Assimilation by Ethan Fox

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My name is Hunter and all my life I attended a Christian school. I grew up in South Texas, a very religious area. It was the best school around, and my mother agreed with that so I’ve been attending that school since I was six years old. Being in a conservative area, about half of my first grade class kept very short buzzcuts. I never really considered myself an outcast with my boyish mop, but I always admired how clean-cut they looked. There was one boy in particular named Noah. Noah would come in the first school day of each month completely clipped to the skin. Since he was blonde, it would give off the illusion that he was completely bald. I thought the shaved look was so handsome on him growing up. I knew him from first grade through seventh grade. He was an athlete, who played basketball for the school. I loved how the buzz cut looked on him as he ran all over the court. Every time he’d walk in shorn down to the woods, I’d tease him by rubbing his head. He was always shy and didn’t like people touching his head. But I’ll always remember his head being the softest thing I’ve ever touched. Noah moved away before our eighth grade year, however. He’ll always be a fond memory of my youth.

I was enjoying attending that school a lot going into my eighth grade year. It would be my final year at the school, and a big part of me was going to miss it. When I got there for the first day of school, I already knew everybody and all the teachers. It was going to be a good year.. but as all the my classmates rolled in I realised something. Out of the six boys in my class, I was the only one without short back and sides.

Even George, who up until now had a shaggy bowl cut. It was a lot like the old Bieber cut, but his hair was curly. I nearly dropped my jaw in shock when he walked in with the back and sides completely shaved down to about a #1 and a little strip on top. I liked the change, he looked more manly and grown up, but it was shocking to see.

I was used to having the longest hair, that was always the case, but never before have I been the only one without short back and sides. There was usually at least one bowl cut. I always pushed the dress code rules, the standard ‘keep the fringe above the eyebrows’ and ‘hair off the collar’ but they weren’t really that strict as long as it looked like you cared about your appearance.

I was always teased for my long hair, nothing malicious, it was always affectionate. This was probably the only class in America.. maybe even the whole world where short hair was the preferred style. None of the boys in my class had their hair cut short because they had to, they all wanted to.

The only exception to that was Samuel. Samuel didn’t hate short hair, but he always preferred it long. He said it looked better on him, but since his dad was a stickler for short hair, he complied. I’ll never forget in seventh grade however when he went his shortest. The back and sides were completely taken down to a 0 and he kept a part on top. He looked exactly like the 1930s school boys. I thought it was an incredible look on him, but he immediately grew it out to about a #2 on the sides like he always had.

A few of them had tried to convince me to chop off my long hair before. I remember eating lunch that year with one of the boys named Mike. Mike kept his hair in a short back in sides, about a #1, and with a bumper in front. The topic of hair came up at lunch as it usually does every once in a while. He talked about how got his summer buzzcuts, and asked if I had always worn my hair like this. I said yes. He suggested that maybe I should try a buzzcut to change it up. I just brushed his suggestion off and followed the conversation as it switched topics. However I thought back to Noah, and thought maybe I’d look good too with one.

Tony was another one who was adamant about short hair. He wanted to go into the Air Force after High School and it showed. His hair was already in the H&T, shaved bald on the sides with the buzzed strip on top. I couldn’t help to think that he was very handsome. This style of hair enhanced his masculine features. One day, walking to class he brought up that he couldn’t understand how I dealt with the "mop" on my head. And I had to agree, it got in my eyes and my neck always felt hairy. In class another day he even told me that I’d look good with a buzzcut and should get one. I blushed at this compliment, I wasn’t expecting it at all. I looked down and tried to shrug it off as I worked on my homework.

I was sitting at home during summer break after eighth grade year. I brushed my hair out and I thought to myself that I would finally cut my long hair short. I was just tired of the hair on the back of my neck and brushing it out of my eyes. I got on my bike and started biking to the nearest Great Clips. It wasn’t going to be high quality, but it was all I could pay for with my own money. As I rode my bike over I thought of Noah and his crisp, cool, soft, and masculine shaved head. I wondered if I could be like him too if I shaved my head. I quickly snapped out of those thoughts. I knew I’d never have the courage to take it all off. I took out my phone while stopped and sent a text to Tony asking what I should do if I wanted to go shorter. He said "You could do a number 1 on the sides and then trim the top." I quickly typed that in to google and saved the first photo that resembled that description.

When I got to Great Clips, I went in and I was immediately seated in a barber’s chair. It would be a lady cutting my hair and she asked how I wanted to cut my hair. I showed her the photo and she asked if I wanted the back and sides shaved or with a little left. I said a little left, thinking she was asking if I wanted the back and sides completely bald. She got to work. However, she put a #3 on her clippers, thinking I wanted more hair than the #1 in the photo. She asked me to duck my head forward, putting my chin near my chest and I did. As she plowed the clippers up the back of my head, they tickled a lot less than I thought they would. It was very relaxing to be clipped, I was shocked at how much it felt like a little buzz in the back of my head softly taking away my hair. I started to grow conscious of all the hair on the floor. They were coming off on huge chunks and I was excited. My collar length hair was decorating the floor. I would finally have a boyish cut. The breeze is what struck me the most. I could feel the shop’s AC so much more and more throughout the process. She finished clipping the back and sides and after using scissors to style the front, I was done.

I paid and I walked out. I touched the back of my hair for the first time and was awestruck at how soft it was. I immediately wished I had gone shorter. As I biked home, I just thought about how the rest of the boys would react if they could see me.

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