Long overdue haircut by Franko

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My name is Madej and I was growing up in Sri Lanka and I’m a proud Tamil. In my country life was not safe in the 90ies because a civil war between the major groups -Tamils and Singhalese was still ongoing. I was 18 and it was obvious that the rebellion Tamils would force me very soon to join them as a soldier.
So I decided to leave my country to find a safer place to live and find work to support my family. I heard from friends that it was easy to migrate to Europe. I saved and lended enough money to buy a cheap ticket and said goodbye to my family.
At the passport control I showed up my passport and said the famous word "Asylum ". The European border control arrested me and put me in a jail. I had unendless interviews with different authorities and I always explained that I wanted to avoid military service at the Tamil underground army and that my life was in danger. After one week in jail they sent me to a camp filled with people from all over the world waiting for a decision if they could stay or leave Europe. They gave me a small room with a bed and gave a half year permission of stay.
My chances to obtain a permanent permit of stay were quiet small and 5 months passed by. Since my departure from Sri Lanka, I had not gotten any haircut and my extremely rapid growing blue black hair was touching my shoulders and my fringe was down to my chin. I was not used to such long hair. In the tropical warm Sri Lanka I was visiting the barber once a month for a crew cut. I was a little bit ashamed when I looked in the mirror but I had no money for a professional barber and did not want to get free haircut by the my other inmates .
It was summertime and I met a girl in a park nearby the camp. Her name was Heidi and she had thin short raspberry hair. She was admiring my hair and invited me for dinner. After a couple of rendezvous she was falling in love with me. I told her my story and she said she would help me to get a permanent permit of stay. When I asked her to lend me some money for haircut she refused.
She had a hair fetish and loved men with very long hair. Long hair on men was erotic for her and it couldn’t be long enough. Her own hair was so thin that it broke when it got longer than 5 cm. After some discussions she agreed to take me to her own hairdresser for a slight trim.
We got married one month later and I moved in her apartment. I promised her to keep my hair as possible. Within one year I learned the language and found a job in a building and construction company. In my company they didn’t care about my hair style. I could support my family in Sri Lanka and everything went well except my hairstyle.
My hair was now nearly waist long and my fringe touched my breast and Heidi did not allow me to sacrifice any centimeter. I got a trim once a year and during the day I was wearing my hair in a thick ponytail. Heidi always joint me to the yearly trim and I did not dare it to ask for a short haircut.
Finally my family asked me to send some picture of me and Heidi. I didn’t want to show them my long girly hair because it was unusual for men in my home country to wear long girly hair.
Heidi found a solution, combed my hair back, braided it and tucked it in my shirt and treated the rest with hair gel. This gave a perfect picture!
3 years later my hair was so long that I could nearly sit on it! My fringes were hanging to my belt and with open hair it happened that my hair was falling in my soup while eating. I looked like a Simpson in the bible. Heidi was happy and loved my extremely long thick wavy healthy hair, took care of it by combing for me every morning, making a braid or putting it in a long ponytail - but I hated it.
12 month later I got a message from my parents and they were asking us to visit me and Heidi in Europe.
I was ashamed to present myself with such a mane to my family. No chance to convince Heidi to cut my hair or let me go to the next barber. She believed that I was looking different to other Tamils and much better. Two days before the arrival of my parents, Heidi said she would be out for a day and I myself took day off at my company. This morning Heidi combed out my hair in front of the mirror and not on my chair. I was shocked about the extreme length of my hair in the back and in the front. It was grown again within the last year. Big blue black waves covered now my ass and in front it touched my hips. (I’m only 1.65 m tall and my hair measured now 1.20 m) I asked her to leave my hair open and she left our apartment. One hour later and I was heading to the next barbershop. It was cold outside and I was hiding my hair under my coat. Two blocks away there was a hair salon, called "Sonja’s hair dream". I looked inside and saw only one female client in one of the three chairs and entered with a deep breath and heavy heart the shop. Two barberettes were talking to each other while a dryer on the head of the client was running. Apparently they had plenty of time and nothing to do.
One of the barbarettes with blond spiky hair wrapped in a tight, black leather costume came right away up to me and asked me for my wishes. I told her I wanted a haircut. She introduced himself as Barbara and asked me take a seat in the waiting area of the salon and disappeared to pick up a cape and neck paper. I took off my coat and tossed back my hair. The wind of the dryer streamed out my flat mat and a long strand of my hair swung over my elbow down to my hip. I turned around to hang my coat on the wardrobe while the barbarette returned. She was shocked when she saw my hair flowing down my back and shouting something like "o my god …!"
I was sitting down for the last time on my hair and my fringes gushed down about a magazine in which I nervously flipped through. The other two women in the Salon turned to me laughing and waiting for the big chop.
After 10 minutes, Maja pointed me to the middle barber chair and I took a seat. She pumped up the chair and her colleague helped her to fix a neck paper and the white cape. She pulled my hair out of the cape and let it fall back. I saw in the mirror that the tips of my mane ended far below the seat and covered the backside of the chair completely. She started to comb my hair thoroughly and mumbled "that she had never had a male customer with such a hair before ". She asked what haircut I would like to have. I said "take it all of- I want a crew cut …and could you braid my hair? " She nodded and gathered my mane in an enormous ponytail, braided my hair and fixed it with a rubber strap. She asked me to take a deep breath and she took her scissors and started to snip step by step to remove the big braid. It was an amazing moment for me and I was so happy to get rid of this ridiculous hair mass. She was snipping a couple of minutes before she could handle me over a more than 1 m long, 5 cm thick braid. My neck felt cold al little bit but finally it was done. The two other women applauded and Barbara presented them the blue black braid like a trophy.
Now the fine tuning started. My hair was now at chin length and Barbara cut off the long hairdown to three centimeters. My cape and the bottom filled with tons of hair when she turned on the clippers to shave the sides and backside. She took the cape away and said „you look now like a human being and not like a hair monster." I looked in the mirror and smiled. It was a good feeling to see myself in short hair after such al long time. Barbara handled me over my braid, I paid and she helped me in coat. Her colleague meanwhile shuffled piles of blue black hair and stuffed it in a trash can.
In the evening, Heidi came home was shocked and got a cry when she saw me. She exclaimed : "Madej you are looking now like a standard boring Tamil ! " The next day we were picking up my parents at the airport and they accepted Heidi from the beginning on as a full member of our family. She was very happy because she was an orphan and never had a family. My parents were very pleased to see me with such a cute haircut and had no idea that it looked a little bit different two days ago. They complained about the steady bombing and killing in our village and we decided to bring the whole family over to Europe.
I did not grow back my hair and Heidi forgave me and accepted it. She was exhibiting my braid at the wall of our sleeping room and could touch it whenever she wanted. My family emigrated one year later and Heidi and I got three children, two daughters and a son. I was cutting my son’s blue black hair until age 5. When I took him to Barbara to give him his first professional haircut he was crying, shouting and refusing to cut his hair. After having his crewcut he insisted to grow his hair out as long as possible and we allowed him.

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