Brothers in the barber shop by Som

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I was 13 when my mother sent me to get a haircut before the Easter holidays in 1974. I was at my hairdresser's in a modern barber shop and I just wanted a little haircut because I liked my hair.
After being taken home by a hairdresser, my mother started screaming that I had not complied with her order and that I still had long hair for a lot of money. She told me I was going to town with her. On the way, I was not allowed to ask where we were going. My mother told me I was getting a haircut. I started to argue that I had returned from my hairdresser, but my mother interrupted me by saying that I would have a haircut again at the barber shop where she would take me.
We stopped at the old-fashioned Matthews barber shop. My mother gave me money to pay for the haircut and said she still had duties in town. While we were getting ready in front of the barber shop, 4 boys entered the barber shop. I said goodbye to my mother and went to the barber shop to see the boys. It was a very old-fashioned barber shop. Next to the wall was a wooden bench on which sat older gentlemen waiting for a haircut and no boys who entered the barber shop just in front of me. The boys moved in and made room for me to sit down. I was nervous with this barber shop but I was reassured that it wouldn't be so bad when these boys were here and two of them looked older than me and one about my age who had about 4 inches long hair. I believed it wouldn't be a barber who gave the boys drastic hairstyles. When the eldest of the boys got up from the bench at the invitation of the barber and went to sit in the red old barber's chair. He handed the barber a piece of paper, and he read it. He turned his head to the boys and smiled at them.
Soon the electric shears went off and the boy's hair fell to the floor. When the barber finished his haircut, the boy had only very short hair on his head. Another boy replaced him in a barber's chair. The trimmed boy sat down next to me, and I wasn't allowed to ask him if the barber cut all the boys so short. He smiled, and said that on the ticket he had given him were instructions from their father as his and his brothers cut me and that he would come later and pay for the hairstyles. He also said that they go to this barber three times a year. At the end of the summer holidays, before Easter and at the end of the school year. We talked for a while when the boy warned me that it was my turn and I was going to replace the last short-haired boy.
I sat down in a chair, the barber fastened my sail tightly around my neck and combed my hair. I was waiting for his question, what hairstyle should he give me. But he was quiet, tilted my head back, took the scissors, put them on my forehead and walked with them to the top of my head. It was too late for me to object, so I was just waiting for the barber to cut my hair. When he turned off the scissors and I finally saw myself in the mirror, I only had about 1/4 inch long hair all over my head. The barber took more scissors, pushed my head forward, and scanned the back of my neck from the neck and put the scissors back on my neck and cut the back of my neck. The door opened and I could feel the cold air on the back of my head. I heard a familiar female voice. I wasn't wrong. She was my mother. She asked if her son was not there. One of the boys asked her if it was the boy in the barber's chair. The barber interrupted his work and asked me if I belonged to the boys. I had tears in my eyes and I knew my voice was shaking, so I just turned my head to say no.
The barber went to his mother to apologize that he thought I belonged to the four brothers and that I should be trimmed as their father wrote. The mother, however, praised his work and that she liked the boys' hairstyles. The barber turned my head around and cut the remaining 1/4 inch long hair on the left side of my head and then on the right. He later asked his mother if he could make a headband for me like the boys have. She said definitely. The barber straightened my head and began cutting on the back of the middle of the top of the head. Then he painted the hips, the back of his head, and the trimmed strip on his head with white cream, which he gradually shaved. After shaving, he wiped the remaining foam on his head with a towel and applied a liquid to his head, which the boy did when he left the barber's chair. When he released me from the sail, I looked in the mirror and turned my head. The hips were hairless and clean-shaven, and when I tilted my head in the mirror I saw only 1/4 inch long horseshoe-shaped hair.
I heard my mother talking to the barber and he told her that my hair on my scalp had been cut with a # 2 knife. The barber also advised her how often I should come up with a new hairstyle so that I could always be adjusted. My mother liked not only my very drastic hairstyle but also my low price.
Before leaving, the oldest boy came and told me that I would probably become a new barber customer and maybe we would meet here. I told him I would definitely not come here again, but I was afraid my mother had a different opinion.

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