Wanting a dramatic change by Jimmy

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Whenever I’ve had a buzz cut in the past, I’ve gone shorter gradually over time: a shorter trim, then a crew cut, then a longer buzz and then a very short buzz. Today I wanted to go from longer to shorter. I wanted to have a dramatic change. I had asked my girlfriend if she was happy for me to have such a short hair cut and she said yes but I could tell she was sceptical. She’d never seen me with a buzz cut.

I drove up-to the barbers trying to get into the zone. I sat outside for a short while and psyched myself up. Looking at old pictures of myself with buzz cuts and rehearsing what I’d say: "I want to change it up, it’s summer. I want a buzz cut. I’m thinking I wanna eventually go proper short like skinhead. Maybe today start with a 3 and see what that looks like and we can go shorter."

I walked into the barbers and Eliot greeted me and directed me to the empty chair. My heart was pounding. My mouth dry.
"What do you want to do with your hair today?"
"It’s time to switch it up again, I wanna go shorter and buzz it right down." Elliot asked how short I wanted it and I said, "I’m thinking a 2 or a 3. That’s been my favourite length when I’ve had a buzz cut before"
He said we could start with a 3 and that we could go shorter if I wanted. He looked for the guard, clicked it onto the clipper, checked it was the right length and asked one last time with the clippers hovering at my forehead if I was sure. I said, "Buzz it off."

The first plunge is always the best. When it touched the front of your hairline and glides through your long locks, plowing them into nothing. He doesn’t hesitate. He keeps cutting. The clippers following the curve of me head going over and over making sure that no hair was left long. He swapped to the sides taking them down to a skin fade. He checked how high I wanted the fade to be. I was in the zone now and the initial nerves I had were gone so requested it to be as higher fade as possible.

When he had finished, he asked if I liked it. He asked if I was happy. I reached my hand out from the cape to stroke my short hair. I took a deep breath once again and I said I wanted the top shorter. "We’ve come this far already," I said "Let’s go shorter, a number 2." He obliged and changed the clipper guard taking those extra few millimetres of hair off. Boy did it feel good. When he finished, I could feel myself sitting a little taller, being a little more confident. The old me was back and I’d have a buzz cut for summer.

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