Life with Mrs. Klára. by Jajko7777

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I grew up as the only son of my parents. My name is Adam and in 1972 I was 11 years old. It was a time when every boy wanted to have modern long hair. Only boys with strict conservative parents had short hairstyles.
My hair in 1972 was black, thick and long. My hair covered my ears, my bangs covered my eyes, nose and reached my mouth. Both of my parents were sent abroad for 3.5 months from work. We had a neighbor, Mrs. Klára. She was an elegant lady, about 40 years old, but she lived alone. She offered to take care of me until my parents returned from a business trip abroad. When I was little, Mrs. Klára would sometimes take care of me for an hour or more if my parents needed to be at work longer. I was always afraid of Mrs. Klára. She had a strict look and always insisted on her orders. It was impossible to negotiate with her like with my mother or father. Sometimes she would say to my mother: Adam's hair is already quite long, you should have it cut. Usually, a few days later, I would go with my mother to a modern barbershop, where I would get a small haircut.
There were only 3 weeks left until the end of the school year, and then the summer holidays.
On Friday, my parents left for a business trip abroad. And I had an unpleasant 3.5 months with my neighbor, Mrs. Klára, waiting for me, so for the first time in my life I was not looking forward to the holidays.

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My 3 stages in the service of Mrs. Klara followed.

First stage:

First humiliation of the day:

On Saturday morning, at breakfast, Aunt Klara told me that we would go shopping in the city. I thought we were going to buy some groceries for the weekend. The surprise was when we went to the store with school uniforms. Our school did not require school uniforms, so I did not understand why we were going there. After half an hour, we left the store. I was wearing new short black pants, almost all of my thighs were visible, gray knee-high socks and black high boots. Mrs. Klara also bought me a white shirt and in her bag she had my jeans and low shoes in which I came to the store. I tried to negotiate, but Mrs. Klara said in a firm voice: Adam, you will obey! I do not want to hear any more objections. I was very ashamed to leave the store. I looked around to see if anyone I knew would see me. I felt like everyone passing by was looking at me.

Second humiliation of the day:

