Travis - Part 3: A Pile of Hair by Lavro

---

Travis - Part 3: A Pile of Hair

Travis tried so hard to deny how he felt in that moment. He sat there on a short, old stool, a towel slung across his shoulders. It was itchy, having accumulated thousands of hairs from both James and Nick, who both had full heads of hair no more than ten minutes before. Below his dirty boots was a soft carpet of red hair, Nick’s, who hovered over Travis with a roaring pair of old clippers, eager to make Travis look just like him: an even #2 buzzcut, the same haircut that Travis had just imposed on Nick with such delight. And because of that, giving in so easily to Nick’s forceful command, he would have to accept his penance.

Yes, Travis was nervous. Anxious even. Scared. Yet, there was an essence of that anxiety that came from somewhere else. Excitement. It was not the excitement of having his hair cut off, not at all. Indeed, he wanted nothing more than to keep his long hair. It was an erotic sensation, one where he found surreal pleasure in being subjected to Nick and his wrathful desires. Internally, Travis pleaded with himself, his brain, and his gut, not to allow this to feel indulgent. But Nick, with his tight stomach and lean pectorals, his groin right behind Travis’ head, and the power he had exerted by demanding that Travis sit down and accept his fate… he couldn’t deny that it turned him on.

He adjusted himself uncomfortably on the stool, looking up to Derek and James, who grinned at his approaching demise. James even rubbed his own buzzed head in a taunting way, as if threatening Travis with a vision of his own future, a future he could hear in the metallic hum of the clippers. He suddenly felt Nick’s hand rustle through the loose curls at the back of his head, picking them up and letting them fall. Blair had done that during their tender night together. Travis found himself wondering if he would still be attractive to Blair once his hair was gone. He wondered too if his hairline was worse than he thought, growing paranoid at the thought. His hair had never been that short before, so he didn’t know what to expect.

"Ready, princess?" Nick chastised, interrupting his frantic thoughts.

But Travis didn’t say anything. He simply swallowed hard, unaware of how tightly his fists were clenched. Nick’s firm hand slapped down to the top of Travis’ head, tilting it to the side and placing the clippers against his naked sideburn. He was lucky that his jeans suppressed the excitement that was growing inside of them, feeling dazed under Nick’s control. The clipper entered at his ear, cutting where he had shaved his sideburns off the night before. He held his breath as the clippers found his hair, cutting slowly past the line he had carved in. The sound of the clippers changed when they met his hair, the guard filling with locks as it began to cut through.

The second he felt them make contact, his body flooded with relief, the feeling of letting go. It was a point of blissful acceptance. Yet, the sound of the clippers turned harsh when it came to his temple, prompting Nick to pull them off is his head. As Travis turned to look, a long lock of his hair fell to his knee. More was attached to the clippers, caught in the guard. Nick turned the clippers off, pulling the hair out of the teeth with his fingers, intentionally throwing the hair onto Travis. He liked that too.

"What the hell?" Nick said, disappointed, snapping the guard off to release the ensnared hair.

"That happens sometimes. With mine at least." James reassured him. Travis let his hand go to the side of his head, feeling the soft bristly texture of the freshly buzzed spot. It felt enormous. "Just shake it out and flick the hair off as you go."

"What about scissors?" Nick asked, stepping over to the work bench to look for something he could use to cut the length off.

"Just keep going, those will do the trick," James pressed. "Hurry up, we gotta get going before the old man gets pissed."

"Travis!" As if on cue, the grumpy shouting of a madman bellowed from somewhere outside of the barn. "What on earth happened out here?!"

No matter how old he got, Travis knew not to ignore his father if he was screaming for him. He immediately rose to his feet, the towel falling to the stool and a few locks of his hair fluttered to the floor, adding to the ever-growing pile. Another scream from his dad, and Travis grabbed his hat from the floor and put it on, leaving his shirt off for now. As he moved to quickly leave the barn, he turned back for a second to address the guys.

