Quackadilly Blip
This is a follow up to my previous two stories, which you can find below. You should probably read those first, unless you plan on skipping the plot and going straight to the good parts, which is understandable.
Natalie’s jaw almost dropped to the floor when she realized Nina was walking in. What the hell? She’d been trying to convince her to star in a head shaving video for over a month, and had never even been close to getting a yes. She would have gotten a $500 finders fee, which would have almost covered half of what she owed Nina for her share of the rent and utilities she had fallen behind on. And here she was, walking through the door, seemingly on her own volition, though the heated phone call with Michelle from earlier indicated there may have been some sort of coercion involved.
“Hey, Nat, how’s it going?” Nina sighed, embarrassed. Her treasured blonde locks hung limply, she hadn’t even bothered to curl them.
“Uh, surprised to see you here. Michelle told me there was one more model but I was not expecting it to be you. You seemed pretty against this idea.”
“Ooh here’s the fun part” Michelle walked up to them and grinned. “Tell her how I got you here. Tell her!”
Nina breathed in deeply and looked down. “Well, Michelle has always been so confident that nobody can tell she’s wearing a wig, even when she had hair, so, we made a bet. We go up to five random men in the club, and ask them which one of us isn’t wearing a wig. If at least three picked my hair, she would pay for me to get a boob job. If at least three picked her… well.”
Michelle interjected “All five picked me.”
“Yeah…” Nina grimaced.
“You gambled your hair away?” Natalie asked, shocked.
“I mean, it was good odds, do you have any idea how much a boob job costs?”
“There’s more” added Michelle “Go on. Then after the shift…”
Nina continued “Yeah… so then after our shifts, we went to Waffle House. I asked for a double or nothing. Turns out 3 out of the 5 people we asked thought my hair was a wig there too.”
“You went 0 for 5 and then doubled down?” Natalie made a judgmental face.
“Well… I mean… I was pretty sure she cheated.” Nina tried to justify.
That was actually correct. Michelle had colluded with half the staff of the Silk Stocking to make this happen. Nina had the reputation of being somewhat of a bully, and when May, the sweet young waitress who sacrificed her blonde hair during the previous round of shoots, showed up to work proudly sporting a shiny bald head, Nina had teased her in a way that went beyond good-natured ribbing and felt mean spirited. She went to Ricky, the owner of the club and her stepdad’s best friend, in tears, and told him she wanted to quit. He told her that he’d make Nina regret it instead, and so they hatched a plan to get even. The girl who was working the door picked out five patrons who had never been to the club before and told them that a blonde and a brunette would come up to them and ask whose hair was real. If they picked the brunette, they’d get a free well drink, a $19 value. Then she relayed that information to Michelle, who did a good job pretending she was picking people at random. Winning the follow up bet at Waffle House was pure luck, though.
Natalie came to a sudden realization. “Wait, you said you doubled down, what does that even mean? You’re already getting your head shaved, right?”
Nina paused awkwardly “Look, I’ll forget about everything you owe me for the rent and utilities, and I’ll pay for your share next month too, just please…”
Natalie shook her head. “Hold up. Are you saying what I think you’re saying? You gambled with MY HAIR?!”
Michelle had burst out in laughter at this point. Natalie asked angrily “And what happens if I say no?”
Michelle stopped laughing and jumped in “Ooh, let me answer that one. If you say no, she has to keep her head shaved for the next year. AND, she is not allowed to wear any kind of wigs or hats. Not to work, not to the grocery store, not even when she gets her driver’s license renewed.”
Natalie chuckled “Well Nina, guess you better buy some razors in bulk, it’s cheaper that way.”
“No please!” she bargained “I’ll make it the next 2 months rent. Please. I’m so close to having enough saved for the down payment on a house, and if I have to dance bald, I’m not going to make any money. They’ll put me on the daytime shift, if they don’t just straight up fire me.”
“Relax.” Natalie changed her tone. “I’m just fucking with you. I always figured if I could ever actually convince you do to this, I’d take the plunge too. We’re besties. We both go down together. I will take you up on that offer for the rent though. Ya girl is bah-roke right now.”
“Ahh dang” Michelle snapped her fingers “You had a chance to do the funniest thing ever. I was going to tell the DJ to introduce her as Cindy Cueball”.
Nina was relieve that she would be able to grow her hair back, but still not looking forward to losing all the hair she had. Kendra, Mac and Rachel were all waiting for her in the makeshift studio set up in the living room of the AirBnB, each sporting identical hairless heads and distinguishable only by the difference in skin tones and facial structure.
“Whoa, looks like I just walked into a cult meeting.” Nina joked.
“Well, I guess we’re about to join the cult” Natalie chuckled.
