Cuts On The Road - Part 1 Of 2 by JamesWoods

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The summer holidays were almost upon us, and I just couldn’t wait to be free from school for a whole three months I thought as a gazed out of the classroom window. I’ve always enjoyed the summer holidays, not just because of there being no school and the warm weather it brought with it, but because for the past four years my mom and I would go on a road trip in our RV. Each year we would travel a different route in the hopes that we will eventually be able to say that we’d seen most of the country.

My name is Noah, I’ve recently turned 15 and I live with my mom, my dad walked out on us when I was 3 so my memory of him isn’t great but I decided a long time ago to have nothing to do with him. It still made me angry that he walked out on my mom leaving her with a house to pay for with a low paying job and a toddler to raise on her own. But enough about that, in the last year I’d noticed that I’d gained a couple inches height wise, and my shoulders had become a bit broader. I had slightly dark brown hair that I had been growing out in the recent months, it had grown well past my ears and collar and my bangs had to be about six inches long, this summer though I had decided it was time for a change and thought it was time the hair went.

The bell finally rang out declaring that school was over, and the holidays had officially begun. I made my way out of the school with some friends talking about the plans we all had for the summer and after saying our goodbyes, I grabbed my bike and began to ride home.

It didn’t take me long to get home as we only lived a couple miles from my school, I noticed my mom’s car was parked outside and remembered that she had taken a half day at work to get everything ready for the trip tomorrow. I walked in the door and was quicky greeted by her, "hey Noah, how was school?" Mom asked shouting down the hallway from the kitchen.

"It was alright, glad that it’s the holidays now. I’ve been looking forward to our trip for weeks." I replied as I put my bag down by the door. I walked towards the kitchen to see what she was up to, when I got in there, I saw that she was plating dinner up.

"I thought we’d have an early night so we can get on the road at first light." My mom explained. We sat down to eat and spoke about our days. Then after dinner we began packing all the stuff up, we’d need for our trip and loaded it into the RV. By 10pm we’d both gone to bed, so we’d be well rested for the early start in the morning.

The next morning, we were out the house by 6am and were quickly on the road, once outside of the city we began talking about all of the things we could do throughout the trip and before we knew it, we’d been on the road for a few hours and was already crossing into a new state.

It was at this point that I decided to bring up the subject about cutting my hair to my mom, "oh, by the way mom I was thinking about getting my haircut soon if that would be alright?"

"Of course it is honey, we can make time to find a salon or a barbershop for you to get it cut. What were you thinking about getting?" she asked.

"Well I was thinking of getting a buzz cut, I’m a bit bored of having my hair long now and it’ll be nicer to have with how warm it is now. What do you think?" I asked, I felt a little nervous asking her opinion, as I was worried she thought it wouldn’t suit me and talk me out of it.

But to my surprise she was all for it, "wow, that will be a big change, I think you’ll really suit a buzz. If you wanted me to, we could stop off later at a shop to buy some clippers and I could cut it for you. If you wanted me to?" Mom said.

"Yeah, that would be great. I really want to do it, so the sooner the better really." And with that the day went on but I was really excited to get my hair buzzed later. We carried on driving for a few more hours until we found somewhere we could park up for the rest of the day and spend the night.

Just down the road from the lot was a Target which is where we headed to in search of a set of clippers and a few other things which we had realised we’d left back home. After walking around the shop and spending a good amount of time looking at all the different clippers that were available, we were heading back towards the RV. We had gone for set of Wahl cordless clippers and once back in the RV my mom opened the packaging and put them on charge as they were low on power.

We then began making dinner while they charged but I couldn’t help but keep looking to see if the charging light turned green to show they were ready to go. After a lovely dinner I began washing the plates up, once I was done my mom came up to me with the clippers in her hand and said, "are you ready to lose that hair then?"

I was so ready for this, we decided to do it outside so we wouldn’t have to clean up the hair, so I grabbed one the fold-up camping chairs from a bag and placed it outside. My mom followed me with another chair and the box the clippers came in which still had all the attachments in it, after placing chair down and putting the box on it she asked me, "how short do you want to go then?"

I had a look at the various guards and decided to go with a #3, "let’s start with this one, I can always go shorter if I want to." I said as I took my top off and sat down in my chair. I could feel my heart speed up, I was really looking forward to getting a buzz cut but was still a little nervous about how I’d look with it.

My mom picked up the #3 guard, snapped it on the clippers and took her place behind me. I heard her click the clippers on, they sounded quite powerful for how much they cost. I was expecting her to ask me if I was definitely ready for this, but instead she just lifted my bangs up with her free hand, placed the clippers in the middle of my forehead and dragged them back into my hairline. Instantly the pitch of the clippers changed as they began to attack my long hair and rid me of it all for quite a while.

The feeling of the clippers vibrating back and forth across my head felt amazing, there was a cascade of long brown hair that fell down the front of me to rest in my lap and before I knew it my mom was already making the fourth pass across the top of my head, and I had a large pile of hair in my lap.

Every so often I could feel the breeze gently against my scalp which just felt amazing, soon the clippers had started attacking the right side of my head to free it from my long disgusting hair just like it had done the top. I couldn’t see myself so I still had a bit of fear about how I’d look but at this point I didn’t really care because the clippers just felt incredible and every so often mom would brush her hands over the bristles that had just been created by the clippers which felt amazing, I was sure I would be rubbing my head for the rest of the summer.

After the Right side had been sheared my mom also made quick work of the left side so there was only the back left to do. I could feel the clippers be placed at the centre of my nape and they began to rise up my head, I could feel my hair tumbling down my back, some of it falling between the chair and my back and the rest to the floor where the wind would eventually take it away. The clippers finally reached my crown and were then again placed at my nape to go again, soon mom was making the last pass up the back of my head to clear the last strip of long hair I had left.

She then began running the clipper all over my head and in different directions to make sure no strands had escaped either of them, and soon after a few more runs the clippers had finally completed their work, mom flicked the switch off bringing silence back to our area. "There you go honey, all done." She said as she ran her hand all over my head, the feeling was amazing, and I was pretty sure at that moment I would never have really long hair again. She then said, "go and have a look at it to see it you’re happy with the length, if you are jump in the shower to get the little hairs off you. But if you’re not I can always take it a bit shorter for you.

I went into the bathroom on the RV to have a look in the mirror at it, when I saw my reflection, I knew I had made a great choice. The buzz really suited me, I ran my hand over my head, and I just couldn’t get over the feeling of it, I loved it. I told my mom so she knew she could pack the clippers away and I hopped into the shower, first thing I noticed was the sensation of the water going over my head, which was something else I loved about my new haircut.

That night I laid in bed rubbing my head every so often as I still couldn’t get over the feeling of it, and I knew already that I would be keeping this over the summer and there was a very strong chance that I would be going shorter as well.

To be continued.

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