Stay Out of Our Territory by Shant

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Growing up in Chicago was a great experience. Except for the winter, Chicago was a really beautiful city. The only downside to growing up there was that gangs were starting to form and take over neighborhoods as their territory. If you didn’t want to be in a gang, you always had to be on the lookout and make certain you didn’t do anything that would cause them to notice you.

Most gangs respected each other’s territory and kept a safe distance from one another with the exception of this one Latino gang. They moved into our neighborhood and started taking over blocks of our territory, starting on the outside areas and working their way in.

What bothered us most about them was how they always seemed to be strutting around, acting as if they owned the place. Secretly, I thought some of them were really hot looking, especially with all the dark, black, beautiful hair they had that was greased up and combed in a lot of different styles. Tony, the leader of our gang, made the comment that it always looked like these guys were competing to see who could have the biggest hair! Everyone howled over that one! It was obvious the gang with their gleaming black hair all greased up was something they were definitely proud of and was a major part of their image.

One night a bunch of us were hanging out on one of our street corners, just wishing there was something to do. All of a sudden, three members of the Latino gang come walking into our neighborhood, almost flaunting that they were not afraid of being in our area. They were so cocky! Strutting as if we didn’t even exist.

Johnny commented, "Look at the nerve of those guys. I wish there was some way we could teach them a lesson and warn their other members that they can’t just simply come into our area and take it over without us putting up a fight. I don’t know what we could do to them, but I wish we could come up with some way to take them down a peg or two."

Tony spoke up and said, "I’ve been thinking about this and I think I have come up with the perfect way to show them that they need to respect our boundaries and at the same time, let other guys in their gang know what could happen to them if they continue to come into our neighborhood." Tony told us what he had in mind to do to these guys and asked if anyone would like to help him. We all immediately said yes. We were tired of these guys just flaunting themselves in our faces. Tonight was going to be a real rush if everything went according to Tony’s plan.

We walked down a block and hid ourselves in the shadows and doorways and waited for them to walk by. When they were totally in our midst, about ten of us moved in on them. We blindfolded them and tied their hands behind their backs before they even had a chance to react to what was happening.

We took them to our secret hangout. We tied each in a chair so that there was no way for them to escape. We took the blindfolds off and you could tell they were wondering what the hell was going on. They found themselves lined up in a straight row, facing a large wall of mirrors.

"You guys have gotten pretty cocky, just strutting into our neighborhood like you own it. You need to be taught a lesson and realize that this area belongs to us and you need to stay away from here. That goes for the rest of your gang too. You stay in your area and we’ll stay in ours and there won’t be any problems between us."

"One thing that seems to make you so cocky is all that pretty boy hair that you have. It’s greased up so much that it’s obvious you spend a lot of time combing it. I bet you really love your pretty hair and like showing it off. You all think you look like such studs with all that great hair of yours," Joey said.

Joey was the leader of our gang and had already decided what he had in store for these guys and what haircuts they were going to get. They were all going to be cut differently, but one thing they were all going to have in common was that they were going to be extremely short. They wouldn’t be needing all that grease anymore because they were not going to have enough hair to do much with. It would be quite a long time before they would be able to grow their hair back to the length it now was.

"Let’s brush all that studly hair you guys have back into place so that you can really show it off to us." Joey said. You could tell from the look on these guy’s faces that they were starting to worry about what was going on.

The first guy’s hair was brushed into a long, traditional pompadour. It had to be at least eight inches long on top and six inches long on the sides. He used so much grease in his hair that it didn’t move. It stood up really tall in the front and the sides were swept back, covering about midway over his ears and then were combed back to meet at the center. Back in the day, this was called a D.A.

The second guy had a more spikey looking hairstyle. The top was as long as the first guy but the sides were buzzed down really short. This made his hair on top look even longer than it was and made it stand out even more.

The third guy had long hair, hanging almost to the middle of his back. He parted it in the middle and then brushed the sides back. He had the thickest hair of the three. He looked like the pictures you see of Sampson on the cover of romance novels. Of the three guys, he definitely had the best hair and you could tell that he definitely knew it.

Joey had obviously been thinking about this prank for a long time. He had gone to a costume shop and purchased about a dozen Zorro type masks. The great thing about these masks was that there was not an elastic band that you put over your head to keep the mask in place. Instead, on the inside of the mask, the edges had an adhesive strip that went totally around the mask. All you had to do was pull off the strip that covered the adhesive and put the mask on and it would stay attached to your face for three or more hours.

Joey used black tape and covered the openings for their eyes. He then put a mask on each guy so that they could no longer see. These guys were now in total darkness.

Without saying a word, Joey walked up behind the guy in the first chair with the beautiful pompadour and started brushing his hair into place. The guy jumped at first, but I guess he began to think that maybe all that was going to happen to him was that he was going to get his hair played with, so he seemed to relax a little. "Your hair really is very nice. I’m sure you love it and comb it all the time." Joey said.

