was always a gifted swimmer, but over the last couple weeks she had taken her competitiveness to a whole new level. Until then, Carmen had always considered herself to be on even footing with her team captain Sandy, with Stephanie a distant fourth behind her other teammate Nicole. But in a completely unexpected upset, Stephanie had beaten Nicole, and Nicole had lost her beautiful brown hair because of it.

Now Carmen was pushing herself like never before, she only had a four-week period to outpace Sandy if she wanted to save her own butt-length, thick black hair. But despite the internal push, Carmen saw Stephanie pushing herself even HARDER. Hitting the walls at the same moment Carmen did, in some cases even earlier. She still felt like she had a safe lead over Stephanie, but Stephanie had worked hard to meticulously nibble away at that lead.

It made sense too. While Carmen was very proud of her shining black mane, Stephanie’s own golden-brown hair was nothing short of gorgeous as well. It would make sense that she wanted to keep it on her head just as much as Carmen wanted to keep hers.

And judging by the way Stephanie was pushing herself lately… maybe even more so.

She shook the idea out of her head as she slipped into her favorite dress, a cute little pink satin number that hugged her athletic figure and accentuated all the right places. She LOVED this dress, it was her lucky dress, and she had always worn it when she was in need of a little bit of good fortune, which right now she felt like she DEFINITELY needed if she wanted to keep her hair. And as she turned to admire herself in profile, she ran her hands lovingly over the dress protectively.

She had good reason too as well. When she had seen Stephanie jump up the ranks the way she did two weeks ago, she had made herself a secret promise regarding this dress in an effort to motivate herself even further. The other girls didn’t know about it… but Carmen planned on holding herself to that promise if it meant a chance at saving her hair as well, which she was becoming increasingly afraid of losing.

She knew she was better than Stephanie, she knew she had a good lead on her as of a few days ago, and she knew she even had a very good chance of even beating Sandy the way her times were improving… so why was she so scared? She knew it was a rhetorical question, she could have had a ten-second lead on Stephanie and still be terrified because her hair was literally on the line, plain and simple.

Carmen loved her hair. When she was in 7th grade she had shown up to school with it freshly chopped back from her bra-strap to her shoulders… and had regretted it horribly. Ever since then she had worked tirelessly to grow it out, trims reserved strictly for maintenance and never more than half an inch at the time. And now, over five years later, it was finally where she liked it, butt-length, thick, and shining, just a couple inches longer than Stephanie’s, but still nowhere close to Sandy’s length. The deep black color of her hair always managing to shine beautifully under even the dimmest of lights, and the texture as soft as the richest silk. She finished getting ready and took a good long look in the mirror, she looked GREAT!

The last time the girls had met, Heather had mentioned that several people at school had known about the wager after she spilled the beans. After Nicole had lost her magnificent tresses, the secret was out, and Carmen had several classmates who were now constantly complimenting her hair and asking if she was a part of the wager. Carmen had been non-committal in her responses, letting them figure it out for themselves, but she had found the attention both annoying and highly entertaining.

She slipped a leather bomber jacket over her dress and began to walk out, but then her smile faltered slightly when she noticed something. She was wearing the same dress she had been wearing when the five of them had entered into this insane wager. Was that a sign of good luck? Or an omen?

“Doesn’t matter,” Carmen said to herself as she picked up her purse and walked towards the door. Hard work and times would be what let her keep her hair tonight. She was sure of it.

But she hesitated at the door (just for a moment) and wondered if she should change… just to be safe.

“Jesus Carmen, your hair looks FANTASTIC!” Sandy said as she walked Carmen up the stairs to her bedroom, where Heather, Nicole, and Stephanie were already waiting, “did you do something different with it?”

“Nope,” Carmen said with a smile that was much more courageous than she felt, “just deep-conditioned the hell out of it last night.”

To be fair though, her hair did in fact look fantastic. “Last night” was a bit of an understatement, as Carmen had been deep conditioning her hair every other day since the wager had begun. It had cost her a small fortune in hair care products, but her hair was now the healthiest, shiniest, and softest it had been in quite a while… possibly ever.

“Well, hopefully it’ll still be there tonight,” Sandy said, then turned around with mock seriousness to face her, “or maybe not, maybe I’m rooting for Stephanie… mua ha ha!”

