DAD! (Part 4 of 15) by JB

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The resulting taper blends with the stubble of his sideburn. Scott is about to say something about it being too short again but he doesn't want to sound like a whiney kid, so he keeps quiet. "Dad's birthday present. Dad's birthday present," he repeats silently to himself.

Jack works on the rough taper he just carved above Scott's ear, making it sharper, more uniform, more blended.

Crossing over to the other side of the chair, Jack uses the clippers and comb to reveal Scott's other ear, sharpening and blending the taper till it looks the same as the first. Scott is alarmed by the large amount of hair in his lap but says nothing. The whirring stops as Jack switches the clippers off. Scott compares both sides of his taper in the mirror, "Huh," he says, "It doesn't look too bad now. Not as high above my ears as I thought... Maybe this'll turn out okay after all."

Jack smiles, and thinks, "Finally, he's startin' to come around to the idea of havin' his hair cut short. With his mind at ease, the sneaky part of the haircut should be easier, him bein' less suspicious." He unlocks the swivel mechanism and gives the chair a nudge. It slowly rotates so that Scott is now facing the large window at the front of the shop. Jack grabs a handful of long hair at the back of Scott's neck, "Okay. Time to harvest some of this hay crop you've been cultivating back here."

The clippers are switched on again and Jack lifts a large hank of hair at the base of Scott's neck. A quick swipe, and three inches of hair hits the floor followed by more lifting and cutting.

As promised, Jack takes the taper about two inches up the back of Scott's neck. "Whoa," Scott says, "I can feel the air swirlin' around on my neck... weird."

"Feels a little chilly, huh? That's because it's exposed for the first time since, well, since yer last tapercut, I guess. You wanna take a look?" Jack hands him a small mirror.

After a few seconds lining up the angle of the mirror with the mirrors on the wall, Scott sees his backside reflected in the hand mirror. He studies his tapered neckline, "I guess it looks okay... pretty short!, but not bad. It looks just about right compared to the sides, huh?"

Jack lays the hand mirror back on the countertop, "Yep. Since the neckline is lower than yer ears it just looks better to take it a little higher... I've still gotta sharpen it up some more." He lifts some of Scott's remaining long hair between his fingers, "I'll be shortening the rest of yer hair up here a bit, too. With your thick hair, it's really bulky right now... looks like ya got a little kid's bowl-cut haircut."

Jack has reached the point in Scott's haircut where he needs to start shaping it into a flattop, "Hmm," he thinks, "guess I should take a look at that photo in his vest pocket... Would'a been a lot easier if he'd just shown it to me." Jack swivels the chair a few inches to the right so that it lines up with the front corner of the shop: the window is to the left and the mirrors to the right. Standing behind the chair, Jack can't see the waiting area in the mirror, so Scott can't either. He steps over to the counter, just out of Scott's view, opens a drawer then closes it. Picks up a pair of shears and puts them down again. All of this is to distract Scott into thinking that he's busy doing 'barber stuff' in preparation for the next phase of his haircut. Scott waits patiently, staring out the window.

Jack turns the sink faucet on and, leaving the water running, he walks over to the hat rack and pulls out the photo from the inside pocket of Scott's vest. He recognizes the haircut that he gave him over a decade earlier: A six-year-old Scott sporting a boxy looking flattop with whitewalls around the ears. The front hairline is standing upright, maybe three-fourths of an inch high. Jack can't tell from the photo if any Butch Wax was used to stand it up, maybe just a little. His hair at the center of the landing strip can't be more than an eighth of an inch judging by how much his white scalp shows through.

"Good lookin' haircut, if I do say so myself," he thinks, "I can see why this is his favorite picture." Scott actually hates the photo but Jack has been 'misinformed' by Scott's dad. He slips the photo back into the pocket and walks back to his workstation where he turns the faucet off. Jack nudges the chair again, turning it to face more towards the entrance of the shop, and away from the mirrors, "So. Let's get that taper sharpened up in back."

Jack tilts Scott's head forward and Scott hears the rotary clippers rev up again. He can feel the short hair of the taper at the back of his head being lifted and springing back again as Jack slides the comb up through it a few times. "Geez," Scott says, "That feels weird... like runnin' yer fingers over the bristles of a toothbrush or somethin'." Then the clippers move across the comb, causing a slight vibration in his scalp as a little more hair is whittled away, "Huh. Kinda tickles."

