Muscle Dude Gets Shorn by Alex

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Brad had been a skinny kid in school, but after graduating, he decided to change his lifestyle. In school, he'd get laughed at for how skinny he was. He had been so self-conscious that he wouldn't even wear T-shirts in public; even in the hottest weather, he would wear a long-sleeved shirt. He couldn't even lift much more than 50 pounds, which even made things difficult at work.

Then one day at work, Brad saw a flyer for a local gym, which changed his life. He decided to sign up to the gym with his best friend and co-worker, Dan, who had been working out at home for years. At the start, Brad only joined to improve his strength and increase his overall confidence. However, as time went on he realized that he was growing very quickly in comparison to everyone else at the gym. He was soon hooked on weight training and eating the proper foods, and after only a year of working out, he was ripped, with big muscles and a low 6% bodyfat. Girls began glancing his way. Brad loved the attention, which he had never had in high school.

Near the end of the year, Brad's friend Dan encouraged Brad to enter a local bodybuilding contest. He praised Brad's efforts and told him he should go all the way. At first, Brad resisted the idea, but Dan convinced him that he had a shot at doing well in the bodybuilding contest. So, after several weeks of convincing, Brad finally entered the contest, slowly educating himself on posing, fasting, contest prep, and skin prep. With Dan's help, he learned the names of the poses, and how to strike each pose. He learned when to cut carbs, when to stop water intake, and how to shave his body so that his muscles showed. Dan gave him lots of pointers and suggestions along the way, which really helped.

To Brad's surprise, he won the Rookie of the Year award at the contest, and also placed fifth in his class (middleweights), out of a field of more than fifteen guys. The attention that he got was amazing, and made Brad feel good about both himself and his healthy lifestyle. His confidence grew even further as chicks now flocked around him. He was a "babe magnet", as Dan called him.

Soon after winning his first contest, Brad entered himself in another bodybuilding competition. As with the first competition, Brad prepped and trained, and built himself up even further. He was ripped! Unfortunately, Brad placed a disappointing 8th in the competition, out of only ten competitors. Devastated, he moaned about it one day to Dan while they were in Dan's home gym in Dan's basement.

"Brad, don't feel bad," Dan said. "These things happen. It's just a temporary set-back. Those guys were just in really good shape."

"But I was actually in better shape this time than last time," Brad groused. "How could I have gone down in judging? It doesn't seem right."

Dan shrugged. "Seemed like the guys in this competition were more well-prepared. They had their poses down. But, I think, most importantly, most of them were really well-groomed."

"Hey, I was well-groomed, too!" Brad protested.

Dan shook his head. "Brad, sorry to say: with all that long hair, you looked a little like a sheep dog on stage."

"I don't have long hair!" Brad protested, running his fingers through his hair, which was only three inches long, even at the fringe.

"Dude. In comparison to the other guys on stage, your hair is very long," Dan interjected.

"So?"

"So, look in any of the magazines. Bodybuilders keep their hair very short," Dan said.

Dan tossed an issue of "Iron Man" magazine over to Brad. Brad leafed through the pages of the muscle-mag. He had to admit: every man in the issue had short-cropped hair: Dusty Handshaw with his mohawk, Brandon Beckrich with his crewcut, and big dudes like Ben Pakulski who shaved their heads completely. There was no one in the issue who had hair as long as Brad's.

"Competitive bodybuilders keep their hair very short," Dan explained. "It makes their bodies look bigger in comparison."

"Seems like a cheap parlor trick," Brad said.

"Bodybuilding competitions are all about looks," Dan shrugged. "It's all about who looks biggest on stage. Anything you can do to make yourself look bigger will help you. If you want my advice, I say you ditch that longhair look."

Brad had never considered his hair "long"; the hair on the sides of his head didn't even touch his ears. But Dan raised a good point: the other guys on stage, in general, had shorter hair. After talking it over with Dan for a while, Brad slowly realized that by having such long hair, he was really just handicapping himself.

"You're not doing yourself any favors by keeping that long hair, Brad," Dan said. "It's all about who looks the most masculine on stage. I think that long hair has to go, buddy, if you want to seriously compete."

"I guess I better go to the barber," Brad replied, glancing back down at the magazine.

"You should ask for a crew cut," Dan suggested. "It's the style I get."

Brad looked at Dan's crew cut style, with its short back and sides, and the longer top. It did look good on Dan. He nodded.

That Saturday, Brad went to the barber shop, and nervously asked for the crew cut. The barber wetted down Brad's hair. Then he trimmed Brad's hair with scissors, cutting off what felt like several inches of hair. Big chunks of Brad's sandy brown hair fell to the floor and onto his cape-covered lap.

Then the barber took out a pair of clippers, pushing Brad's head down. The clippers felt so strange as they traveled up the back of Brad's head. Then the barber buzzed off most of the hair on the sides, too, pushing Brad's ears down to get it all off. Finally, he used a straight razor and shaving cream to square up the back.

When Brad was at last allowed to look in the shop's mirror, he could see that the barber had cut his hair exactly as specified: longer on the top, shorter on the back and sides, in a typical crew cut. It looked good on him, and the barber even said it complimented his square face. The haircut only cost Brad $8.00. Brad's head felt lighter on the way out of the shop. It was a strange sensation. Even stranger was the feeling of the wind on his shorn head.

At home, admiring his new 'do in the bathroom mirror, Brad decided the short back and sides looked really good on him, and he resolved to keep the look.

Even better: at his next bodybuilding competition, Brad placed third in the middleweight class. He won a bronze medal! The win attracted a lot of attention locally. The regional newspaper even asked him for an interview. When the journalist asked him what preparation he did, Brad mentioned the workouts and the diet, and his sheer determination to compete. But secretly, he knew the haircut had helped.

To be continued...

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