“Very funny,” Carmen said flatly, but secretly she wondered if her co-captain was, in fact, rooting against her, “you’re not rooting for yourself?”

“Why bother?” Sandy said with another of those smart-ass grins, “I’m crushing you two.”

“Oh, humble too,” Carmen said, and Sandy laughed, “you look nice by the way, what gives?”

Sandy’s own impossibly long, soft waves had been pulled loosely back into a sort of “reverse ponytail” that was tied with a red satin ribbon near the ends of her hair rather than the base of her head, making it resemble a dolphin tail more than a ponytail. She looked dynamite in a white satin blouse half-tucked into a pair of skin-tight black leather pants and calf-length black leather high-heeled boots.

“Oh, just got back from a date with that guy from my Calculus class,” she replied nonchalantly, “it was… alright.”

“Think there will be a second date?” Carmen asked, genuinely intrigued.

“Probably,” Sandy replied, still not looking back, “he always braids my hair in class, so I don’t want to disappoint him just yet. But he better up his game if he wants a third.”

“Does he know about the fact that your hair may not be around for a third?” Carmen asked.

“He does,” Sandy replied with a chuckle, “which would probably explain why he really enjoyed playing with it during the date.”

They walked through the bedroom door and Carmen saw the girls sitting around the room. Heather was laying on the bed, her red hair having grown out quickly into the very beginnings of an actual style. Nicole was on the floor snacking, her own head covered with dark brown stubble and not long enough to do anything with after just 2 weeks.

Stephanie was sitting in a chair talking to both girls, looking oddly professional and ready for the occasion in a form fitting white silk pantsuit and skirt. Her own gorgeous brown hair was as beautiful as ever, and she had pulled it over her shoulders to let it spill into her lap in a pool of golden-brown silk. It was looking shinier and thicker than Carmen ever remembered seeing it, maybe she wasn’t the only one who had pampered her hair over the weekend.

“Alright, we all ready to do this?” Nicole said as she stood up and headed over to the counting area with Heather.

The team had decided that Nicole and Heather would be doing the counting from now on since they didn’t exactly have any stake in the wager anymore, so Carmen, Stephanie, and Sandy stood near each other as an uncomfortable silence fell over them. As Heather and Nicole tallied the scores, each of the girls began to subconsciously play with their hair to take their minds off the impending count.

Sandy had pulled the ribbon out of her hair, freeing it from the “reverse ponytail”, and was running her fingers delicately through the long, bouncy curls.

Stephanie was gently squeezing her long hair in her hands, a habit she tended to demonstrate when she was nervous about something.

Carmen had pulled a paddle brush from her purse and was running it through her thick black locks, tossing it about her head and loving the feel of it flying through the air behind her. She marveled at its gorgeous condition, and vowed to keep it this beautiful if she managed to pull off making it through this thing.

After a few minutes Carmen let out a long sigh and leaned against Sandy’s mirror, letting her hair spill down her back as she gently bumped her head against the glass in a childlike gesture to pass the time.

“Psssst… Hey Carmen,” Stephanie whispered next to her, and Carmen turned to face her, “I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but I’ve always loved your dress.”

Carmen couldn’t help but smile and chuckle at her friend, who was clearly trying to lighten the mood.

“Oh dear, sweet Stephanie,” Carmen said with a giggle, “this is my lucky dress.”

“Oh really?,” Stephanie replied with a smile, “I just thought you loved it because it made your boobs look AMAZING.”

Carmen laughed out loud and snorted at the joke, and right then Heather and Nicole walked back in with the ledger.

“Alright, we’ve got it figured out,” Nicole said, and Sandy, Stephanie, and Carmen all held hands. Carmen was suddenly aware of just how heavy her long, silky hair felt on her head, and was overcome with a sudden, deep desire to keep it after all. She definitely never wanted to lose, but the sheer intensity of this desire that seemed to come out of nowhere made her realize she couldn’t imagine life without her gorgeous locks dancing around her head as she walked in the wind, or chewing on the ends of them nervously during a hard test, or feeling the gentle tugs as she brushed it out at night.

