Muscle Dude Gets Shorn, part 2 by Alex

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Brad was a newly-muscular guy with something to prove. He had spent his youth scrawny and thin, with no-one taking notice of him, but he had spent the last year buffing up. After encouragement and a year of training with his best friend Dan, Brad had entered several bodybuilding competitions, and had had a lot of early success: at the last competition, Brad had placed third in the middleweight category! Brad felt good about his healthy lifestyle. He also felt confident and cocky as the babes flocked around him, and his crisp, short Ivy League-style haircut helped complete the look. Dan called him a babe magnet and a stud. Brad had never been called a stud before!

Brad had to admit that he was a bit of a stud. His thick pecs and sculpted abs were like rocks, and he started wearing tight-fitting shirts and low-cut stringer tanks to show off during the warm summer months. Women would coo around him, sometimes running their hands up his corded arms, or even touching his short-cropped sandy brown hair. A few women would even run their fingers through his short hair. Brad quickly learned that if a woman touched him like that, that she was very interested in him. He "scored" frequently once he knew the signs. They would get damp just looking at him.

Brad loved the attention he got with his new-found alpha male look. Most women seemed to melt into puddles around him. The attention made him work even harder on his body, and he spent a good part of every week training with Dan at the gym, or in Dan's home gym. Over a year, Brad grew really big, and so did Dan, who didn't even compete. Every time a woman glanced Brad's way, it stoked a fire in Brad to grow just a little more. But the glances weren't just limited to women, Brad realized. He even caught some men "mirin'" (as the kids called it) his studly body.

That whole year and the next, Brad enjoyed a string of success with the local bodybuilding competitions. The judges and the audience seemed to love seeing him up on stage. They seemed to eat it up. His cocky presence on stage kept the audience revved up. He always made sure to be well-groomed on stage, prepping his look by getting an Ivy League haircut a few days before the competition. This gave him a couple of days to tan the whiter parts of his head and neck that were stripped of hair. The shorter haircut always made his head look smaller and consequently his body looked larger.

Brad enjoyed that golden year of attention. But after the first year or so of success, he noticed that he started sinking in the competition rankings. From a third place ranking, he slowly drifted out of the Top Five, and then, disappointingly, he couldn't seem to even finish in the Top Ten in his class.

"I don't know what to do, Dan," Brad said one day, as he and Dan were working out in Dan's gym in his basement. "I just seem to have lost my edge. I don't get it. Ain't I bigger now that I was a year ago?"

"Of course you are, Brad" Dan said. "You've put on at least 20 more pounds of muscle. But the judges have seen you compete a lot by now. They're used to how you look. You can't shock them with how muscular you are. You need to grab their attention again."

"But what can I do to get their attention again, Dan?" Brad asked, as he benched the weight.

Dan shrugged. "I guess you need to showcase how much bigger and more muscular you are."

"How?"

"Well... for starters, I think you should wear smaller posing trunks on stage. It's make your body look bigger."

Brad wasn't sure he wanted to do that. "Aren't my posers skimpy enough as it is?"

"No way, dude," Dan replied. "C'mere. I'll show you what I mean."

Dan and Brad headed upstairs to Dan's study, where Dan logged on to his computer and went to a website. "Look at these trunks, Brad. See what I mean? The company is called Muscle Potential. They make the smallest f-in posing trunks in the business."

"Jesus!" Brad gasped. "Those are some skimpy posers! Are those even allowed in competition?"

"Sure are, Brad," Dan said. "Look; these photos were all taken on stage. The small size of the trunks make the man wearing them look bigger. Look how big these dudes look!"

Brad had to admit that the guys wearing such small trunks did look bigger. It was a simple matter of perspective. But he would be embarrassed to wear such skimpy posers on stage. Still, Brad wondered if wearing smaller trunks like these could help him place higher in the competitions.

"I don't know..." he mumbled.

"You want to win, don't you?" Dan said.

"Yeah," Brad admitted. He did want to win. More than anything. Winning meant attention. He liked the attention.

"Then it's settled," Dan concluded. "You'll need to order a few pairs of these so we can see which ones fit you best. I think you should go with the contoured front panel and the 1/4th rear coverage. The audience and the judges will eat it up."

Brad nodded. "Will do," he decided, sitting down at the computer. With Dan's help, he chose several pairs that looked very small and then completed the transaction.

When they were finished, they made plans to meet up so Brad could decide which pair would be the best on stage.

"Now we've gotta talk about your hair," Dan said, mussing Brad's hair with his hand.

"Hey, what's wrong with my hair NOW?" Brad asked, ducking out of Dan's reach.

"Nothing. But it's... still really long, dude."

"It's as short as yours!"

"Brad, I'm not competing," Dan said. "If I was competing, I'd cut most of my hair off. Even with that Ivy crew, you've usually got the longest haircut on stage. You still look like a shaggy sheep dog up on stage, what with all the guys with short and medium-length haircuts."

"My hair's not long anymore!" Brad protested.

"In comparison to the other guys on stage, your hair is still very long," Dan replied, seriously. "With your long hair, your head looks bigger, and your body looks smaller. Bodybuilding is all about who looks biggest on stage. Anything you can do to make yourself look bigger will help you. I think you need to ditch the crew and find a shorter 'do."

"Dude, it's already plenty short!" Brad protested again, but after a few minutes of arguing, he gave up. Dan was insistent that his hair was still too long. Deep down, Brad knew that Dan was probably right.

Dan even made him call and book an appointment at the barbershop that day. So that afternoon they went down to Mac's Barbershop; Dan drove.

When they walked inside, it was clear they were the only customers. The barber, presumably Mac, gestured Brad over to his chair and caped him up, putting a neck strip on as well, and tucking it inside the collar of the cape. He asked Brad what he'd like. Brad shrugged, so Dan jumped in. "Can you give Brad a flattop, cut down to a #2 on the sides?"

"I can do a flattop, but I don't put a guard on the sides. Too long," Mac said.

Dan nodded in agreement. "What do you think, Brad?" he asked. "That's a nice short look."

Brad hesitated, then decided. "Okay."

As soon as Brad agreed, the barber put the clippers up to the side of Brad's head, and began shaving up the side of his head, taking big hunks of hair off. Brad felt queasy as he felt the barber work around the back of his head, pushing his head down, and then saw what looked like very long chunks of hair tumble down on the cape. He felt both nervous and excited as he realized the back and sides were being shaved down to nothing.

As soon as Brad was nearly bald all around the sides and back of his head, Mac fired up the Wahl clippers and began working on leveling the top. He cut it down short enough to where he could spike it up and get the perfect flattop. The barber mowed down little by little until it was perfectly flat. Then the barber brushed the loose hairs down to the floor, turned the barber's chair around to the mirror and let Brad have a look.

It looked awesome. Bald on the sides and short and flat on the top. The cut made Brad's head look much smaller, and Brad just knew he was back in the competition. All the way home, Dan kept staring at the awesome new cut.

Later that week, the competition judges loved his new look, and for the first time ever, Brad placed first in his class! Brad now knew the key to success in bodybuilding wasn't just hard work and heavy lifting. He had to give his looks his all. He had to look perfect. He had to do whatever it took to win: everything had to be perfect: his condition, his routine, and even his hair. Especially his hair.

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