Hair by Scott the Haircut Lover

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Hair

The summer before I entered 9th grade my parents informed me we would be traveling Europe the entire summer. We wouldn’t return until the day before school started. My older brother didn’t have to go because he had football practice starting half way through the summer. I asked if I could just stay with him and that was a resounding NO! What was I going to do in Europe all summer? MY hair was touching my collar at the time. It had no style it was just long. I was a skinny kid, didn’t really play any sports. I just hang out with friends. We all had pretty much the same hair style.
The day before we left my dad said I needed to come with him to the barber shop. I said "Nah I am good dad I will just let it grow this summer. It will give me something to do." He didn’t like my sarcasm but he also didn’t argue so my long hair stayed. Off the the airport, through customs and 12 hours later we were in Germany. Germany? I don’t understand a word people are saying, I don’t know anyone and its still cold! We got settled in our hotel, I did have my own room at least. The next day my parents said they were going to go and do some stuff in town, my mom gave me some money and said I could come or explore on my own. I chose the latter! So off they went. I found a little place to get some German chocolate and a coffee that almost make me puke it was so strong! Then I started walking around. I began to notice all the boys my age were blonde and all of them had really short hair. I chuckled inside thinking how silly they looked.
A few weeks went by. We were now in some other country that had really cool mountains. My dad and I hiked a couple of times. It was kind of fun but over all I was still so bored! When I went on hikes with my dad it was the first time that my hair started to annoy me. My bangs were now below my eyes, it has significantly warmed up and by the end of the hikes my hair was pretty sweaty and matty. I started to think I should have taken him up on that offer before we left. But oh well, after a shower I was always right back to normal. During my solo stills through the towns I still took notice that most of the boys had really short haircuts. I started to kind of have a change of heart from the first time I noticed. I was walking by a skate park and decided to stop and watch. They were pretty good but not as good as the guys back home. At least they were having fun. I clearly was an outsider. I was off in my own little world when I heard "Hey are you American?" I turned and saw a guy my age, shocked he spoke English. "Yes I am American! Are you?" He laughed at me "No No I live here. We have never seen you here before and just wondered what you were doing here." I got a little nervous thinking I might have been somewhere I shouldn’t be "I am Blake, I am sorry if I intruded." He smiled No No "I am Mica and we have never met an American before." I didn’t know whether to fist bump or shake hands or what. So we didn’t do any of that we just talked for a bit. After about twenty minutes of talking he asked me "Why do you have such long hair?" I blushed and said "I don’t know all the guys I hang out with back home have it like this I guess. Why do all of you have such short hair?" He smiled "Its just a proper boys cut here. I guess all the guys I hang out with have it like this too." We laughed at our simple explanations.
We were in this town for a couple of weeks and it had only been a couple of days. Mica and I started to hang out a little. I don’t know why but my hair was driving me more crazy every day! I tried to tie it back but it looked so stupid I immediately ditched that idea. I was walking over to the skate park to meet up with Mica and a couple of his friends. Mica was "high fiving" me at this point thinking it was the American thing to do. He said he we are going for our haircuts today. You can wait here or come if you want to. I found this an interesting offer. Maybe I could just get a couple of inches off so it wouldn’t be so annoying. I decided to join them.
We walked a couple of blocks. There were a total of five of us. We walked into the shop, and they were speaking what ever language they spoke. Mica took his turn in the chair while one of his other friends took the other open chair in the two chair shop. I was amazed watching Mica hair being shaved off. It was to the skin all around the sides and back with a little bit on top and a spiked fringe. His friend was getting the exact same thing. I didn’t think their hair was that long but they both had a lot of hair on the cape. Next the other two boys got in the chairs and took their turn getting the same cut. When they were done Mica looked at me "You should get one too!." It felt like a gut punch. I kinda wanted too but I really didn’t want it that short." The barber said something in their native tongue and Mica playfully pushed me towards the chair. I reluctantly took a seat. He placed the cape around me. I looked at Mica and said "can you please tell him I just want a little bit cut off?" Mica looked at me and said "Well they don’t do those kind of cuts here. It will be like mine." I sat not believing I let myself get into this mess! His friends had walked out of the shop and were hanging around outside, but Mica remained. The barber switched on his clippers. This was it! No turning back now. I was about to be sheared! The barber combed out my hair and then placed the clippers on my right side burn. He slid them up the side of my head. Mica’s mouth fell open as he saw the amount of hair being shaved off my head. As it piled up on the cape and floor Micah seemed to be very interested. After shaving off the length on the sides and back the barber wet my hair down. He took a big set of scissors and started slicing off a good 6-9 inches of the hair off the top of my head. He sliced the scissors through my long fringe cutting it about 1 inch from the hairline. Then he took clippers and started blending down the sides. He cropped the top even shorter before the shearing finally came to an end. The barber took some kind of greasy substance and spiked up my bangs. I looked exactly like the other 4 guys that had just been in the chair. I was stunned!
I paid the barber. Mica came over and said "Now you look like one of us!" He rubbed my head and giggled. I walked outside. The feeling of the fresh air on my newly shorn head felt pretty good actually. We hung out at the skate park the rest of the day. When I got back to the hotel my parents were shocked but pleased. I told them the whole story and they said we can’t wait to meet this Mica! So now I was a couple of weeks into my Summer. My hair has been reduced to almost nothing but at least I made a new friend………. To be continued

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