Accidental Quarantine Twins by Drew Tetrov

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It was mid-July, right as the world began to crack open again after months of lockdown. James, a 17-year-old high school senior, had let his hair grow wild during quarantine. For the first time, he could grow his dark brown hair as long as he wanted, letting it curl over his ears and reach toward his shoulders without a care as the barbershops were closed.

But as the days grew hotter and whispers of in-person gatherings spread, anxiety crept in. James found himself staring into the bathroom mirror more often, pushing the overgrown strands back and wondering how he’d look when he finally saw his friends again. His once comfortable, free-spirited look now felt like a mess he couldn’t control.

One evening, his younger brother, Nate—always the more impulsive of the two—noticed James’s frustration. "Why don’t you just cut it, man?" Nate suggested with a shrug. He was only 15 but already sported what once was a buzz cut he’d given himself on a whim at the start of quarantine, now slightly overgrown, reaching maybe three inches.

James frowned, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don’t know… I kinda liked growing it out, but it’s getting out of hand. Besides, I don’t want to mess it up."

Nate, ever the problem-solver, grinned. "Come on, I can help you out. I’ll just trim the back a bit, even things out. It’ll be like one of those quarantine glow-ups. Trust me."

James hesitated. He knew Nate could be reckless, but the idea of showing up with his current mop of hair seemed worse than risking a trim. After a moment, he sighed, "Alright, but don’t go crazy, okay? Just a trim."

They set up in the bathroom, draping a towel over the sink to catch the hair. James sat on a stool, facing away from the mirror, while Nate fumbled with a pair of cheap clippers they’d bought for their dad a few years ago. The sound of the clippers buzzing to life filled the small room, sending a shiver down James’s spine.

Nate started cautiously, using scissors to snip off the longer ends at the back. "See? Easy. You’ll look way better, I promise." A few strands of hair hit the towel, cutting in line with the hairline on the neck, trimming off a few centimeters of hair that were almost reaching his shoulders.

James tried to relax, but his grip on the edge of the stool tightened. "Just… make sure it’s even, alright?"

Nate scoffed. "Dude, I’ve got this. I propose we buzz the sides and leave the top long-ish, it’s gonna be like an undercut but the sides aren’t gonna be so drastically short, maybe starting with #8." James thought for a moment, looking at his long, overgrown sides, and agreed. Nate switched to the clippers, running them up the sides, with a waterfall of hair falling into James’s lap. First, the left side was buzzed with #8, then the right side and back. As Nate was buzzing the back of his head, James felt that he might be going a bit too high.

"Whoa, careful!" James said, flinching.

Nate paused, holding the clippers in the air like a weapon he wasn’t quite sure how to wield. "Relax, it’s fine, just… I’ll blend it out."

He continued with more hair falling down into James’s lap. James felt how high he was cutting, so he said, "Pause, Nate—you’re really cutting it way too high." He leaned forward, away from the clippers. Nate paused the clippers and said, "Yeah, it is a bit higher than usual, but I was just trying to blend it in."

"What do you mean ‘higher than usual’?!" exclaimed James, standing up abruptly, causing the hair in his lap to tumble to the floor so he could look in the mirror.

James twisted around, catching a glimpse of his reflection, and his jaw dropped. The back of his head was shaved all the way into his crown. With a typical undercut, the back is shaved only until the skull starts flattening, leaving longer hair on the crown to hang over the shaved back and sides. But Nate had really gone too high. The back of his head was buzzed too far up, with no longer hair hanging over the shaved back, just exposing the neatly cropped shape.

Nate’s grin faded, replaced by a guilty wince. "Yeah… okay, maybe I went a little too high. But we can still fix it! We’ll just… go shorter."

James buried his face in his hands. Part of him wanted to storm out of the bathroom, but he knew there was no going back. Taking a deep breath, he looked at his brother. "How is going shorter going to fix this?" asked James. "Going shorter where? On the top?"

Nate’s expression softened as he realized how serious his brother was. There was silence in the bathroom, which was broken by James. "Most haircuts could be fixed, Nate, but only a buzz cut can fix this. You realize that?"

Nate, now looking a bit unsure, switched the clippers back on and asked with a cautious voice, "Are you sure?"

James took one last look at his reflection, then said, "Yeah. Just buzz it all off. What else can we do?"