Oh God, what have I done? Carmen thought to herself as she felt her heart picking up speed, Oh please let me keep it, oh God, I don’t want to lose my hair!

“So, Sandy takes first place again by 0.2 seconds, less than last time,” Nicole said with an evil grin.

“You’re falling behind Sandy,” Heather said with an equally evil smile.

“So that means the runner up… who is safe for another two weeks,” Nicole continued.

Oh please let them say my name, Carmen thought as a long lock of her silky black hair drifted down in front of her eyes.

“…is…”

Please, please, let it be me, I know I can beat Sandy in two weeks if I have the chance.

Another moment of silence…

“Stephanie,” Nicole said, and Carmen heard Stephanie gasp as she felt her own heart sink.

“Nooooo,” Carmen groaned out as she sank to her knees, “no no no!”

It’s going, Carmen heard that taunting voice in her head say, it’s aaaaaaaall going.

Stephanie was wearing a look that resembled sympathy, but Carmen could see a look of sheer relief hiding just behind that look.

“You know the rules Carmen,” Heather said as gently but sternly as she could as she placed an antiquated looking egg timer on the table in front of Carmen and began to wind it, “five minutes to say your goodbyes.”

Carmen sighed loudly as she sank into a leather padded chair, her shaking hands between her legs and and her hair spilling beautifully into her lap. As she looked down at her shimmering locks she couldn’t help but notice just how beautifully they shined… like it was pleading for its life, fighting against its impending fate in its final moments on Earth.

Five minutes, the voice in her head seemed to tell her, five years of growing it out, deep-conditioning treatments, and constant love to get it just the way you wanted it… and now it’s all going to be gone in five minutes.

As if to make a point, Heather let go of the winder and the egg timer began a rhythmic “tic tic tic” as it began to countdown to the complete and total destruction of Carmen’s shining black mane.

“Here, I’ll brush it out for you,” Sandy said as she walked over to the chair and picked up Carmen’s brush, “you just relax and enjoy it.”

Carmen nodded sadly, then leaned her head back and closed her eyes as Sandy began to brush out her hair. As the brush slid effortlessly through her long, silken locks, Carmen had a horrible realization that her hair may never be this long again, so she made a mental effort to focus on the luxurious feeling and enjoy it one last time.

God, what was I THINKING? Carmen though to herself as she listened to the soft whisper of the brush making its way through her long, thick tresses, it’s SO fucking beautiful! Now I’m going to lose it all and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

She glanced over at Stephanie, who was watching her with wide, shocked eyes and was running her own fingers through her hair with obvious love and reverence.

This is all Stephanie’s fault, Carmen thought to herself, a sudden and uncharacteristic venom building up in her mind, she’s the reason I have to do this, if it weren’t for her, I would have another two weeks and I probably could have overtaken Sandy. She must have CHEATED, there’s no WAY she could have improved her times so much.

But with a loud sigh Carmen pushed those ridiculous thoughts out of her head. No, Stephanie hadn’t cheated. Stephanie was one of the most genuine, wonderful, and kind people Carmen knew, and had a heart of pure gold. She had simply wanted it more… and had worked her ass off to save her hair. Carmen had entered into this bet willingly, and if she had worked as hard as Stephanie, then maybe she would be going to bed tonight amidst a sea of shining black silk spread over her pillow… rather than the barren, hairless scalp that would soon be replacing her beautiful hair.

“Do you want to brush it out one last time for the last couple minutes?” Sandy asked, handing the brush in Carmen’s direction.

Carmen was about to ask her what she was talking about until she glanced over at the egg timer and gasped. It felt like it had just been a few seconds since Sandy had started to brush out her hair, but the egg timer was showing she had less than two minutes until her shearing. Carmen gulped, but nodded, and Sandy handed her the brush.

Carmen faced the mirror and began to slide the brush through her hair herself. She reveled in the silky feeling of her long hair sliding through her fingertips, the whisper of the bristles as they glided through the sea of shining black silk, the sweet smell of the vanilla shampoo she had used this morning (unknowingly for the last time), it was heaven. She thought about the old adage “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone”, and she was proving how right it was. She tried to commit these sensations to memory, since she didn’t know when she would ever be able to feel them again (or even IF she would ever feel them again).

