The unusual customer

It was bitterly cold outside, -10°C and the wind whistled through the cracks of my hairdressing salon and it was snowing heavily. I looked bored out of the window and saw a hooded person in a parka with fur trim. He tripped back and forth uncertainly in front of my shop. His face was covered with a cloth to protect himself from the sharp wind. I relaxed in one of my styling chairs and read the newspaper. It was shortly before closing time and I didn’t have an appointment for the rest of the day. Funny oddball, I thought and saw that he had suddenly disappeared. Then the doorbell rang and the masked person entered my shop. When he took off his cloth, I noticed that a young clean-shaven man was hiding behind the cloth.” Hello young man, what can I do for you?” I asked him kindly. “I know it’s just before closing time, but can you cut my hair short today? I saw that you no longer have a customer. I don’t want other people to watch me.” – “No, I wanted to call it a day now and close the shop,” I replied. “Please serve me! It is urgent and very important for me!” This customer began to make me curious and I was curious about what was hidden under his coat, and I said: “Ok, take a seat in one of the waiting chairs.” He threw back his hood and I saw that blond hair, parted in the middle, was hidden under the parka. He slowly unzipped his jacket and a long blond curl slipped down to his waist. He took off his jacket, turned his back to me and hung up his jacket on the coat rack. I was shocked: his wavy hair covered his whole back up to his buttocks and reached his belt at the front. It looked like a wavy carpet – wow!  … and a pleasant shiver ran down my spine. He shook himself and a mass of hair slipped over his right shoulder, blocking his vision before he tucked it behind his ear and sat down on one of the waiting chairs. I began to clear one of my barber chairs. I didn’t expect something like that. I’ve had clients with shoulder-length hair before and once a boy with chest-length hair, but I’ve never had a client like that. I didn’t want to miss this sheep shearing. “Good, I’m ready. Please make yourself comfortable in the hairdresser’s chair,” I said to him, he stood up and sat down in the hairdresser’s chair, he took off his glasses and I clamped his hair on his head to put a paper ruff and a cape around his neck and tie it down. I removed the staple lines and slowly began to comb out the mat backwards, which covered more than half the back of the barber’s chair. “Some women would be jealous, why do they want to cut them off and what hairstyle do you want?” – “I need a radical change, a short haircut, 3 cm long at the top, collar and ears free. I got a job in the Ministry of Defense and I’m starting on Monday”. With tears in his eyes, he said that they did not accept long-haired colleagues. Job or long hair, that was the choice. He had decided on the job. “You know,” he began to tell, “it’s only the third time in my life that I’ve had my hair cut. My mother let my hair grow as a child because it was very beautiful. I liked that and I was very proud of my mane, which reached down to my knees. The neighbors’ children teased me and I was mistaken for girls everywhere. At the age of 6, shortly before the start of the school year, my father secretly dragged me to the hairdresser.  The hairdresser shaved me bald and I was terribly ashamed afterwards. I had developed a hair fetish and never wanted to get my hair cut again, screaming and raging every time I was supposed to go to the hairdresser. Finally, my parents gave up and let me do what I wanted. When I was 15 years old, I had my first girlfriend, who got along well with my father and who constantly wanted to send me to the hairdresser to have my buttocks cut off my long hair. One day, my father and girlfriend lured me to cut my hair with a mean ruse. My friend said that my split hair tips urgently needed to be cut, otherwise the long hair would break off. After long discussions, I stupidly agreed to go to our village hairdresser, made myself a meter-long braid beforehand and wanted to sacrifice a maximum of 2-3 cm.

But the village hairdresser had previously received a telephone instruction from my girlfriend and my father and immediately cut off my long braid at the nape of my neck and gave me a hedgehog cut. After this shock, I left my girlfriend and my parents’ house 7 years ago. Actually, I never wanted to have my hair cut again.”

I looked at him in the mirror and just said, “You’ll be surprised how good they’ll look when those long locks are gone. This time, no one is forcing you and it’s your decision. That makes a difference! Trust me.”

He sighed and I asked him to close his eyes and began to divide his mane into sections and cut off the first 100 cm long strands at the back of his head. I worked my way through the wool piece by piece until his hair was chin-length. The ground and his lap were covered all over with strands of hair. I sprayed his head with water and started with the fine cut – 3 cm at the top and carefully shaved the sides and back of the head with my clippers. I blow-dried his head and styled his hair with gel.

Now I asked him to put on his glasses, and he saw a new person in the mirror. He was surprised and noticed that the new hairstyle suited him well. He no longer looked like a freak, but like an attractive young man.” The women will be at your feet!” I said to him as the cape and necklace were removed and mountains of tufts of hair slid onto the floor. He stood up, turned around, and was surprised that all the chaos on the floor was just coming from his head. He paid, thanked him and was visibly happy that his first voluntary haircut was over. He had probably overcome his hair fetish and became a regular customer from this point on.

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