Forcing Myself Into It by Ken

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I've always wanted to shave my head bald. But of course, always chickened out. I've done a lot of different things with my hair, gotten it colored, permed, but never shaved. It began to consume my thoughts, but every time I started out on it, I never went through with it. It was becoming a distraction so I knew I needed to go through with it, somehow. But I also knew that if I did go through with it, I would likely never grow it back.

I decided to make it to where I had no chance but to shave it. I went to the Penny's salon at the mall, and asked the woman for a perm. I'd gotten perms before (a while before to be sure), and this was going to be my first big step. I called ahead to make sure they could fit me in and that I wouldn't have to wait.

They took me right when I got there and took a seat in the chair. The young woman, Heather was her name, asked me, "What kind of perm do you want?"

"I want the tightest curls possible."

"So, like a poodle perm? That's really curly."

"I know, but that's what I want. Use the smallest perm rods you have."

So after a shampoo, she started winding my hair in perm rods. Perms take a long time, and curly perms use a lot of rods. It took almost an hour to get all my hair in the rods. I liked getting perms years ago, but never got a really tight curly perm, just what they would call a body perm. I hated the perming solution, but loved the time under the hair dryer. It was the most relaxing thing about it. Finally, it was time to take the perm rods out. I leaned back over the sing and she took them out one by one, dropping them into the basin.

"Okay, I can blow dry the hair and tease the curls, but that will make it really curly. Is that what you want?"

I nodded. "That sounds great."

So with the hair dryer and pick, she blew dry my hair and picked the curls out. I couldn't see what she was doing but I could sense my hair getting getting full. My hair was about 5 inches long, so the curls began to form a tight helmet of sorts around my face. I could feel it. Finally, she was done and turned me to the mirror. I couldn't believe how curly my hair was, it looked very effeminate, to say the least. I lightly touched the hair and liked how soft it was. I nodded. "I like it."

"Well, it's curly. Now, don't wash it for a few days, and, this probably doesn't need to be said, but don't get it colored."

"Don't worry. Thanks."

I went home, and immediately shampooed my my hair. When I dried it, it was a bit of a mess, to be sure. Then I went to another salon to see about getting my hair colored. I was a light blonde and wanted it a darker color. The lady at the salon commented on my hair but I told her that's how it's always been. I didn't like getting it colored, the whole process was annoying. But after the whole process, my hair was a dark brown and to be honest, quite a mess. She did her best to make it look better, but it wasn't much better.

I thanked her, gave her a nice tip and left. In my car, I looked at my hair. It was damage, but then a perm and a hair coloring in the same day will do that. I went back to the mall and walked around some. I got no real looks from anyone regarding my hair. Then I went to Master Cuts at the far end of the mall and took a seat. This was it, I'd have no choice but to get it all shaved off.

It was my turn and a young lady took me to her chair. "What are you thinking about today?" she asked.

"I want it all shaved off. It's pretty damaged, so I want to start all over again."

"By shaved, you..."

"Right to the skin, short as you can get it."

"Okay. We can do that, it's becoming a common request now-a-days."

She kept me facing the mirror as she took her clippers and started at the left side. As she put the clippers up the side, only white scalp remained. Pass after pass left only a fine stubble in it's wake. I couldn't believe it, I was finally going to be bald. When she did the top, I almost couldn't breath. When she was done, she switched to a small white pair of clippers. I didn't think she could go much shorter, but there was a clear difference with the white clippers and they left only white skin behind. She went over my scalp several times before she switched to another device, which was clearly a razor. She ran them over and over my scalp, the the rasping sound that it made when it started eventually ended and it was clear she had gotten me cue ball bald. She used a hair dryer to blow any loose hairs away then led me to the sink so she could rinse it off. The feeling of the warm water over my bald head felt wonderful.

Back at the chair, she dabbed my head dry. I was naturally blonde, so there wasn't even a shadow apparent. She took the cape off and I felt my bald head for the first time.

"What do you think?" she asked.

I smiled. "I love it. I've wanted to do this for the longest time."

"You think you'll keep it?"

"Well, I'll shave it for the next few months, and then decide then." I looked at my eyebrows. "Do you think I should do something with them? Which by bald head, they look kind of bushy."

"Lots of guys get their eyebrows waxed. We can trim them and shape them, if you want to try it."

"Let's do that." It was a big step, and maybe I was getting carried away in the moment, but I had to go with it.

She took me back and to the area for waxing, had me close my eyes and trimmed the loose and long hairs from my browse. Then she put some wax around the edges and pulled them off. There was some discomfort, to be sure, but not that bad. When I looked at them, there really wasn't that much of a difference. "There doesn't seem to be that much of a difference. Can you go thinner? I'm bald now, so maybe thinner would be better. Maybe half a thin as they are now."

"I can go thinner. But that's quite a step, are you sure?" I told her I was. And she did, and there was quite a difference then.

I stared at my new very thin eyebrows for a bit and said, "I know this is a bit odd, but how about if you just waxed them all off."

"That's not such a great idea. Most people have eyebrows. Plus, waxing them, it takes a while for them to grow back."

"I know, but I just got my head shaved, let's go all the way."

"Okay," she said and she waxed the rest of my eyebrows off. Then she took her tweezers and carefully plucked the few strands of hair that remained.

When I looked in the mirror, with my new shaved head and no sign of my eyebrows, I smiled again. "I like it."

"You know, it does look pretty good, the bald head and new eyebrows. It's a different look to be sure, but I think you can pull it off."

I gave her a nice tip and walked through the mall back to my car. I kept catching a glance of myself in the windows of the stores and really liked the neat clean appearance of a bald head and no eyebrows. I picked up extra razor blades and began to shave it every day, sometimes twice a day. If I shaved it in the morning, and went out for dinner somewhere, I'd shave it again. I didn't want to even feel stubble, I was that committed to it. I got a nice pair of tweezers and kept my eyebrows plucked every time I saw a hair grow in.

I got different reactions from family and friends, but most seemed to like it. After three months, I circled the date on my calender, I made the choice, that this was it, I was going be bald forever. I now shave it twice a day, and my scalp has gotten used to the regular shaving. I had to fill out a form the other day for work, and part of the form asked for hair color. I wrote bald.

It's been six year since that day, I'm still bald (I've gone bald on top so I just have to shave the sides and back), and with my regular plucking, my eyebrows show no sign of growing back. I see pictures of me with hair and wonder why it took me so long to shave it, as I can't imagine ever having hair again. Now, I just have to find a way to make the rest of the hair on my head stop growing back.

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