Meeting on the bus in 1970. by Jajko

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As a child, I grew up with only my mother. I never saw my father. Since I was a child, my mother took me to her hairdresser's to get my hair cut. I was 13 years old and for that time I had a modern boy's haircut of about 9 inches long thick brown hair. It was in 1970 and about 4 months had passed since the last visit to my mother's hairdresser. My mother warned me to go get my hair done, but I kept putting it off because I liked my long hair.
It was Friday, my mother came home from work and told me that we were going to the hairdresser together. I tried to explain that I can't go with her because I have a meeting with my classmates. But the mother insisted on her decision. Finally I got dressed and we went to the bus together.
On the bus, my mother warned me that her colleague was sitting in the back of the bus with probably his sons. We went after them. My mother's colleague asked her where she was going and she told him that I already have long hair and we are going to the other end of town to her hairdresser to have it fixed.
Her colleague responded by saying that he too goes with his sons to a barber who does men's and boys' haircuts and is a really good barber. He told us to go with them and we will get off at the next stop. The mother liked the colleague's proposal very much. Before I came to my senses, my mother was already pushing me off the bus.
After 2-3 minutes of walking, we were at Mr. Smith's Barber Shop. We entered the barber shop where an old gray Mr. Smith greeted us. In the barber shop, 9 old men and two little boys, aged about 7 and 9, were sitting on waiting chairs with their father.
Mother's colleague asked the barber how long it would take to cut the 3 of us. The barber looked around the barbershop and said about 1.5 hours. Then my mother's colleague asked him if he could leave us there to cut our hair, that he would come later. Mr. Smith agreed. My mother's colleague was saying something else to him, but I didn't hear it. Then he came to us and told us that he and my mother needed to go to the shops and if we got our hair cut before they came back, we had to wait for them on the waiting chairs. He told me that I would go get a haircut first. He asked those present who came last for a haircut. One of the old gentlemen came in and told me that I would go to that gentleman to get a haircut. Then they left with my mother.
I started to look around the barber shop, which smelled like a mixture of cigarette smoke and cologne. The waiting chairs were old and wooden. It was completely different from what I was used to in women's hairdressing. When the elder of the boys addressed me, I realized that I was sitting between them. The older boy's name was Michael and he was 14 years old, and the younger one was 11 years old Edward. They started asking me how old I am, where I go to school, they asked me about my father, but I admitted that I didn't know him. I was getting a lot of questions from them and we were running out of time.
I looked towards the barber who had finished cutting the hair of a boy of about 7 years old. His hair was short and I felt sorry for him because I knew he would be laughed at at school, just like we do to our 4 classmates who have conservative parents and don't let their hair cover their ears. I realized that I had never had my hair cut so short. When the barber finished the haircut of the older of the boys, the barber applied white cream around his ears and on the back of his head, which he then scraped off.
While the boys' father was paying the barber for a haircut, I saw that both boys had the same short hair. An old man sat down in the barber's chair and I knew that it would be my turn after him.
I responded to the barber: Another please! I got up from the waiting chair and sat in the barber's chair. The barber climbed on the lever and the chair began to rise. The barber wrapped me in a white sheet and started combing my hair. I stuck out one hand to tell him how I wanted him to cut my hair. The barber told me to put my hand back under the sheet, that he knows what to do. I was shocked because I always told my request at my mother's hairdresser.
Mr. Smith started to lift my hair from the right side of my head with a comb and then ran the electric clippers over it. 5 to 6 inch hairs started falling on the tarp and ground. My throat tightened and later I had cramps in my stomach as well. When the barber went to cut the left side in the mirror, I saw my right ear, which was covered by hair just a moment ago. The barber gradually shortened the hair on my entire head.
Mr. Smith took the second pair of scissors from the hook. Oil dripped on them. He tilted my head to the left until my ear touched my shoulder. I felt the cold metal of the scissors above my cheekbone. The scissors made a sound and the barber started cutting the hair on the right side of my head with them, then he bent my ear and made an arch with it around the ear. Until he passed on the other side of the head I could see a small stubble around the right ear. If I wasn't embarrassed in front of Michael and Edward, I would definitely start crying. Panic seized me. But the barber was already pushing my head forward until my chin was touching my chest and the scissors were going up from my neck. The barber also cut the hair on the top of my head. He combed the remaining hair and cut it off just above the eyebrows. Almost my entire forehead was visible. Finally, he adjusted my hair on the sides and back so that there was a gradual transition from the stubble to the longest hair on the top of the head.
The barber wet my head around the ear and the back of my head and applied white cream. He placed a small towel on my shoulder and began to scrape the cream off my head with a razor. Someone walked into the barbershop and I felt the cool air on my already shaved head. When the barber finished shaving, he wiped the remaining foam with a towel, applied cologne to the shaved head as a disinfectant. When I left the barber's chair, I put my hand on my neck above the collar of my shirt and felt only the smooth scalp under my hand.
Michael replaced me in the barber's chair. Before the barber started to cut it, he swept away my cut hair and threw it in the trash. I carefully watched the barber cut Michael's hair. While Edward was in the barber's chair, I examined Michael's shaved head. His haircut was just as short as the two little boys who were at the barber's with their father. Michael had about 3/4 long hair cut high above his eyebrows on the top of his head. It was shaved about 1 and 1/2 inches above the ears. The back of the head from the collar of the shirt to the top of the head was almost half-shaven and then the stubble gradually moved to the top of the head. Edwar also had the same short haircut as Michael.
By the time my mother arrived with her colleague, all three of us had already had our hair cut. They paid the barber for our haircuts and when we went home, I was glad that I had a cap on my head and no one could see my short haircut.
I scolded my mother for letting herself be talked into, and her colleague and Michael and Edward and I went to Mr. Smith's barbershop. She replied that I should have gotten my hair cut myself when she ordered it.
I ran home to check my new hairstyle in the mirror. With the help of another hand mirror, I checked how I was cut on the back of my head and sides. Mr. Smith also gave me a very short haircut like the two little boys Michael and Edward. My head was suddenly small when it was without hair and it seemed to me that I was like a little boy and about 2 years younger. I will never go to Smith barber shop again.
My assumption was correct. On Monday, everyone laughed at me at school, even those with short hair. I now had the shortest haircut in the class.

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