There were only thirty seconds left, and she looked over to see Stephanie inspecting and oiling the clippers that would soon be stealing Carmen’s hair away from her. The instruments of destruction looked cruel and dangerous as they glinted in the light, shining dangerously in the lights in a stark contrast to her own doomed tresses.

As the seconds melted away, Carmen placed her brush down for the last time and pulled her hair over her shoulder as Heather approached her with a striped cape. The girls had learned what a mess this much hair made, and were starting to take appropriate measures to contain it a bit.

Carmen lifted her hair as Heather placed the cape around her shoulders, then let it fall softly over the cape as Stephanie walked up behind her with the clippers.

“Ten seconds,” Nicole said, and Carmen jumped in her seat as Stephanie snapped the clippers to life. The POP and buzz that followed sounded much more terrifying now that she was in the chair, and she looked down at her hair that was spilling into her lap, wishing it a fond farewell.

Goodbye old friend, Carmen thought silently to her hair, one day, we’ll be re-united.

“Alright, this is it,” Sandy said as she walked by Carmen, stopping ever so briefly to lift a long lock of Carmen’s hair one last time and let it softly flutter back into place, “five… four… three…”

Stephanie put the clippers to Carmen’s forehead, and the buzzing that reverberated through her skull made Carmen nauseous at what was about to happen.

“Two…”

Stephanie slowly began to push the clippers upwards towards Carmen’s hairline, and Carmen thought she was going to have a heart attack.

“One…”

The clippers moved steadily back, and Carmen pushed herself backwards into her chair to move herself away from them to try and save her hair. It was futile, and only bought her a split second, but she thought it was worth it because it was a split second more that she got to keep her hair.

“Zero!” Sandy said triumphantly, and with a final, deep breath, Stephanie pushed the clippers back into Carmen’s jungle of soft black silk.

Carmen gasped, and then felt the clippers nibbling their way through her amazing locks. She saw the thick black lock of hair hanging in her vision quiver with the movement, then slide downward, and then fall into her lap with a soft whisper that signaled the beginning of the end for her beautiful hair.

The clippers moved further back, moving steadily until they reached the crown of Carmen’s head. A few seconds later the first pass was complete. Carmen’s flawless, shining black mane was now tarnished by a single strip of lighter, stubble-covered scalp, but this was just the beginning, and Stephanie continued her work to spread that rough patch of stubble across Carmen’s entire head.

Stephanie pulled the clippers back and decimated another strip of Carmen’s lush hair in seconds, and Carmen watched helplessly as the second strip float down with a lump growing in her throat. A few more passes with the sheers and before she knew it, half of Carmen’s head was now completely shaved, with the other half still covered with gorgeous, shining, soon-to-be-gone locks of ebony silk, but not for long.

“How you doing?” Stephanie asked as she pulled the clippers through the remaining hair on the left side of her head, the pale scalp underneath it becoming more apparent by the second.

“OK I guess?” Carmen replied with a forced smile, “I mean… how are you supposed to feel during something like this?”

“I guess OK is the best you can ask for,” Stephanie replied, “if I were in that seat, I don’t think I would be as OK as you are.”

As if to make her point, some of Stephanie’s hair spilled over her shoulder, and she quickly reached up with a practiced hand and tucked it behind her ear.

“To be honest, I’m a little curious to see if it’s going to be you or Sandy in the chair next,” Carmen said as another strip of glistening black hair slipped down to the floor, “will it be Captain Curls, or the Golden-Brown Vixen?”

“Golden-Brown Vixen huh?” Stephanie said as she clipped through another strip of Carmen’s hair, there wasn’t much left, and even that was rapidly diminishing, “I’ll have to remember that one.”

“I like it,” Carmen said, shuddering slightly as the clippers vibrated over her skull, “a lot more than I like this shave at least.”

“Personally, I think you look good,” Stephanie said as she made another pass, there was only one last chunk of hair still clinging desperately to Carmen’s head, the last survivor in a war of attrition that had claimed the rest of Carmen’s magnificent mane, “I really do, you can totally pull this off, you’ll see for yourself shortly.”

“Oh God, I’m afraid to look,” Carmen said nervously as Stephanie began to clip off the final chunk of her hair, “it’s going to look awful!”