Nate nodded quietly and placed the clippers still with the #8 guard at the top of James’s head. With a nervous exhale, he made the first pass down the center. Long locks tumbled down as the clippers carved a path through James’s hair, revealing a velvet-like texture of James's thick hair left behind the clippers James’s stomach twisted as he watched the transformation.

Stripe by stripe the textured wavy hair was peeled off and replaced by the uniform, thick, carpet longi-ish buzzcut. As the buzzing continued, James watched himself in the mirror, his face growing more exposed with each pass of the clippers. The feeling of hair hitting his shoulders and lap was strangely rhythmic, and soon, the bathroom floor was covered in dark clumps.

When Nate finally turned off the clippers, the bathroom felt strangely quiet. James reached up and touched his head, feeling the prickly shorn bristles that had replaced his once-shaggy hair. The sensation was alien, a cold fingers brushing across his scalp for the first time.

Nate looked at him, trying to gauge his reaction. "I mean… you look kinda badass, right? Like an actor or something."

James forced a laugh, but there was a hint of disbelief in his eyes as he examined his reflection. He thought that his head looked huge, with no trace of the waves that had once defined him and his face. "I look like a fu*king ball," he muttered, rubbing his head, still stunned by the transformation.

"It sticks out in all directions. My head looks like a football, how round it is, man. It’s awful," complained James.

Nate tried to reassure him. "Wait, relax. It looks round because it’s a #8. I can cut it shorter to make it look sharper."

"Ahh, even shorter? Whatever, as long as I don’t look like a football, I guess."

Nate put on the #2 guard and proclaimed, "Let’s do it then," making a pass straight down the middle. The clippers revealed a starkly pale scalp, leaving James’s head looking drastically different. With each pass, the dark remnants of his longer hair carpet-like hair vanished, leaving behind a smooth, even buzz with pale scalp beneath.

After a few more careful passes, the transformation was complete. James was now sporting a #2 buzz cut, his head uniform in length, resembling that of a military recruit. James stared at himself in the mirror, stunned by the stark change, while Nate tidied up the sideburns and neck.

James stood up, staring at himself, and rubbing his head in disbelief. Nate joined and gave him a head rub. James responded "You like it, don't you?" and playfully shoved Nate into the chair. "You’re next, buddy," he said with a grin.

Nate looked surprised but shrugged. "but I was trying to grow out my buzz cut, James, but…" "C'mon Nate, look at me, like if I planned to shave my head today..." added James. "Whatever. We’ll look like twins for a while."

James, now embracing his new look, picked up the clippers with the #2 guard still on, ran fingers through Nate's hair, and made a straight pass down the middle of Nate’s head. In moments, Nate’s 2 to 3 inches of hair was mixed with James’s locks on the floor, their two shades distinct in the mess.

"That’s it," proclaimed James. "The process of twinning is complete. We can even act like it was intentional instead of an accident." Nate rubbed his freshly buzzed head, grinning. "Oh, the rubbing feels good. It’s almost addictive. Trust me, you’ll miss it once it starts to grow."

They spent the next half hour cleaning up their hair and joking about how they looked like they’d enlisted in the military. But as they finished, James caught his reflection one last time, this time with a bit more acceptance. He rubbed his head, then rubbed Nate’s, the feeling still strange but less jarring than before.

"Next time, though, we’re leaving it to the professionals," he said, nudging Nate’s head.

Nate laughed. "Maybe we can keep it and both save some money cutting each other’s hair now that we both have some experience." James rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t argue.

When their mom came home, she was stunned when she found two military recruits sitting in the living room watching Netflix when she was leaving in the morning one of her sons had long shoulder-length wavy hair while the other was sporting a long-ish side swept fringe. "What happened to you?!" she asked with surprised. "We just had a little brother bonding time" replied James followed by Nate's chuckle. As James lay in bed that night, the sensation of his nearly bare scalp against the pillow felt strange, almost refreshing. For a moment, he imagined facing his friends, wondering how they’d react, but he realized he didn’t care as much as he thought he would. Maybe he’d even embrace the look for a while.

The next day, as he joined his friends at the park, his nerves gave way to surprise when they complimented his bold new style. James laughed, running a hand over his buzzed head. Maybe the haircut hadn’t gone as planned, but for the first time in a while, he felt a little lighter, as if he’d shed more than just his hair.

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