Joey continued combing the guy’s hair. It really was beautiful. Any guy would be lucky to have it. Joey combed the guy’s long hair in front straight up so he could see just how long it was. It had to be over eight inches. In the blink of an eye, Joey chopped off more than six inches of this guy’s precious hair, sending it to the floor! The guy had no idea that he was going to get a haircut and no idea how much was coming off! The guy started cursing and yelling, all the while trying to get out of the chair. "What the hell do you think you are doing? You can’t cut my hair!" he said.

"Oh no? Just wait and see," Joey replied. "You can curse and yell all you want and no one will hear you. This haircut is going to teach you and your buddies a lesson. If you want to put up a fight, I’ll just take the clippers and buzz all your hair completely off right now. It’s totally up to you."

The guy immediately shut up and Joey continued cutting his hair. He took off about six inches from the entire top, letting the guy think that this was how long his hair was going to end up being. The guy had no idea how much hair was coming off but he was pretty sure that it was a lot.

Joey then brushed the sides back and turned on his clippers. He had placed a #2 guard on them and couldn’t wait to see this guy’s reaction when he felt the clippers going up the side of his head. It had probably been a long time since clippers were used on his pampered tresses. He started at his left sideburn and ran them all the way up to the top! Masses of long shiney black hair joined the other hair that was already piling up on the floor! He ran the clippers up both sides and then tipped the guy’s head forward and ran them all the way up to the crown! No long boxy flattop for this guy. He was going to end up with a short, military flattop.

He then attacked the top. He brushed the guy’s hair all straight back and then used a wide tooth comb, placed it nearly on the guy’s head and then buzzed off all the hair that stood above the comb. This left the guy’s hair about half an inch long.

Joey then placed the #1 guard on the clippers and ran them part way up the sides. When he had finished, the guy had a super short military flattop. Quite a difference from the way he had looked when he had strutted so boldly into their neighborhood!

Tony got to do the honors on the guy in the second chair who already had his hair buzzed short on the sides and back, but really had it long on top. This was not going to take long to cut because the guy had practically no hair on the sides and back already.

Tony brushed his hair all up and back, put a #2 guard on the clippers and starting at the middle of the guy’s head, ran them as fast as he could over and over his entire head, taking off reams of long, beautiful hair. He then decided that he had not had enough fun with this guy and placed a #1 guard on the clippers and buzzed the guy totally down. Within no time at all the guy had almost all his hair removed. I thought he was going to start crying.

It was the third guy that was going to be the most fun to watch getting his hair cut because his hair was so long. You could tell by his face that he was afraid of what was coming and was just cringing at the thought of all his long hair being chopped off. He couldn’t tell what kind of haircuts his two buddies had been given. Maybe they were only playing with us and my hair won’t really be all that short, the guy thought to himself. He had no idea how wrong he was going to be!

Johnny got to give this guy his haircut. I so wished that I could have done it, but Johnny was farther up the seniority chain than I was, so he got to do it. The guy was practically shaking with fear as he heard the sound of a guy coming up behind him.

Johnny seemed to be having a great time playing with the guy’s hair. He started by brushing it all back and running his hands through it again and again. He did this for quite some time, I guess trying to get the guy to relax a little. He then picked up his scissors and fondled a large lock of this sensuous hair and said, "Oh man, what beautiful hair. It’s so soft, yet so full. I bet you can’t quit looking at yourself all day because you love your hair so much."

Johnny then took his scissors and chopped off the entire lock of hair he had in his hands, cutting it so that it was about two inches long. Remember, this guy’s hair was practically down to the middle of his back. Johnny didn’t use a comb, he just reached up, grabbed a handful of thick, luscious hair and chopped it off. He cut wherever he felt like cutting. All the beautiful hair in back came off in clumps probably 10 inches long or more.

After he had removed the bulk of the hair, he picked up his clippers to start the next step to this guy’s new haircut. He put no guard on the clippers and starting in back, ran them right up to the crown, not leaving even a hint of stubble. He then did the same to both sides. This guy was going to end up with a high and tight, quite a change from his extremely long hair.

Johnny put a #2 guard on and ran the clippers back and forth, back and forth, all over the the top of the guy’s head, making certain that not a single hair would be uneven. With the deep black stubble and the totally shaved sides and back you would have never known it was the same guy of just a few hours ago. He looked like he was a marine!

When Johnny finished the haircut, we took off their blindfolds and let them see what had been done to them. You talk about guys no longer being cocky! They acted like scared little boys and were afraid of what else might happen to them. We just let them sit in their chairs and look at themselves for awhile. They certainly weren’t feeling so superior to everyone now!

We then blindfolded them up again and untied them from the chairs, keeping their hands tied together. We took them back to the end of our territory which butted up next to their’s and dropped them off with the blindfolds and tied hands still in place.

"I hope you guys remember this night for a long time. Don’t come back into our neighborhood or the next haircuts will be even shorter! Tell your gang brothers to stay away if they don’t want the same thing to happen to them. Who knows, maybe a few of them will dare to come over here and face us. Maybe a few of them secretly want to get all their pretty boy hair cut off! You just tell them that we’re ready for them!"

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