Booked, Blessed, and Buzzed by cut.the.flow

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Booked, Blessed, and Buzzed.

I’m the head of hair and makeup for the PEA (Performers Entertainment Agency). I just got hired on a new job. It’s a new TV show that they’re saying will be a hit. A few weeks ago I was given a run down of the characters, the script, their idealized appearances, and like that my team began working. We gathered costume pieces from across the country to fully realize this concept. We had spent hours running down the hair and makeup possibilities to make sure we really nailed the vision provided to us.

It’s a week and a half before we started the rough rehearsal process for the show. During this time I test out products, costume pieces, and make any adjustments to their appearance to make them match that vision we want. Today from 9am until 2pm, I have clients back to back. It’s an easy day so far. Not much work to do for me. My team had done most of the work. Easy stuff like marking where pants needed to be hemmed, waxing their eyebrows, taking measurements for replacements.

It’s 1:45pm. 15 minutes before we’re supposed to be wrapped for the day. At this point, I’ve sent my whole crew home because I can handle the last person on my own. He’s 5 minutes late already, so I’d like to get this over with so I can go home. The guy coming in is playing the role of the main character’s love interest. He’s a military man about to be shipped off to war. He’s rugged and tough, but still has some softness to him.

Suddenly the door to the studio opens and in walks a man. I greet him, "Adam?", as I go to shake his hand. "Yes! Nice to meet you." he says as he meets my hand.

I realize that Adam has some of the most beautiful, thick, wavy hair I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m caught in a trance for a moment before I realize it. Quickly I break and speak to him.

Me: You ready to get to the fitting?
Adam: Yeah. I have no clue much about what all I’m in for, but I’m ready!
Me: What do you mean?
Adam: They’ve had a hard time nailing down where they want to put me in the show, so I read for a lot of characters. I’m 100% happy with Paul though!
Me: Oh yeah. That’ll be quite the change for you.
Adam: Yeah!

Quickly, I size him and get him to try on a few options for costumes for me. At one point his pants don’t fit correctly, so he comes out in just his underwear. He’s wearing some tight fitting boxer briefs that are baby blue. It compliments his body and complexion nicely. Within no time, we have the costume situation figured out. It additionally took no time at all to test one of the bruises out on his skin.

He was still in my chair. I looked up at his hair. It sure is going to be interesting to cut off this mop. It’s beautiful, really. He’s sitting there grinning at me.

Slowly I got behind him and looked into his eyes in the reflection. I slowly grabbed his shoulders and began to lightly massage them, "You ready for the next step?". I felt his body tense up a little, then he let out a reluctant "I had hoped you wouldn’t say that.". We stayed there for a minute; me rubbing his shoulders while he looks at himself in the mirror. He looked up at me for a second and said "Whenever you’re ready."

I moved over and began setting up my station. I got a sanex strip and my cape. I draped it over him and clicked the latch connecting it together. Now his hair was in my hands. I had strict instructions on how the hair needed to be cut and styled, so I read them one more time to
myself before beginning.

Adam reaches his hands up and ran his hands through his hair one last time.
Adam: It’s hard saying goodbye to the mane. I’ve been growing it for so long.
Me: Yeah I understand. It’s nice, thick hair.
He tousled it a bit more and ran his fingers through it. I reached up and began toying with the thick, caramel brown hair. It was extremely soft and was almost so dense I couldn’t get my fingers through it entirely. Gorgeous doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Me: Okay Adam let’s do this.

I put the little guard on the clippers and brought them to life. I could see the intense fear and pain in Adam’s eyes. I know he didn’t want to cut off his mane, but he didn’t have a choice. I decided that I would start at the base of the neck, so he doesn’t see the hair leave and panic. I picked up a handful of hair from the back of his head and led the clippers to buzz it off. Within a matter of seconds, I was holding a tuft of his hair in my hand. A few inches from the back of his head were now in my hand.
Me: Hey bud, do you want to hold this chunk? (I dangled around what was in my hand)
Adam: No. Thank you though. Just toss it. I just need it to all be gone.
I tossed that wad of hair on the ground and prepared myself for the rest of his head.

I saw Adam close his eyes for a second, but then he realized he needed to see what was happening to his hair, so he opened them again hesitatingly. I began shaving the back of his head some more. Lots of that beautiful hair began falling to the floor. I had shaved a bunch of the back when I realized that Adam couldn’t see at all what kind of damage was happening, so I decided we would start at another spot now. I moved to the side of his head. I decided I would start to give him an undercut.

I placed the clippers at his sideburns and plunged them up to about where the undercut would stop. I watched Adam’s eyes for the entirely of the first cut he could see. He looked to numb, shocked, detached, and scared. It was really affecting this man. I was going around his head at this point shaving off all of the back and sides of his head. Watching all the hair topple down the cape and land on the floor. I quickly realized that there was a lot of hair on the floor beneath me. Within no time, he has a short buzz on the back and sides of his head, but the top of his head was the last spot where the beautiful mane was still intact. I looked at him in the mirror and he looked at me. Almost as if he was asking me with his eyes to not cut the rest of it off. I knew I had to though. I had to make a drastic cut so he realized that there’s no going back.

I brushed off the clippers and placed them in the center of his forehead. I dove the roaring clippers down the center of his head, leaving him with a buzzed strip. A strip that let him know there’s no turning back now or stopping. He bit his lip and was wincing in emotional pain. Quickly, I buzzed the rest of his hair off because I couldn’t bare to see him in pain any longer.

There he sat underneath the cape, now with a buzzed head where a thick mane one was. The floor was covered in caramel hair. I reached up and removed the cape and sanex strip. He just sat there for a minute, stunned. At the same time we both reach up and rub his freshly shaved head. He gets up out of the chair and faces me.

Adam hugs me tight. I embrace back. He pulls away and we talk for a minute about how it all went as I swept up the hair. He ran down all the emotions he was feeling and I listened even though throughout the cut I could see the waves of those emotions rush over him. As we spoke, I swept up all the hair on the ground. He began walking towards the door to leave, but I stopped him saying "Have a good day Adam and congrats on booking this part. I know you’re going to be fantastic. If you ever need anything from me, don’t hesitate to come visit." He smiled and thanked me and then walked out the door.

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