“I think you’ll be surprised,” Stephanie said as she slid the clippers through the last remaining strands, then began to run them over her head to make sure everything was even, “you look shockingly good.”

Stephanie spent a few minutes cleaning up Carmen, making sure we was cleaned up all over and even. The whole time Carmen felt apprehension and fear building up in her at what she looked like, the tension building by the moment. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Stephanie shut down the clippers and undid the cape covering Carmen.

“OK, you ready?” she asked, and Carmen nervously nodded. Stephanie slowly spun the chair around to the mirror, and Carmen gasped at what she saw.

“Oh wow!” she said as she stood up and ran her hands over her head, “this is so… COOL!”

Stephanie laughed, obviously relieved at the fact that Carmen wasn’t devastated during the reveal.

“You sound like Nicole after her shave,” she said.

“Well, I can see why she was so on board,” Carmen replied as she rubbed her hands over her head, “I still prefer the hair, but I’m glad I could do this at least once in my life.”

“So you like?” Stephanie asked, and Carmen nodded, “OK, thank God, that means maybe Sandy will like it when I shave HER head next week.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Sandy said as Carmen, Nicole, and Heather started laughing, “last I checked, I was dominating those times…”

“And last I checked, that lead of yours was dwindling by the day,” Heather said, “Stephanie is catching up with you, so don’t rule her out yet.”

“Yeah,” Stephanie said sarcastically as she walked behind Sandy and began fluffing her massive pile of curls (not that her hair needed more volume), “face it, you’re gonna look like Carmen in two weeks.”

“Not that that’s a bad thing obviously,” Nicole said as she walked over and rubbed Carmen’s head lovingly in a show of solidarity between two shaved women, “you pull it off, especially in that dress.”

“Her LUCKY dress,” Sandy corrected.

Everyone laughed, but Carmen just chuckled absently as she looked down at her dress and ran a hand over the soft satin fabric, secretly knowing that the girls would never see this dress again after tonight,.

Five hours later, Carmen was standing in front of her home’s outdoor fire pit, a raging bonfire lit inside of it. She was still wearing her lucky satin dress, and was absentmindedly running her hands over the soft satin as she had been earlier.

Her parents had been shocked to find out she had lost, but were supportive of her decision and ecstatic about her improving times. She had also pledged to double her efforts in the pool, and knew now that there was now nothing standing in her way.

Well… almost nothing.

She looked down at her dress, her beloved “lucky dress”, and realized that lately, its luck hadn’t been living up to its name. She had been dumped while wearing it, had bombed a test while wearing it, and now, had lost her hair while wearing it. The luck seemed to have run out of it… and now Carmen was ready to do something dramatic about it in an effort to better herself.

She looked down at her dress and sighed loudly, the reached up to untie the straps behind her neck and slipped out of it for what she knew would be the last time.

Carmen knew for a fact that a dress couldn’t be lucky or turn unlucky, but athletes were a superstitious bunch, and she knew she needed to get over this mental block and reach her full potential. Losing her hair had been one hell of a step… now losing her dress and ridding herself of this curse would be one hell of a final step.

She held her dress in her hands, standing there in her bra and panties, and clutched her dress to her chest. She had a lot of memories of this dress… dating all the way back to the first time she purchased it and wore it to her Spring Casual dance as a freshman. All the dates she had gone on while wearing it, all the times she had picked it up from the dry cleaners, smiling as she saw the dry cleaning lady turn the corner holding her adorable dress wrapped in plastic. It had served her well, and she would miss it something awful, but it was time.

“Goodbye,” Carmen said quietly, then dropped the dress into the fire.

Carmen whimpered out loud as the dress landed with a soft “whump” flatly, chest up, onto the flames. For a split second she debated reaching in to snatch it out and quell her ridiculous superstition, but the though passed just as quickly as it entered her head, and any chance she had to save it quickly passed as the fire worked its horrible magic. A moment later, the neck strap blackened and withered, and Carmen knew any chance to save her beloved dress was gone.

That was it, that was the last block, and as Carmen watched the horrible flames slowly creep over the soft, supple fabric, she wondered who would be the final girl to lose their amazing hair: Stephanie or Sandy?

TO BE CONTINUED…

 

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