The Shoot
Michelle had already planned how this whole shoot would go. This shoot would have somewhat of a plot to it. After taking the before pictures, Natalie and Nina sat down on opposite ends of a folding table. They would be playing strip poker. Natalie dealt the first hand, remembering to deal to Nina first, since the deck was stacked so that whoever got dealt the cards last would win.
Nina looked at her hand “I’ll bet my shirt.”
“Call!” Natalie responded.
Nina showed her pair of 10s, Natalie showed a pair of aces, and Nina took her shirt off in the same fashion she had done so many times at work.
Natalie dealt the next hand. Nina lost her shoes and socks as her two pair of jacks and 5s lost to a flush. Then her three queens lost to a full house and she was down to her bra and panties. When her king high straight lost to an ace high straight, Nina slowly unhooked her bra and dropped it on the floor. She lamented the fact that her boobs weren’t going to get bigger any time soon, thanks to those dumbass men at the club who couldn’t tell real hair from a wig. Meanwhile Natalie lamented the fact that nobody else involved in this shoot had any idea how poker worked or how improbable it was to get hands this strong in a two player game.
She dealt the next hand. Nina, now wearing nothing but a tiny black thong, smiled.
“I’m all in!” She exclaimed.
“Well of course you’re all in, you’ve only got one thing left.”
“Aww dang, this is a really good hand. Isn’t there some way I could bet more?”
“Well… I suppose” Natalie responded “Your panties aren’t all you’ve got on. I’ll raise you all my clothes, against all your hair!”
“All my hair! Well normally that would be crazy, but in this case, deal!” She slammed her hand down “Four kings, read ’em and weep!”
“Oh wow, that’s a good hand. All I’ve got is this 6… and these four aces!” Natalie made a mocking face.
Nina did her best to look shocked. She wasn’t a very good actor. Michelle reminded her to take her panties off before the haircut started.
She sat down in the barber’s chair, trying her best to mask her anguish and pretend she wanted to be here, as Rachel started filming. Natalie stood behind her and began the ominous buzz of the Oster clippers. Without hesitation, she drove them right down the middle, brushing the severed strands of Nina’s prized blonde mane onto the floor like pieces of trash.
She worked her way outwards with each pass. Soon the entire top of Nina’s head was covered in nothing but the short vestiges of dark hair which betrayed the fact that she wasn’t a natural blonde, and soon the sides followed. Natalie turned off the clippers.
“Oops, almost forgot!” She said, turning the clippers back on and quickly removing Nina’s eyebrows.
It had taken less than two minutes to destroy what Nina had spent years growing, and hours every day maintaining. Natalie tried her hardest not to look like she was enjoying it.
Nina rubbed her hands over her bristly scalp. “Holy shit! This is insane. I can’t believe this is my head!”
“Well, we’re not done yet. Hold still.” Natalie sternly instructed, as she began to spread shaving foam over Nina’s scalp and eyebrows. As she had done so many times today, she methodically worked her straight razor over the white cap of foam. The process left behind a faint shadow of Nina’s former hair. Unsatisfied, Natalie spread another round of shaving foam and made another pass, until she was finally satisfied with the results.
There was one piece left. Rachel zoomed in on Nina’s face as Natalie carefully trimmed as much of her long eyelashes off as she could.
And cut!
“Want to see what you look like?” Michelle immediately asked, giddily teasing the newly hairless Nina.
“No… but I can’t avoid mirrors forever, so lets just get this over with” Nina replied, dejected.
She walked over to the bathroom, still naked, while Rachel followed her with the camera. Seeing herself completely hairless for the first time was a shock, but her expression changed to almost a smile.
“Ok, this isn’t as bad as I thought. I kinda think I’m pulling this off! Not that I’m actually going to go out in public like this.”
“We’ll see about that!” Michelle replied.
“Huh?”
“Nothing.”
Natalie helped clean up the set while Nina stood in the mirror continuing to process what had just happened. Her hands were shaking as she placed the hair into a plastic bag. She knew that she was next.
The final cut of the day
Natalie never could have imagined this a couple months ago. She definitely could have imagined herself doing something crazy for a couple months worth of rent, but this wouldn’t have been one of her top five guesses. Now here she was, about to have her head shaved to the skin, and she wasn’t even dreading it. Much to the contrary, it felt exhilarating, and the financial aspect felt irrelevant. She had to hold herself back from smiling too much because her best friend didn’t seem as thrilled about having just gone through the same experience. But hey, Natalie was doing her a favor. Her sacrifice was the reason Nina would be able to grow back the hair she had. She made a mental note to remind Nina of that next time she got annoyed that an empty yogurt cup had been left on the counter.
Michelle had prepared a whole skit again.
It started with Nina sitting at the poker table. Naked and dejected, she rubbed her bare scalp.
Mac walked in, rubbing her own newly bald scalp.
“Whoa, what happened?”
“I lost all my hair in a poker game with Natalie” she pouted.