"Keep this moving," he pointed to Derek, with his dangling brown hair. "He doesn’t sound happy."

"I’m not done with you!" Nick hollered after him as he sped off to the angry voice of his father.

Travis did not acknowledge Nick but breathed deeply to reconcile with the adrenaline coursing through his body. It wasn’t for his dad, though he understood the urgency. It was the thrill of how close Nick had come, and this narrow escape, for now. With his strong, youthful strides, Travis made it to his father quickly. He found him across form the barn, over a shallow hill and down to where they kept the goat pen. He stood there in the middle of the pen with his hands on his hips, looking down and shaking his head. Before he even hopped over the fence, he could see what had happened. His father was standing over the bloody carcasses of two goats, killed in the night.

"Damn it, boy. Didn’t I tell you to keep an ear out for this sort of thing? Didn’t I tell you that I don’t hear like I used to, and I rely on you?"

"I didn’t hear anything last night," Travis looked over the carnage with sadness.

"Obviously not. Damn cayotes" He signed deeply. "You know we don’t have much to spare around here. Go get them boys. Finish whatever the hell it is you idiots are up to and get this cleaned up immediately."

"Yes sir," Travis said, running back to the barn.

He made it back quickly, out of breath from his hustle. In those brief few minutes, Derek had taken his seat on the stool, shirtless, his rich brown hair dangling to his cheekbones, a hint of nervousness on his brow. James was just picking up that old pair of clippers from the workbench, where he had opened it up and unclogged the blades, returning it to smooth operability.

"There was a bunch of red hair stuck in there," James said to Travis, making a gesture with the clippers as he took a step towards Derek. "Wonder whose hair that was?"

"What happened out there?" Nick asked, ignoring the mocking from James, still uncomfortable with his buzzcut.

"Something got into the goat pen," Travis told them. "He’s pissed. We need to go take care of that before we get to work now."

"I’ll be quick," James said, snapping the #2 guard on the clippers.

"Then I’m finishing you off," Nick threatened with an evil grin.

Travis found the comment to come off as lude. Yet, it renewed his fear, but only briefly. He focused on Derek, decidedly the politest of the group. Travis wondered how he felt. Did he want this? Was he just afraid to say no? Derek too had a lean body, but it was completely hairless. No fiery happy trail like Nick. His musculature was less evident too, not detracting in any way from the allure Travis felt for his body. Still, even as he continuously battled his attraction to Nick, both body and mind, Derek’s less forceful personality luckily prevented any manifestation of amorous feelings for him.

"Just lean forward," James instructed Derek. He powered on the clippers, which rang with a new clarity.

Leaning forward with his bare elbows on his denim knees, his head bowed, the loosest waves of deep brown hair flowing along his head, dangling past his face, completely obscuring his face and his ears. The long stands appeared to emanate from his crown, pulled down by gravity. His legs were spread, and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. What kind of anticipation, Travis could not tell.

Starting at the base of his neck, James pressed the clipper down firmly and eased into the hairline. The incline of Derek’s head made it a nearly horizontal motion, making the first swipe slow to ensure the clippers work the way they should. Once the clipper blades happily sheared through the first long tufts of hair, James continued with more force, up the back, into the crown, allowing the clippers to disturb the sense of flow. Still in the same first stroke, he kept going onto the top, now pushing the clippers down before ending the stroke. A huge mass off hair fell past Derek’s obscured glance, piling in-between his feet.

The clippers were back to full working order, leaving a cleanly cut strip up the back of his head. Derek couldn’t help but to reach up and feel the fresh cut spot before James began to cut another one, revealing the intensely white skin underneath where Derek’s long neck hair had been, untouched by the sun. James meticulously pushed all the cut hair forward, past his face, into the same pile in front of him.

It was after the second stroke that Travis detected a hint of mischief in James. Mischief that he knew all to well. With Derek’s head forward, unable to see, James looked to Travis then to Nick with a menacing smile. With the clippers still running, he smoothly popped off the #2 guard, leaving the bare clipper blade exposed. Nick’s hands rose to his mouth in silent surprise, as if saying not to do it to poor Derek, but his head nodded in giddy affirmation.

