We are going to get a haircut today. by Domko

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We are going to get a haircut today.
My name is Michael. This story happened 49 years ago when I was 12 years old. I lived only with my mother. I hadn't been to my barber-stylist in several months and my long hair was already touching my shoulders. It was the end of the holidays and my mother had been forcing me for 2 weeks. to go to my stylist. But I kept putting off my haircut because I wanted to have long hair on the first day of school and I assumed that I would have the longest hair in the class among the boys.
It was Friday, we played football with our friends from the neighborhood on a small field nearby. In that I hear my mother yelling at me. Michael, why haven't you been to your barber? I started blushing because my friends started laughing. At that time, my classmate Alex's younger 8-year-old brother Jack told my mother that they too were going to get a haircut today, before the start of the school year. His mother smiled at him and left. We continued the match.
Not long after, my mother came back and called me: Michael, come home in 15 minutes. After a while I said goodbye to the boys and went home. Alex said that he and his brother had to leave the field.
At home, my mother told me to change because I was going to the barber with Alex and Jack. I began to protest that they were going to an old fashioned Marshall barbershop where only little kids and old men go. My mother replied that Alex also goes there and we are both the same age. I'm not going anywhere! I told my mother. At that, my mother slapped my cheeks and started screaming. I knew I had really upset her. I went to the mirror to check for traces of her slaps and changed according to her instructions. I thought I would trick her and say that Alex wasn't home anymore or that they weren't going to the barber today. I came in disguise to see my mother. She took her purse and went with me to Alex. This is where my plan failed.
After arriving at Alex's place, his father asked his mother how I should get a haircut. She answered, as would Alex. No, I protested again and mother didn't hold back and I got slapped. This made Jack laugh out loud. Mother told Alex's father that if I made trouble at the barbershop, he could punish me there and she would punish me at home.
It took us about half an hour to get to the old-fashioned Marshall barber shop. On the way to the barber shop, Alex warned me to thank the barber when I get my haircut. Upon arrival we greeted each other and Alex's father said that I was their neighbor and I would also need a haircut before the school year started. Then we sat down on the waiting chairs. I was nervous, I knew that after leaving I would not have the longest hair in the class. Alex's father interrupted me from my thoughts and told me to go to the barber's old leather chair first. My legs were shaking, my throat was dry and my heart was beating faster. When the barber wrapped me in a sheet, Alex asked his father how I needed a haircut. He replied: give him a classic baby boy haircut. I noticed in the mirror how the barber smiled mischievously and was already pushing my head to one side. He picked up the hair just above the ear with the comb and ran the clipper over the comb. The first long hair fell on my shoulder and I saw my ear without hair after many years. He gradually shortened my hair around my entire head. Later, he cut off a large part of the hair on the top of his head as well. I saw a frightened little boy in the mirror. The barber put the comb in his pocket. He stood behind me and pushed my head forward. I saw a large amount of my hair on the ground. On my neck I felt the metal teeth of the scissors going up the back of my head. As the barber tipped my head to the side, he bent my ear with one hand and used the electric clippers to make a big arc around the ear about 1 1/2 inches and I could see the white scalp. I closed my eyes and tried to remember what Alex looked like after returning from the barber shop. The barber shook my head and continued cutting. I opened my eyes when I felt warm water on part of my head and the barber was making white foam in a bowl which he applied over the ears and the back of the head. On a leather belt that hung on the right side of the chair, the barber sharpened his razor and slowly began to scrape the foam off his head. After wiping off the rest of the lather from my head with a towel, he sprayed the old-timey barbershop-scented liquid onto my head with a sprayer and combed the less than 2-inch-long hair on the top of my head to the right side.
The barber released me from the sheet, I thanked him for the haircut and ran my fingers over my ears. The skin was completely hungry. Then I looked for the hair on the back of the head, but even here a large part was completely smooth. I sat down on the waiting chairs next to Alex.
Alex could see how nervously I was searching my hair. He put his finger above my left ear and made a parallel line to my right ear and said that I have short hair
Little Jack was already sitting in the chair, the barber just asked if he could get a haircut like mine, to which Alex's father replied that yes, all three boys would get the same haircut. Jack only had about 1/2 inch of hair on the back of his head, so the barber tilted his head and cut a large portion of the back of his head, then above his ears. His haircut took less than 10 minutes and Alex was already sitting in the chair. I watched Jack's head. His hair on the top of his head was combed to the right side like mine, then he had about 1 and a 1/2 inches of gradation of short hair and the rest clean shaven. I had never before realized how terrible and drastic a haircut Alex sported after returning from the barber shop. If I wasn't ashamed, I would start crying.
The barber really gave us the same haircut. We all went to our place. I believed that my mother would be horrified by my hairstyle. Upon arrival, Alex's father asked her if she was happy with my new boyish haircut. My mother thanked him for finally making me look like a boy. Alex's dad said they go to Marshall's barbershop every last Friday of the month and I can go with them. His mother smiled at him and said that she would be very happy if he didn't worry about it. With that, we all said goodbye.
When I saw my mother scrolling through the calendar and wrote a note for Friday 9/28. Michael to the barber. I knew that the time of my long hair was definitively over for a few years.
The new school year started on Monday, with hair barely 1/25 of an inch long appearing on the shaved part of the head. There were 18 boys in the class, but only three of us had hair on our ears. My classmate Tony also had short hair, but he didn't have such big white areas as me and Alex. He used to go to the old Simmons barbershop at the end of the holidays, before Christmas before Easter at the end of the school year. His barber didn't do the big white shaves that Alex and I got with Jack at the Marshall barber shop.

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