DAD! (Part 7 of 15) by JB

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Jack doesn't even bother to ask Kevin if he's sure this is what he really wants, he can see it on his face and by his gung-ho attitude, "Then let's get started!"

After paying for his surprise haircut, Scott goes over to the waiting area and takes a seat to watch the show as Jack gets Kevin caped up good and tight. Kevin gets to watch the show too, since he is facing the mirror. Jack fastens a No.8 attachment onto the rotary clippers and grabs a flattop comb, "I'm gonna take ya down to a one-inch brushcut first, to get rid of most of that brown mop you've got there."

The clippers rev up to full speed and Jack uses the comb to lift Kevin's bangs up a few times. He places the clippers at his hairline and pushes them up and over the top of his head, letting them chew their way through Kevin's dark brown hair at a slow and steady pace. A couple of long, heavy hanks fall past his face and into his lap. A haystack of hair builds up on the clipper blades as they continue to mow, front to back. Finally, the loose stack of hair tumbles to the rear of the chair leaving a furry looking furrow running down the middle of Kevin's head.

Kevin watches with a worried grin. His decision to get a flattop has happened so quickly that he hasn't had time to let it sink in yet, "Geez."

Jack mows another path across the top of Kevin's head, then another. Within a few seconds he has an erect, inch-long butched top surrounded by his long shaggy hair, still covering his ears.

Seeing how ridiculous it looks, Scott has to stifle a snicker. He was going to say that Kevin's butch-top haircut looks even more stupid than his own flattop, but he didn't think Jack would appreciate that. Instead, he says, "That butch-top is a good look for you, Kevin. Maybe you should keep it that way."

Kevin, being somewhat gullible, looks at his short bushy top and long sides and wonders aloud, "Ya think so?"

Jack saves Kevin from himself, "Nah, I don't think you wanna leave it that way; it makes ya look like an idiot." He lifts the hair up above Kevin's ear and runs the clippers up the side of his head.

Mounds of dark brown hair are piling up in Kevin's lap, on his shoulders, and on the floor. He pulls his hand out from under the cape and gathers up a large clump of his hair from his lap, "Oh wow."

Scott echoes Kevin's own words back at him, that he spoke earlier, "Yer not havin' second thoughts about gettin' yerself flattopped, are ya Kev? A little late for that, bro." Kevin recognizes his words and returns a sheepish grin.

Jack swings the chair around as he continues to run the clippers over Kevin's head, "Yer flattop won't take nearly as long to cut as Scott's," he tells Kevin, "I had to be sneaky with his haircut, doin' all sorts of extra stuff so's he wouldn't find out he was gettin' flattopped; all that extra stuff takes time."

Kevin furrows his brow and looks at Scott, "Wait, you didn't know you were gettin' a flattop?"

"Nope. I thought I was gettin' a tapercut; just above my ears."

"Wow... bummer. So how'd you end up with a freakin' flattop?"

"It's a long story... I'll tell ya about it later." Scott doesn't want to expose his dad's lies in front of Jack.

A minute later, Kevin's preliminary haircut is complete and Jack turns the chair toward the mirror again. Kevin's eyes widen as he gazes at his bushy brushcut: a uniform, one-inch butch, standing up on top and jutting out over his forehead. The lower half, on his sides and back, is trying to lie down; poking over the tops of his ears. Jack comments, "Now it looks like ya got yerself butched a couple o' months ago and yer way overdue for another one... and no, I don't think you should leave it like this."

Kevin reaches up and slowly moves his hand across his plush top, "This is sooo gnarly, man... I've never had short hair before."

Jack switches to the buzzer clippers, "Well, don't get too attached to yer grown-out butch 'cuz most of it's comin' off, startin' right now."

The clippers clack on, and Kevin hears the humming get louder and louder as Jack raises them up to his right sideburn. A quick press up the side of his head and his sideburn is gone. Jack carves a high arch up over his ear, "Gotta give ya yer whitewalls, just like Scott's."

Kevin hasn't heard that haircut term used before either, "Whitewalls... Ya mean like those car tires with the white stripe on the side?"

"Yep. That's where the word comes from: when yer hair is cut real short on the sides, yer skin shows through like the white stripe on the tires." Jack swivels the chair around and proceeds to clipper the back of Kevin's neck, taking the whitewalls up about two inches above his natural hairline. After giving the chair another nudge, he mows a clear-cut arch high over Kevin's left ear, again taking the sideburn with it. At this stage, Kevin's haircut looks like something a college fraternity pledge would receive at an initiation rite; a one-inch furry butch on the upper half; clipper-shaved white skin on the lower half; his ears sticking out like doorknobs. Jack turns the chair toward the mirror again.

Kevin's grin turns into a worried frown as he sees how ridiculous he looks, "Oh man... I look like a total doofus."

Scott can't resist, "You always look like a total doofus, Kevin... but yeah, you look like a total doofus."

Jack can't resist either, "This is a good look for you, Kevin. Maybe you should leave it like this."

Hearing Jack's statement, Kevin begins to doubt his own judgment, "You really think I should leave it like..." He looks up and sees Jack's smirk, "Oh." He blushes at having been so gullible... again.

"Don't worry, Kevin," Jack assures him, "I'll have you squared away in no time. When I'm finished, you'll look just as rugged as that 1959 football player on the wall there." He points to the photo of a particularly mean-looking player with an even meaner-looking flattop.