The words needed to save Derek were caught in Travis’ throat. He couldn’t let this happen, could he? And then, he realized something. If he speaks up, then there is nothing that will save him from having to take the seat again after Derek. But if he were to let James get away with what he was about to do, then that offered a way out for Travis. Stay silent. Act surprised. Act annoyed. Refuse to sit back down. Let Derek be the sacrifice.

There wasn’t enough time to debate all of the outcomes in his head. James read their expressions as consent, pressing the naked blade against Derek’s neck, ready to make the first swipe. Internally, Travis felt an objection rising up in him, taking a small step forward, parting his lips to speak up, his hand partially raised as if about to extend and stay his hand. But it didn’t. Instead, Travis retreated, and the guard-less blade connected with the back of Derek’s head.

Derek did not flinch. His hair was so long, and the blade was warm enough that he didn’t feel the difference on his head, even as scalp paler than his neck exposed itself. Without the guard on, the clippers cut more aggressively, allowing James to run them up the back again, over the crown, into the top again, but he kept pushing, severing the hair to the scalp all the way to his front hairline, connecting with his dangling fringe.

The long hair that obscured his vision took its first hit, falling from his face, offering a small glimpse to his nervous expression. Derek’s glance was fixed on his own hair piling up at his feet. He had no idea just how severely short James was cutting it. Even as he bit his lip to suppress his giggle, James made another long pass, from the base of his neck to his fringe. Leaning in over Derek, James shifted to cut the hair down from the back to around the ear on his left side. He quickly and systematically peeling away every piece of his hair on that side, always moving back to front.

James moved into a more focused mode, buzzing over the entire crown, pushing all of the severed hair forward to fall in the same pile. Derek just sat there, hardly moving at all. James continued to chip away, moving to the other side, excavating Derek’s right ear from its buried space under his hair. Within a couple of minutes, all the was left were the remnants of his hanging bangs. James did not hesitate to place the clippers on Derek’s forehead and forcefully cut them down to even stubble in one, two, three quick swipes.

With each cut of the fringe, more of his face was revealed, until suddenly, it appeared as if Derek was no longer sitting there, but some strange looking new person, with a pale, nearly bald head. In between his feet, his entire head of hair was in a single heaping pile. James went over a few spots where some hairs still hung on, then shut off the clippers. Derek finally looked up with a big grin on his face. The corners of his smile turned downward as he detected the humor in their expressions. He put his hand to his head but did not feel the soft stubble that he felt before. Instead, alarm coursed through his body at the touch of very sharp, coarse stubble, that he knew was shorter than it should have been.

"What did you guys do?!" He asked in alarm. James finally let out a burst of laughter. Derek pulled his phone from his pocket and turned on the camera to look at himself. "Are you kidding me?! And you guys just let him do this." His shock was only momentary before a shy smile revealed itself. "Ugh, I hate you guys."

"I think you look so beautiful," James chided, still giggling.

"Bull crap. This is terrible!" But Derek was laughing too, in his usual manner, unwilling to ever show anything other than happy conformity to his friends.

"Ok Travis," Nick cut in eagerly. "Sit back down."

"Are you serious?" Travis tried to act natural, unplanned. "After what you guys just did to Derek? No. Not a chance."

"You must be joking." Nick could never prevent his skin from adopting a red glow when he was frustrated. "You’re not going to be the only one not to do it."

"Don’t do it, Travis." Derek butted in with a playful tone, his hand plastered to his head.

"Shut up, Derek," Nick retorted.

"Well," Travis began, "First of all, look at him," he pointed to the very hairless Derek. "No thank you. Second, my dad is very unhappy, and we need to get moving. Especially since we have to handle those goats now."

