Just a Wholesome Haircut Story by Shant

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Alex and I became best friends the first day we met in junior high. We were both new to the area and had not met many people yet, so it was great making a good friend right away.

Six years passed since that day, and two weeks ago, we graduated from high school. We took a couple weeks to just party and hang out before starting our summer jobs. We were lucky, Alex’s uncle owned a landscaping business and hired us every summer.

Alex and I were pretty similar. We were about six feet tall and between our summer jobs and working out at the gym, were in good shape. We weren’t overly muscular, but it was obvious that we worked out a lot.

We would never admit it to anyone, but both of us really loved our hair. My hair was coal black and very straight. Alex, on the other hand, had hair that had a slight wave to it and was a beautiful deeply color chocolate brown.

Both of us had very thick hair and had great texture. Many times we talked with each other about how lucky we were to have such great hair.

At the beginning of our freshman year, for some crazy reason, we decided that we were not going to cut our hair all throughout high school.

By our senior year, our hair was over twenty inches long. With our hair hanging below our shoulders and having such contrasting colors, we really did stand out in a crowd, especially if we were standing side by side, which we usually were. Actually, we were both known for what great hair we had.

Landscaping during the summer was a great job for us. It got really hot during July and August, but we didn’t mind. We both had great tans. My black hair didn’t change color, but Alex’s highlights got brighter and brighter as summer went on.

Each year our hair was about six inches longer than the year before. Other than trimming each other’s ends, we kept our vow not to cut our hair.

During the growing out phase, when it was not yet long enough to tie back, it was a pain working out in the heat. Once it was long enough to tie back, it was a lot easier to manage.

When we finished our junior year, our hair was long enough to brush back and put in a braid, rather than just wearing it in a ponytail.

By the end of the work day our hair would be dripping wet and a huge mess. As soon as we got back to one of our homes, we would hit the shower, wash and dry our hair, and rebraid each other’s hair. It was so much easier braiding our hair while it was still slightly damp.

Having such thick hair made our braids stay in place as they hung down the middle of our back. Our hair was nowhere near as big a pain once we could braid it, as compared to when it was shorter.

One afternoon we were just hanging out, not doing anything in particular, when Alex commented, "It’s hard to believe in less than three months, we’re actually going to be heading off to college. I’m super excited about going, but I am going to miss hanging out with you all the time."

"I know. I feel the same way. We’ve been best friends for such a long time, but we’ll be home for the holidays, and your uncle has already said our summer jobs will always be waiting for us, so it’s not like we’re not going to see each other ever again."

"Can you believe that we actually did it and didn’t cut our hair all throughout high school?" Alex said. "I can’t really remember what it was like to have short hair. It’s been over four years since either of us has gone to a barber. It’s going to be a rush when we do get it cut."

"I’ve been thinking that since it’s the start of summer, that now would be the perfect time to cut my hair," Alex said. "It’s been long forever and I love it, but why deal with it all throughout the summer, especially knowing that I am going to cut it before heading off to college? We did what we said we were going to do. I bet we will probably never have hair this long again."

"I was thinking if I cut my hair now I’d have three months to let it grow before school starts. That would be about 1 1/2" and I’m sure It’ll look fine. I’m actually anxious to see what a dramatic change it will be having short hair again."

"Yeah, I’m been thinking the same thing," I said. "I have loved having my long hair, but I agree with you, now would be the best time to get it cut and not have to deal with it all summer long."

"Seeing that we agreed four years ago that neither of us would cut our hair, I think we should go together and get our hair cut at the same time. Maybe we should even get the same haircut. I know that I would love to see all that awesome mane of yours being cut off! What do you think about us doing that?" Alex said.

"Let’s turn this into a major event that we’ll always remember," Alex said. "My folks will be out of town the entire weekend, so why don’t you come on over tomorrow night and we’ll make plans for the Big Cut?"