Kevin's mind is swirling. He's always thought that a flattop was the most dorky looking, most hated haircut you could possibly get. Since the mid-to-late '60s when guys started wearing their hair longer, teenaged sons have lived in fear that their authoritarian dads will, on a whim, order them to get their long, layered and feathered hair mowed down to a flattop or crewcut. But now, thanks to Jack and that mean-looking football player, he sees how rugged and manly it can look. His attitude toward flattops and short haircuts in general is undergoing a sea change; a change he wasn't expecting and doesn't understand. He looks over at Scott and starts to see his flattop in a different way now, "It actually looks pretty good on him," he thinks, "But geez, it's a freakin' flattop!... I'm so confused."

Kevin is jolted from his reverie as the clippers snap on again and begin to hum. Jack starts squaring up Kevin's sides: lifting the one-inch hair above his whitewalls and sliding the buzzing clippers over the comb; lifting and cutting his way up to the crown, transforming his overgrown butch into a sharp, squared-off taper. He continues around to the back and other side. Kevin watches as each pass of the clippers creates a shower of his short, dark brown hair that begins to cover his shoulders and lap, filling in the spaces on the cape between the longer, larger clumps of his hair.

Finished with this stage of the haircut, Jack snaps the clippers off again, "Y'know? With these squared-off sides and that brushcut top, this actually IS a good look for you, Kevin. You could leave it like this if ya want."

Kevin looks up at Jack to see if he's pulling his leg again. He doesn't see a grin so he concludes that he is serious about leaving his hair this way. He looks in the mirror and studies his squared-off brushcut, "... It does look kinda cool," he says. He tousles his furry, inch-long top.

"It's not as extreme as a flattop," Jack says, "Once you get a flattop, you can't undo it. I suppose you could cover it up by wearin' a baseball cap all the time, but that just draws even more attention. Yer schoolmates will know yer tryin' to hide somethin' up there... but with this brushcut, you could maybe get it to lay down on top if ya wanted, or stand it up in front... even give it a side or center part... maybe. With a flattop; that's it. You can only wear it one way-- standin' up."

"Hmm... I like the idea of bein' able to wear it different ways," Kevin says.

Scott, a new member of the 'misery loves company' club, doesn't want to be the only guy at school with a flattop haircut, "What about the landing strip, Kevin? A couple o' minutes ago you were all stoked to get yer top taken down like mine- 'give me a good ol' fifties-style flattop just like Scott's!' you said... You couldn't keep yer hands off my landing strip."

"I guess yer right," Kevin says, "That's the part I like best, the landing strip; it looks way cool and feels awesome."

Scott rolls his eyes. That's the part he hates most, the landing strip, "Then I guess you better go for it, huh... I'm not gonna let you swipe yer hand across the top of my head every few minutes," he says with a smirk.

Kevin blushes for a second, then his gung-ho attitude returns, "Jack, take 'er down good an' flat, just like Scott's!"

"You got it," Jack replies. He sprays Kevin's brushy top with water and combs his hair up a few times, "Hmm. Yer hair isn't as thick and springy as yer buddy's over there. It's gonna need a little help to stand up good an' straight."

"A little help?" Kevin asks. In his mind, he's picturing maybe a rubber band or bandana wrapped around his head.

"Yep," Jack says as he grabs a jar from the countertop, "A flattop's best friend: Butch Wax. It'll get any guy's hair standin' up whether he likes it or not." He unscrews the lid and reaches in to get a small dollop on his finger, "Some guys have hair that just won't stand up on its own. Even if I clipper it down to a quarter-inch butch, it still lays flat on their head. This is the only way to get it standin' up."

As Jack rubs the wax between his palms Kevin gets his first whiff of the powerfully scented pomade. His nose twitches, "Wow. That stuff smells pretty gnarly. What'd you call it? Butch Wax?"

"Oh c'mon, Kevin," Scott says, "Even I know what Butch Wax is. My dad still has a half-used jar in our bathroom at home. He used to smear some of it in my hair too; back when we both had those... father/son flattops." He almost said 'those stupid looking flattops', "He hasn't used it for years though; not since he started wearin' that tapercut of his."

Kevin furrows his brow, "But I'm not gettin' a butch, I'm gettin' a flattop. How's Butch Wax s'posed to help with that?"

Even Jack rolls his eyes at that comment. He shows Kevin the label on the jar, "See? It says it's 'For Butches - Crews - Ducktails and ALL Stubborn Hair.' That includes your flattop."

Kevin is about to say 'What the heck is a ducktail?', but decides to keep quiet; he already sounds too much like an idiot when it comes to haircut terms, old ones anyway.

"You can borrow ours Kevin," Scott says, "I don't think I'll be needin' it. It's over ten years old but I'm sure it's still good- that stuff lasts forever... stays in yer hair forever, too, if I remember right."

Jack wipes his palms through the top of Kevin's damp hair, and up the sides for good measure, "Whew," Kevin says, "That stuff's makin' my eyes water!"

Jack washes most of the wax off his hands and wipes them on a towel, "Yep. Butch Wax'll do that... clear yer sinuses, too... and that was just a little dab." The blow dryer comes on with a roar and Jack begins brushing Kevin's hair up, "That's doin' the trick. Yer hair's gonna stand up just fine now."


(To Be Continued)

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