Cuts On The Road - Part 2 Of 2 by JamesWoods

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It was 8am when my phone alarm sounded out, waking me up from a deep sleep. I let the alarm go off for a few seconds as I just wanted to stay in the position I was, but in the end, I turned over and swiped the display on my phone to finally bring silence back to my tiny room on the RV.

I sat up in my bed, so I was able to stretch out a bit more to try and help myself wake up a bit faster. Once I felt more awake, I made my way to the bathroom so I could get myself ready for the day. I went to the sink first to brush my teeth first and just as I was reaching for the toothpaste, I caught my reflection in the mirror.

It had been a few weeks since I had asked my mom to chop all my hair off and give me a buzz cut, I had fallen in love with the look straight away and to top it off it was so easy to maintain it, I had already had my mom use the clippers to take my hair back down to a grade 3 as it had started to look fluffy as it started to grow out. Looking at myself in the mirror now I was ready for another haircut, but I was thinking of asking her to take me shorter this time.

I finished up in the bathroom and made my way into the living area of the RV to ask her if she could give me a haircut today, however she was nowhere to be found, then I noticed there was a piece of paper propped up against a mug with a note on it. The note was from my mom and it said she had popped down the market to do some shopping and that she would be back around midday.

I felt deflated as I was hoping to get a fresh buzz this morning, that was when I noticed that the clippers my mom had picked up were on the side, sat in the charging stand they came with. It was then that I had the thought I could try and cut my hair myself, worst case I’ll just have to wait for my mom to come home to tidy it up. I grabbed the clippers from their cradle along with the pouch next to it that had the various guards that it came with.

I felt excited as I made my way into the bathroom again, I decided to do it in their even though it was a little cramped as I thought it’d be best if I did this with a mirror in front of me to give me a chance at getting an even cut. I placed the clippers down on the side at then started looking at the guards in the pouch, I picked up the #3 but then hesitated as I was really thinking about going shorter.

I was then having a look at the difference between the #2 and the #1, the #2 wasn’t much shorter than what I had already been using but I wasn’t sure the #1 was even short enough, I was thinking of going a bit more extreme, that was when I looked at myself in the mirror and thought about shaving it all off, worst case is if I don’t like it, within a week my hair will be the length of a #1.

I took my shirt off, so I was just stood there in my boxers, I looked at myself in the mirror to try and imagine myself bald, I took a deep breath to try and calm my nerves as I picked up the guardless clippers and flicked them on. I let them run for a little while to get used to the feeling of them vibrating in my hand, after a couple seconds I lifted them towards my head, I placed the blades just in front of my hairline at the centre of my forehead.

I had one last thought about if this is what I wanted to do but I quickly put that to the back of my mind as I began to push the clippers into my hair, I heard the pitch change almost instantly as the blades began to shear my hair off at the root. Half inch hair clippings began to rain down around me as the clippers continued their assault on my hair. When I reached my crown, I pulled the clippers away to assess my work so far.

In the mirror I could see now I had a strip of pale skin down the centre on my head that was almost 2 inches wide, I brought my other hand up and ran my fingers down the bare strip. The feeling was very different compared to the buzz cut that I had previously had. Instead of feeling a velvety fuzz I now left with very short stubble that my fingers felt some resistance against when I stroked my fingers against the grain.

A huge smile spread over my face, I quickly brought the clippers up to carry on with my shearing as I placed the blades next to the strip that I had already shaved to carry on and without hesitating this time I once again pushed the clippers across the top of my head to the crown, I repeated this until the entire top on my head had been shaved down to nothing. Looking at my reflection now it looked like I had male pattern baldness which made me laugh. After chuckling at my appearance for a while I decided to start shaving the right side of head and once that had been done, I then started on the left.

After a while of shaving my head, I only had the back of my head left to shear, I was trying to think of the best way of doing this when I had a brainwave, I grabbed my phone and used the selfie camera as a second mirror so I would be able to see what I’m doing. It took me a couple tries to get my angles right and learn what way to move had my hand from the reflection but after a few failed tries I got the grip of what I was doing and in no time at all I was shaving off the last strip of hair on my head.

I ran the clippers all over my head in different directions to make sure I hadn’t missed any little strands that had escaped the clippers the first time round and after a couple minutes I finally shut the clippers off, happy that I hadn’t missed a single spot. I placed the clippers back on the side next to the sink, the blades on the clippers had gotten fairly warm due to the amount of time they had been running for.