Adam, said Mrs. Klara: now we have to do something with your hair. I replied that the modern barbershop where I go is close to our houses. To that, Mrs. Klara told me that today we will visit another barbershop. We went into a narrow alley. I saw a rotating pole with a tricolor. Under it was written: Mr. Smith's Men's Barbershop. I remembered my classmate Louis, who has unfashionable short hair and goes to this barbershop. He once told me that the barber Mr. Smith likes boys' hair on the ground, not on his head. Mrs. Klara was already pushing me into the barbershop. We sat down on the nearest wooden waiting chairs. I was afraid that I would lose my beautiful long hair today. A little while later, a mother with two boys entered the barbershop. They were wearing school uniforms. Their hair was short, about 5 centimeters on the top of their heads and about 1 centimeter of hair on the back of their heads. The boys' mother sat down next to Mrs. Klara. They started a conversation as if they had known each other for years and not that they had met for the first time in the barbershop. Mrs. Klara said that I was her neighbor, 11-year-old Adam, my parents had traveled abroad and she would take care of me for the next 3.5 months. She boasted that she had bought me shorts and challenged me to stand up and show how they fit me. The boys' mother said that her older son Michael was 12 years old and her younger son Edeard was 9 years old. Every 3 weeks the boys go to Smith's barbershop for a basic boys' haircut. Mrs. Klara continued her conversation with the boys' mother. She told her that she was worried that if the weather got colder, I would be cold in shorts and knee socks. The boys' mother said that the boys would then wear ribbed tights.
The barber called an older man to the chair. He asked Mrs. Klara: are we going to cut the boy's hair then too. Mrs. Klara said, yes, it will be his turn then. Mr. Smith pulled a tall wooden child's chair out from behind the curtain. He told me to sit there and wait until he cut the older man's hair. I sat down on the chair. I just looked at the wall, because the mirror was only in front of the barber's chair.
The barber took a sheet and wrapped it around me. Then he said. The boy will get a basic boy's haircut! Mrs. Klara said yes and then asked the barber. Look at his hair, how damaged it is. The barber just replied: I'm not surprised it's so long. Mrs. Klára's next question shocked me: Mr. Smith, while you're cutting the boy's hair, can I go to the store to buy him some more tights? He agreed and I was instructed to wait for her until she returned from the store.
The barber combed my hair, took the electric hair clippers from the hook, and dropped a drop of oil on the metal part of the scissors' jaw. I was scared, they don't use such scissors in my barbershop. Mr. Smith tilted my head forward sharply. My chin touched the sheet I was wrapped in. I flinched when I felt the cold metal of the hair clipper blades on my neck. After turning on the scissors, it roared as if a combine was going over my head. The scissors touched my head. They rose from my neck all the way to the back of my head. My beautiful long hair began to fall onto the sheet. Tears welled up in my eyes. Mr. Smith continued cutting the hair on the back of my head, turned my head to the right, put the scissors to my cheek and started cutting the hair on the left side of my head. He did the same on the right side of my head. When he turned off the electric hair clippers. He took a comb and lifted the hair on the top of my head. Then he cut a piece of hair from it. Later, he combed the hair on the top of my head to the side of the right side of my head. The barber changed the jaws on the electric hair clippers, they had finer teeth on the jaws. Oil dripped and he tilted my head forward again and started cutting the back of my head and both sides of my head around the ears again. A few millimeters of hair fell onto the cape. The barber, using the comb and electric hair clippers, made a gradual transition to longer hair on the top of my head. I couldn't see in the mirror and I still didn't know exactly what the barber was doing with the hair on my head, how short the hair on my head was left. Mr. Smith removed the hair from the raincoat, applied some white foam to the back of my head and around my ears, took a razor and started scraping off the foam with it. Finally, the barber rubbed the shaved part of my head with disinfectant liquid, at first it cooled me slightly and then stung. He applied some cream to the top of my head and combed my hair to the right side of my head again.
When I was freed from the sheet, I jumped down from the high wooden children's chair. There was a lot of my cut hair on the floor, which the barber had swept away and thrown into the trash can. I started searching for hair on the back of my head with my hands. I looked to see if Mrs. Klára had returned, and when I didn't see her, I sat down on the waiting chair. I still don't know what kind of haircut I have. By then the electric hair clippers had already been turned on. Edeard was already sitting on the high wooden chair, his head tilted forward, and Mr. Smith was cutting the back of his head.
I was sitting nervously on the waiting chair, still looking for my beautiful long hair. Michael noticed my nervousness and sat down next to me. He quietly told me that in a little while I would see what kind of short haircut I had when his brother jumped off the chair. Then he smiled and said that he would get the same. Mr. Smith only uses 3 types of haircuts for boys. The basic boy's haircut, which is the one with a short haircut, then with short hair on the top of the head and then a summer haircut.
Indeed, in a little while Edeard jumped off the chair and Michael was already sitting on the chair. I began to examine the boy's haircut. On the top of his head, his hair was no longer than 4 centimeters, from the bottom of the hairline to approximately 4 centimeters below the crown, the hair was completely shaved with a razor. From this point on, the transition from long hair to the top of the head began. Around the ears, about 3 centimeters from the top edge of the ears, the hair was shaved with a razor, then followed by a transition to longer hair on the top of the head. The sides and the back of the head were shaved high, but with a gradual transition to the hair on the top of the head. Mrs. Klára had already returned to the barbershop, took white tights from her bag and started showing them to the boys' mother.
We were still in the barbershop when Michael jumped down from the chair. So do you know what haircut you got today? Michael asked quietly and added. I think you'll still have fun with that lady. I already feel sorry for you. I just nodded my head in agreement. My throat was tight and I didn't say a single word. We went out of the barbershop with the boys. Mrs. Klára said goodbye to the boys' mother, who finally said that the boys would come for a new haircut on the last day of the school year in the evening.

Third humiliation of the day:

Well, Adam, now you look like a decent and intelligent boy. Now we're going to the photographer to take a few photos of you as a keepsake. I couldn't believe her words.
After arriving at the photographer, she ordered me to wear white tights and a white shirt under my short black pants. Then I sat in the studio at a table resembling a school desk and the photographer took a photo of me from the waist up. The second photo was of me standing and the third photo was the most humiliating. I was supposed to sit on a wooden rocking horse, the photo was taken from the side.
When the photos were developed, Mrs. Klára gave me paper and dictated a letter to my parents. Where I had to write that Mrs. Klára takes excellent care of me, bought me decent clothes and we also went to the barber, for which I am very grateful to her. She wrote another letter, where she announced that the barber had warned her about my very damaged hair, because I wear it too long, so Adam now has a decent boyish haircut.
If Mrs. Klára thinks that going to school in short pants, gray socks, a white shirt with all the buttons buttoned and a very short haircut is the best thing for me, then she was wrong. At school, all my classmates made fun of me and wanted to touch the shaved part of my head.
Only my classmate Louis came up to me with the question: Have you been to Mr. Smith's? I just nodded yes because I was about to cry. Then he continued: I know that feeling very well, but you look like you're from boarding school now.