Derek and James were levelheaded, and understood Travis, especially in that they didn’t want to upset their employer. Nick, was less concerned with his job, feeling slighted that his hair was buzzed off and he didn’t get to pay back the favor to Travis. There was a brief moment of silent tension Nick hoped his perseverance would pay off. Travis felt it exerting pressure on him. He didn’t want conflict with Nick. He also didn’t want to lose his hair.

"Let’s get to work fellas," James finally cut through the tension.

"Fine," Nick conceded. "But this isn’t over, Travis. You owe me, one way or another."

Just like that, the barn buzzcut session was over. The clippers were put back into the plastic bag. The three heads of hair were gathered and put in the trash. One way or another. The words rang through Travis’ head as the crew got to work for the day. A threat, no doubt. Not a threat that Travis was too concerned about. He made it through with his hair mostly intact.

***
Travis knew he had more to do after the buzzed boys had left and the work was over. Indeed, the day was hot. Travis noted a thick sweat under the loose curls on his neck and would occasionally envy the guys fresh buzzcuts. Not Derek’s though. In the bathroom, Travis faced a new problem: the chunk of his hair was cut over his right ear. He tested it with his hat on and the hair tucked behind the ears. Damn it, he thought. The right side looked awful, with a shaved line transitioning to the area Nick cut, then long again.

He sighed deeply, realizing he would have to shave it off even higher now, and on both sides. He picked up the same trimmer he used the night before. Combing back the longer hair, leaving it behind his ear, he mapped out where he needed to cut. Nick had managed to get the clippers over two inches into his hair before they clogged up, much higher than Travis hoped, but he didn’t have a choice.

He picked up his trimmer, which he noted cut even shorter than the bare blade they used on Derek. Travis couldn’t deny his excitement as he pressed the small blade to his temple, teeth first, dragging them downward. Carefully, he carved out another diagonal line, shaving the area below too. After a few precision swipes, a large triangular area of his hair was completely shaved to stubble, from the upper part of his temple to the top of his ear. He noticed he was physically turned on by this, thinking about it as a result of Nick’s force.

Again, he threw on his hat to see how it looked. Perfect. On that one side, everything below where the hat clasped his head was shaved. No uneven hairs. No weird areas from Nick. Travis had to do the other side now, taking off his hat and sectioning it off. It has more difficult, since all the hair on his left side was untouched. Combing the area down, his sectioned off long hair hung to his chin. It would have to go to make the sides even. He eyeballed where the top of his shave line was on the other side, turned on his trimmer, and confidently pressed it against the long hairs, carving a line that roughly matched the other, and shaving off all of the hair that fell below it.

He was not surprised but delighted to see a large mass of severed locks in his bathroom sink. Looking at himself, he was reminded of Blair again, who he was very eager to see soon. He remembered being fascinated by how his sides were shaved too and couldn’t believe in only a couple of days his was almost like that, just less severe. With Blair in mind, he ran the trimmer all over his face again, shaving off the day’s growth. He tested his hat again, seeing his scalp on both sides of his head, and loving how it contrasted with the loose curls flaring up on his neck.

Travis showered off the hot and sweaty day, the loose hairs, shampooing deeply, then his soft, silky conditioner. Feeling the stubble so high on his sides, thinking about the fate of poor Derek, and the dominant willpower of Nick, Travis succumbed to his thoughts, succumbed to the idea that Nick could have done that to him, shaved his whole head to nothing but stubble, and that he would not have been able to deny enjoying it. He stroked his thoughts in the hot steam, decidedly wanting more.

As night fell, Travis had to throw on his boots again and grab the shotgun that was always by the front door. He couldn’t let the cayotes kill any more goats. He made his rounds in the warm dark, surveilling. Not a sound. The goats were content. There was still plenty of night left, and he would have to keep an ear out, even in sleep. Returning to the house, he looked at the barn, remembering the strange erotic morning he had, wishing he knew how to express it properly, trying not to have feelings for Nick, and thinking about the next time he will see Blair.

---