The next night I got to Alex’s house shortly after seven. As soon as I walked in the door, he handed me a cold beer. "Let’s make a real party out of this!" Alex said. We threw ourselves down on the sofa and drank a couple, and then started talking about how we were going to cut our hair. We were both pretty excited about seeing each other get a haircut.

Alex started off by saying, "Seeing that we’re going to end up cutting off more than a foot of hair, I think it would be really fun to cut each other’s braid off. I don’t see how we can really do any harm, do you?"

"We’ve trimmed each other’s hair for four years. No one has ever cut our hair in all that time. I’m not suggesting we cut our hair right down to the scalp. We both know we really like our hair and would never do anything to screw each other’s hair up. We can always go to a barber and have him finish the haircut, if we need to."

"I think we should untie our braids and brush them out to their fullest. We definitely have to take pictures, so we can look back at how we looked before heading off to college," he said.

"Let’s do it," I said. "After we take the pictures, let’s rebraid each other’s hair one final time and then cut them off right above our collar."

"They would be so long that I bet we could donate them to Locks of Love and they would be thrilled to get our hair. I really would like doing something positive like that. It would be a shame to just throw our hair in the trash."

"I think that’s a great idea," Alex said. "Cutting off our braids will still leave us plenty of hair on the top and the sides that will need to be cut into a good looking haircut."

We unbraided our hair. Alex sat down in the chair we had set in front of the bathroom mirror and handed me a brush. "Go ahead and have some fun!" he said.

I had always enjoyed brushing Alex’s hair and braiding it for him, especially in the summer when his highlights were so blond. I was going to miss doing this after four years of taking care of his hair for him. After I finished brushing it, I took pictures from all different angles so that he would be able to see how much awesome hair that he had. I then rebraided his hair as tightly as I could.

I then sat down in the chair and Alex did the same thing to me that I had just done to him. I loved how black my hair was and I loved Alex brushing it.

After he took pictures of me, he rebraided my hair. We decided to have another beer before starting the actual haircut. After awhile, Alex picked up the scissors and said, "Are you ready for the big chop? This is going to be such a rush! I can’t imagine what it is going to feel like not having all this hair. Who knows? Maybe we’ll end up growing it all through college and we can do this again when we graduate and start looking for jobs?"

"Go ahead and do it! Do it before I change my mind! I can’t wait to cut that braid of your’s off too! It will only take a minute to cut off our braids. Losing so much hair after four years will really be a blast, but with both of us doing it, it won’t be so bad."

We took each other’s braid and pulled them straight up. It really was wild thinking about what we were now going to actually do. Snip, snip, snip and about 18 inches of hair came off! All our long hair that we had enjoyed so much over the past four years was gone!

"That was really fun and I think our hair looks good. You know, we still have so much hair, why don’t we give each other another haircut? We both know we want our hair to end up being a lot shorter than it is now," Alex said.

"Sure, I’m game to let you cut my hair again. We still have a tremendous amount of hair. How much do you want to cut off?" I asked. We both knew we were having a lot of fun doing this.

"How about if we cut it down now so that the sides and back are about three inches long so that we can brush them back, and we leave the top about four or five inches long?" Alex said.

"That sounds good. It will be a rush seeing so much more hair coming off and it still won’t be as short as when we will want it to end up being."

Alex said, "Sit yourself down in this chair and get ready for round two. I can’t wait to cut so much more of your hair off. This is really fun and I can’t wait to see how we are going to look."

When Alex finished cutting my hair, we exchanged places and it was my turn to cut his beautiful locks. Section by section, I cut off his hair until it was the same length as mine.

We were both stoked that we had cut our hair to what most people would consider a traditional looking haircut. The floor was covered with so much blond and black hair! When they were mixed together, it really was something to see.

I thought that was the end of our haircutting session, but Alex surprised me by saying he wanted me to cut his hair again.

"You know," he said. "I want to really go for it, and have you give me a buzzcut! It’s been years since I’ve had short hair. I can barely remember it! I’d like to see how I would look with really short hair again, now that I’m not a little kid."