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Second stage:
My schoolmates got used to my short hair, at the end of the school year I had about 5 centimeters of it on the top of my head and 1 centimeter on the back of my head.
My report card was excellent and when I showed it to Mrs. Klara, she praised me and said that in the evening we would go for dessert with a Coke as a reward.
Adam, Mrs. Klara called. Put on your school uniform and we are going for dessert. On the way on the bus she told me that we would first stop at Mr. Smith's Barber Shop. I said that my hair was still short but Mrs. Klara told me that she would decide how long my hair was and when I should get a haircut. When we entered Mr. Smith's Barber Shop, I saw Michael sitting on a high wooden chair for children. The barber wrapped him in a sheet. He turned his head, I saw that his face was red with shame. Aunt Klara sat down next to the boys' mother on the waiting chair. Edeard, who had already been cut, was already sitting on the waiting chair. I rubbed my eyes to see if I could see clearly. His head was all white and shiny. When I looked at Michael, he had almost no hair on his head. It didn't take long and when he jumped off the highchair, his head was exactly the same as his younger brother's. Aunt Klara and the boys' mother were still talking and the boys who had been cut were waiting on the highchairs. After about 20 minutes, Mr. Smith told me to sit down on the highchair. When he finished cutting the older man's hair, he asked Mrs. Klara how we should cut the boy's hair. The boys' mother suggested: Summer hairstyle. Mrs. Klara agreed. The barber took the electric hair clippers and dripped oil on the teeth of the blades. I tilted my head forward like I did during the first haircut, but Mr. Smith started pushing it back. I felt the cold metal teeth of the scissors on my forehead. The scissors moved over the scalp, the barber continued to work with the scissors on the right and left sides of my head and finally on the back of my head. Mr. Smith cleaned the sheet of my hair, moistened my head and applied white foam. He sharpened the razor on a leather belt and began to scrape the foam off my head. I wasn’t sure, but I think my head would be similar to Michael’s and Edward’s heads. Finally, Mr. Smith applied some oil to my head. When I was freed from the sheet and reached for my head, it was completely smooth. When I got to the boys, Michael said to me: Adam, if you didn’t have ears, your head would be like a ball and he started laughing.
Me, Mrs. Klára and the boys and their mother went for dessert and a Coke. Before we said goodbye, the boys' mother and Mrs. Klara agreed to meet in 3 weeks on Saturday at around 10 a.m. at the barbershop. During the entire vacation, my hair hadn't grown a centimeter and I had already shaved my head again. We always met the boys' mothers, Michael and Edeard, at the barbershop. They always had something to say and whoever got their hair cut first waited until the last boy from our new group had his hair cut.
The last Saturday before the New School Year, we went to Mr. Smith's barbershop. I had about a centimeter of hair on my head. I was afraid that I would go to school completely hairless.
There were more customers than usual in the barbershop. When I was sitting on a children's wooden chair and Mr. Smith wrapped me in a sheet, he asked how he was going to cut the boy. The boys' mother said that today all three boys would get a boy's haircut and short hair on the top of their heads.
Mr. Smith left about a centimeter of hair on the top of my head and only cut the back of my head and the sides of my head. When Edeard was also cut, I made sure that I had a hairstyle with very short hair on the top of my head, from the bottom of the hairline to about 3 centimeters below the crown, the hair was completely shaved with a razor to the skin. From this point on, the transition from long hair upwards to the top of my head began. Around the ears, about 3 centimeters from the upper edge of the ears, the hair was shaved with a razor, then followed by a transition to longer hair on the top of my head. The sides and the back of my head were shaved high but with a gradual transition to centimeter-long hair on the top of my head. Just before my parents arrived from a 3.5-month business trip, Mrs. Klára managed to get me a haircut in a regular 3-week cycle. After that, a similar hairstyle to the one at the end of the holidays. It was: A boy's hairstyle and short about 2 centimeters of hair on the top of my head.

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Third stage:

Welcoming my parents was very warm and joyful. Finally, I won't have to fulfill unpleasant tasks from Mrs. Klara, I won't have to go to Mr. Smith's barbershop every 4 weeks.
Mrs. Klara also praised me for my report card but told my parents that according to Mr. Smith's barbershop, my long hair was very damaged and therefore it was necessary for me to continue to keep my hair shorter. She immediately offered to go with me to Mr. Smith's Men's Barbershop. That there was also a mother who went there with her sons and they got along very well. I wanted to object that I was too big for Mr. Smith's haircuts, but Mrs. Klara immediately said that Michael is older than me and has no problem with it. And several older boys also go to this barbershop.
My parents' decision disappointed me. They agreed that I would continue to go to Mr. Smith's Barbershop with Mrs. Klara.
For a short time, I went to school in shorts, but as the weather got worse, I didn't have to wear tights under my pants, but went back to classic jeans.

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