I looked at myself in the mirror to get a proper look at myself with a shaved head and my initial thoughts were I really liked the way I looked with it, I wasn’t in love with the look just yet, but I thought once I’d had a shower and cleaned the strands of hair that were currently clinging to body off that would probably change.

I went and grabbed the dustpan and brush to clean up my hair off the floor so I could then throw it away. After cleaning the bathroom up, I turned the shower on and jumped in to wash my head and the loose hair off my body. The feeling of the water pouring onto my head felt amazing that I just stood there for a while to revel in the feeling, it was then I noticed my wash bag on the side and a thought crossed my mind.

I reached out for it and opened it up to find what I was looking for, after digging a round for a while I pulled out my razor and can of shaving foam. I hadn’t really had a chance to use it since my mom had bought them for me as my facial hair hadn’t come through properly. I thought I may as well shave my head smooth just to say I’ve done it even if I don’t like it as much. I took my place back in front of the mirror and sprayed a decent amount of shaving cream into my hand, I worked it into a lather and began spreading it all over my head.

Once my whole head had a decent covering of the white cream, I grabbed the razor and began at the centre of my forehead again just like I did with the clippers. I dragged the razor across my head against the grain to get the smoothest shave possible, I was going a lot slower with the razor than I had been with the clippers as I didn’t want to nick myself. I carefully carried on shaving my head until my entire head had been shaved, I ran my hands over my head to check for any spots that I may have missed first time around. There were a few spots that had been missed so decided to repeat the process again to get those spots.

When I was finished with my second shave and was satisfied there were no spots that had been missed, I jumped back in the shower to clean my head again and finish washing myself. Once I was done, I got out the shower and began drying myself off, I heard the door to the RV open up and heard my mom call out, "hey Noah, I’m home."

"I’m in the bathroom. I’ll be out in a sec." I replied back. I could feel my heart speed up at the thought of my mom seeing my new look, this would be the first reaction I get for it and just hoped it would be a positive one.

I slipped my boxers back on and put my top on as well, I took one final glance in the mirror and stepped out. My mom had her back to me as she was unloading some bags she had brought back with her. She must have heard me as she began talking to me again, "sorry I was so long the market was heaving. I picked up some toiletries and some food for dinner, I thought about making lasagne tonight. What do you think?"

"Yeah, that’d be great mom." I replied, not knowing what else to say at that moment.

"Good to hear. So, what have you been up..." it was at that moment that my mom had turned around and finally looked at me for the first time since coming back. Her eyes had gone wide like saucers but apart from that her expression was fairly hard to read, last night she had said good night to her son that had had a head covered in a half inch fuzz and now here I was, bald as a cue ball.

The silence was getting too much for me, so I decided to finally break it by saying, "well I woke up this morning and decided I wanted to make a change. What do you think? Do you like it?"

It was then that my mom must have noticed I needed some reassurance about my decision, it was then a wide smile spread over her face, "I thought you looked great with the buzz cut and to be honest I was going to suggest you went shorter when you asked me to cut it again for you. You really do suit this look, makes you more handsome" She replied as she closed the distance between us so she could get a better look. "It can’t have been easy for you to do it yourself, the back must have been a right pain to get even."

This comment did make me laugh when I remembered how much of a struggle it actually was, "it really wasn’t the easiest. I had to use my phone as a second mirror to even stand a chance at making it look good."

She ran her hands over my head which caused goosebumps to rise on my arms. "Did the clippers shave you smooth? I didn’t think they would do that." She asked as she kept examining my head.

"Oh no, I used my razor to shave it smooth afterwards as I wanted to get the full experience."

"Well at least you have a reason to use that razor now, thought it was never going to be used." Teased my mom which brought a bright flush to my face. "So are you planning on keeping it like this or are you going to let it grow out again?" she asked.

"I really like the feeling of it, but I think my plan is to let it grow out for a couple weeks to a short buzz and then shave it smooth again, and when I’m back to school I’ll let it grow all year and then on the first day of summer shave it smooth."

"Sounds like a good tradition to have. Right I think we should get dinner started and then you should go and sit in the sun for a bit to get a little tan to your head as it’s pretty pale." She said, as she carried on emptying her bags.

I already knew it would be a struggle not to keep my head shaved all year round but knew that it would an amazing feeling to shave my long hair off on the first day of summer.

The end.

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