Without skipping a beat, Jack begins lifting Scott's long hair above the taper and sliding the clippers over the comb; cutting the taper higher and higher with each pass. Scott thinks, "That feels kinda weird... wonder what he's doing." As if reading his mind, Jack says, "I'm removing some of this bulk back here so's it doesn't look so much like a little kid's bowl-cut... Have you ever had a bowl-cut, Scott?" he asks, as a distraction. He wants Scott to focus his attention on something else.

"Um... maybe. I think I did when I was real little; before Dad brought me in here for my first haircut; that flattop you gave me," he chuckles.

"That was quite a haircut, wasn't it... What year was that?" As Scott is thinking and talking, Jack removes most of his hair in back; leaving just a trace at the base of his neck and about three-quarters of an inch at the crown. He runs the clippers over it a few more times, getting it even and smooth until it resembles plush velvet. He switches the clippers off.

"Wow, I can REALLY feel the air on the back of my neck now," Scott remarks.

Jack tells a half-truth, "That's probably because I shortened it a little more while getting it all evened up just now." He swings the chair around to face the mirrored wall again, knowing that Scott can't see the back of his head from the front view. With both of them looking in the mirror, Jack lifts up a handful of hair on top of Scott's head, "Now, whaddya wanna do with yer hair up here? Do ya want to keep it parted in the center?" He combs the hair forward, "Or do ya want it combed down in front with no part, like this?" Scott's hair springs back to its parted position. "Hmm," Jack says, "Looks like it wants to stay parted... guess that answers that question," then he thinks: "I'm gonna have to take his top down extra short to get rid of that permanent part he has up there... but he likes a big landing strip, so it's a win/win situation."

Another possibility occurs to Jack, "There's something else we can try if ya want: A few guys have been comin' in and getting their hair cut shorter on top here, along the center part line. Short enough so's it sorta stands up. I guess it has to do with that whole disco-thing that's goin' on right now; ever since Saturday Night Fever came out last year. Ya interested?"

"I've seen a few guys at school with their hair cut like that. It does look kinda cool... Yeah, let's go with that. My dad will like it too. When it comes to my haircuts, his motto is: 'the shorter, the better'."

"Well then, yer dad will love the haircut yer gettin' today!"

"Yep. I guess this was a pretty good idea-- gettin' my haircut for his birthday present, huh."

"You bet!" He sets aside the rotary clippers and grabs some regular buzzer clippers from the rack. They come on with a loud [CLACK] and begin to hum, "Now, let's get yer top all disco'd down." Ordinarily, Jack would just use a pair of shears to snip the top down a bit. But he wants Scott to get accustomed to the sound of the clippers going across the top of his head and the comb touching his scalp. Also, this 'disco-cut' will remove most of the bulk from the top, all of which will come into play when he gets his deck taken down flat.

Scott watches in the mirror as the comb is pressed hard against his scalp. Jack lifts a hank of hair in its teeth and the clippers buzz across the comb sending a three-inch hunk of hair onto the cape. About two inches of hair is left standing, mostly upright, along the part line. Jack repeats the lift-and-cut several more times so that Scott is left with a spiky crest sticking up along the top of his head. Scott looks down at the mound of dark blond hair on the cape, "Geez, that's a lot of hair!"

"Well, there's more where that came from; we're not done yet. I still gotta shorten yer bangs some, so's it matches yer top."

Scott continues to watch as his five-inch bangs are lifted up in the comb's teeth. "Oh wow," he says worriedly as Jack uses the buzzer to make several short cuts across the comb. With each cut, a cascade of blond hair rains down on Scott's face and onto the cape. Several strands get lodged on the bridge of his nose causing it to tickle. He spits a few away from the corner of his mouth.

Jack dusts the loose hair from Scott's face, "Doesn't look too bad, does it? Kinda trendy, if you ask me."

Scott studies his new look in the mirror. He reaches up and tousles his bangs with his fingers, "Yeah... I was afraid you were gonna cut it straight across like a little kid's haircut. But this is kinda notched and uneven. Makes it look more natural and casual-like... I like it." He tosses his head to the side to see what would happen with his shortened bangs, "Huh. They hardly moved at all... Guess I won't have'ta do THAT anymore. Dad always hates it when I toss my bangs out of my eyes... sometimes I do it on purpose just to annoy him." He says with a grin.

"I think yer dad is gonna like his birthday present," Jack says, and then he thinks: "Scott really likes this new look... seems a shame to take it all down flat, but I guess he'll like his flattop even better." He gives the chair a shove and it rotates slowly towards the shop entrance; out of sight of the mirrors again, "Now then," he continues thinking to himself, "I'm gonna need to keep him distracted as I square-up his sides."


(To Be Continued)

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