“You too? I lost all my hair in a dice game with Natalie, and then I figured out the dice were weighted!” She exclaimed, in a dry monotone indicative of someone who had never acted.
Now Kendra walked into the scene, completely nude and hairless. “Y’all talking about Natalie? I lost all my hair and clothes betting on the Lakers game with her, and then I find out we were watching a game she recorded last night!”
Kendra reached under the table and grabbed an envelope that had been taped to the bottom. She opened it and showed the contents to the camera: A stack of aces.
“Looks like she cheated you too!”
Now it was Natalie’s turn, she took a deep breath and caressed her long brown hair for the last time stepped into the scene. “Hey guys, what’s up?”
“Get her!” Nina shouted.
The three bald girls, in various states of undress, grabbed Natalie and dragged her to the barber’s chair, as she pretended to resist. They used a roll of duct tape to secure her wrists and ankles to the chair, and tape her mouth shut. Each of them picked up a pair of clippers. Natalie recognized the clippers Kendra was holding as the ones that Rachel the camerawoman had just used to shave her pubes and armpits, but it was too late to protest with the duct tape over her mouth.
All three of them turned the clippers on and shoved them into Natalie’s hairline at the same time. Hair flew in every which direction as they simultaneously and frantically buzzed away. Within thirty seconds, all the long hair was gone, and they were simply cleaning up the stubble. Nina did the honors of taking Natalie’s eyebrows.
Kendra sniffed the air. Natalie blushed as she knew what the smell was. The aroma emanating from the moisture between her legs had overpowered the smell of freshly cut hair. Kendra gave her an understanding look.
Next they spread the foam over her scalp. Natalie didn’t trust them to use her straight razors, so they used disposables. It pulled and stung at Natalie’s skin, but in a few minutes, she was almost as smooth as the rest of them. Nina took the small scissors and trimmed Natalie’s eyelashes while holding her head still.
Mac, Kendra and Nina picked the hair up off the ground and dumped it all over Natalie, covering every surface of her body in loose hair of varying lengths. Then Nina grabbed one of the aces, licked the back and stuck it to Natalie’s forehead. Rachel stopped filming, then walked around the scene with her camera getting photos of every angle. Natalie was curious to see what she looked like, while at the same time, she wanted to savor the humiliation of the moment for as long as possible.
Later that night
Nina looked at herself in the mirror. It was like nothing happened. With her painted on eyebrows and blonde wig, the only thing that even looked different about her was the lack of eyelashes, which she couldn’t really fix at the moment. Maybe Michelle was right. In the dingy glow of strip club lights, nobody could tell the difference.
Suddenly, her wig popped off.
“I’ll be taking that!”
May, the waitress, stood behind her, holding up the wig. Her hair had grown into a short, shaggy look, although it had been a while since Nina had seen her without a wig. Ricky, the club manager stood next to her.
“Hey give me that back! I need that!” Nina protested.
“Yeah, about that” Ricky interjected “I heard you went around telling people that you’d won some kind of follow up bet with Michelle and you weren’t gonna shave your head after all. And Michelle tells me you tried to bail today. Trying to get out of paying for a bet you lost… some of the guys I used to work with… well lets just say your punishment is going to be a little light next to what they did to people who tried to weasel out of a gamble.”
“My… Punishment?” Nina asked, scared to hear the answer, knowing that it would only be light compared to having her kneecaps shattered,
“Yeah” Ricky continued “This girl, she’s like a daughter to me. My hope is that one day, when I get sicka this shit, she’ll be running this place. And you made her cry. She’d been beggin her mom to let her shave her head since she was in high school, and she was so happy about it, for like a day, till you said some things that I do not care to repeat about this sweet girl. Now she don’t wanna go anywhere without a wig on, and that don’t sit right with me. So if you want to keep working here, or at any other club in town, because you know people talk, you’re not allowed to wear anything on your head until May here thinks you’ve learned your lesson, and wipe that shit off your eyebrows too!”
Shit! Nina thought to herself. She did tell half the staff that it must have been the first time in May’s life someone had ever wanted her to take something off, and called her Captain Jean Dork Picard. She’d never have said any of those things if she knew May was a nepotism hire.
“How long is that going to be?” Nina asked, staring at the ground.
“Could be tomorrow, could be next week, could be never! I don’t know yet. It depends on when I think you’ve really changed as a person. One thing that’ll definitely make me think you haven’t changed is if I hear about you going anywhere in public with a wig on.” May smirked. “I’m also going to need you to re-shave daily. I heard your roommate is a barber so that’s convenient. Here, I’ll help you get those stupid looking eyebrows off your face. Need to hurry though, you’re on in 2 minutes.
And thus Nina stood there, feeling more naked than she had ever felt in her life, even though she hadn’t even taken her clothes off yet, as she stood at the doorway to the stage.
“Coming up next to the main stage, give it up for Cindy Cueball!”