"Almost all our friends have short haircuts. We have always had longer hair than everyone. This has been such a great time tonight that I want it to be the most awesome night we have ever had."

"I’m really excited about getting such a short haircut! It’ll be a blast when we see people for the first time and see what their reaction is. You know that everyone will be stunned when they first see that we cut off all our long hair."

"I figure if we run the clippers up the sides and back using a #2 guard that it would not leave any skin showing. I want short hair, but not that extreme. I looked up online and the source I went to said if you wanted your hair to be one half inch long on top, then you should use a #4 guard."

"If we do that, in three months when we start college, our hair will have grown out one and a half inches and will then be two inches long."

"With our hair being so thick, and with how it stands up so well, I think it will really look awesome. I’ve seen a lot of guys with their hair really short on the sides and back and then the top is all brushed up and back. As long as it remains standing up, it looks spectacular. I really want to give it a try."

"Oh man, I don’t think I would want to do that. It would really be a huge rush to cut your hair for you, if you want me too. I remember my Dad giving me buzzcuts until I entered high school. They are easy to do. All you need is a steady hand and pay attention to where the #2 and #4 guards overlap."

"I think you’ll look really great, if that’s what you want to do. I don’t think I have the nerve to go that short all at once. I’m so afraid that I would look like a total dork with hair that short," I said.

"Oh, that’s okay," Alex said. "You don’t have to cut your hair like mine. I just look back at all the years we have grown our hair out together. We’ve had our hair the same way since we’ve known each other. I thought it would be fun to do the same thing again, both sporting the same haircut, and then letting our hair grow out again, but it’s okay if you don’t want to do that."

"I’m really charged up to do this!" Alex said as he sat down in the chair. "Put the #2 guard on the clippers and then start at the base of one of my sideburns and just smoothly run the clippers up to where I would usually part my hair. Then do the exact same thing to the other side, and then do the same thing to the back."

"Then put the number #4 guard on the clippers and run them all over the top of my head. If it doesn’t look like it has blended in with the sides and back very well, then I’ll just go to the barbershop tomorrow and get it cleaned up. I really think that you will do a good job, though," he said.

I proceeded to do exactly what Alex had told me to do. I had never used clippers on his hair before and I was psyched to do it. I put the #2 guard on and ran them up the sides and the back all the way up to the crown. So much hair was falling onto his shoulders. I could see in the mirror how much he was enjoying watching the clippers remove his beautiful hair.

I then put the #4 guard on and brushed all his hair on top straight back and placed the clippers at the front of his forehead. "Are you absolutely certain you want me to do this?" I asked him. "You are going to look so different from how you looked before we started these haircuts!"

"Do it!" Alex said. "This is actually exciting to see happening! Cutting off the remaining hair on top is really going to be a dramatic finish. I can’t wait for you to do it!"

When I finished buzzing Alex’s hair, he looked at himself in the mirror and said, "Man, this is awesome! I think it’s really great! It is so unreal going from such long hair to this! I love it! Summer is going to be so much easier to deal with now."

I then surprised Alex by saying, "You know I thought about it while I was cutting your hair and I think it’s something I want to do too. We’ve always worn our hair the same way and I think we should keep doing it. Do you want to buzz my hair down like yours?"

"That would be fantastic! Sit yourself down in this chair and let me cut it before you change your mind," Alex said. "I can’t wait to see us both with such short hair!"

Alex didn’t waste any time. Before I knew it, I was watching almost all the rest of my hair coming off. It was a rush, but it was worth it. I could tell it meant a lot to Alex that I had gone ahead and had him cut my hair too. He was my best friend, and I felt like he was the brother that I had never had. This was something we would always remember!

For the past four years we had grown our hair long. I realized that we had four years of college ahead of us and we probably would end up cutting each other’s hair all the time. This was not the ending of our haircutting sessions, it was just the beginning.

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