SIR, YES SIR! -1 - Alec's Dream by Clipperaddict

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This is the first in a series of stories I’ve been thinking about for a while. 100% fiction. I hope you enjoy them. Please let me know.

Every six weeks, I get 4 days off, and the day before I get back to work, I treat myself to a barbershop head shave. I shave at least once a day when I’m on duty. Let me share a little background. I’m Scotty, currently serving in the USMC. It’s been 8 years now serving as a drill sergeant, with only another two until I retire with 20 years of service.

There’s a new barber working at the base barbershop. A youngish guy, maybe late twenties, 5’ 10" with a mop of curly hair, a goatee, and a mustache. Sam, one of the long-time barbers, retired a couple of weeks ago, leaving his buddy Ron and Melanie. Alec is just finishing up a blowout taper with messy fringe and modern mullet on a teen. He’s probably the kid of a soldier. As you’d probably guess, I’m not a fan of this popular style, and I’m already imagining myself taking over as his barber and giving the teen a real haircut. Having said that, it’s clear Alec has some impressive barbering skills. The cut is on point, and the teen is clearly pleased with it as he gets out of the chair and checks himself in the large wall mirror. Alec looks towards me, gesturing and asking me to take a seat.

After collecting payment from the teen, Alec heads back to his chair, extending his hand to introduce himself. As I shake his hand, we make eye contact, and there’s just a little stirring down below. Close up, I can see he has brilliant blue eyes and a charming smile. We hold eye contact just a bit longer than normal. When I introduce myself, he says he’s heard a lot about me and has been looking forward to meeting me. Obviously, as a drill sergeant, I work regularly with the base barbers, especially when new recruits arrive. I threw out a comment, hoping that he would be up to the task of taking care of these shaggy recruits. He responds enthusiastically, saying it’s one of the things he’s most excited about. I can’t resist commenting that I was concerned when I saw his curls. He blushes slightly and laughs. He jokes that it could seem a bit cruel to be shorn by a curly-headed barber.

Changing the subject, he secures a neck strip and wraps the cape around me, and sarcastically asks if I want the same as the last guy. I’ve only known this guy for a few minutes, but I can already tell we’re going to be good friends (maybe more). I explained my routine to him and that this is my regular treat to myself. I hope he’s as good as Sam at getting me shining. Confidently, he says I’m in good hands and turns me away from the mirror. He begins by placing his hands on my shoulders and begins to massage me. He has an amazing touch, and he’s already giving Sam a run for his money, as I have never gotten a massage from him. Alec urges me to relax, and he’ll take good care of me. Instinctively, I close my eyes as he works a couple of knots in my neck. He finishes with rapid hand chops and is now ready to cut my hair.

Reaching for his clippers, I hear him swapping out the blade. As he brings them to my forehead, I am pleased to see they are classic Osters 76 with a 00000 blade. He clicks them on, and the iconic sound is music to my ears as they touch down and move firmly across the top of my head. My 4 days of sandy blonde stubble succumb to the mighty Osters and fall gently off my head to the cape and the floor. Alec is thorough, making sure every hair is removed, going over my whole head 3 or 4 times. As he’s cutting, he asks me how long I’ve been shaving my head, and I have thought about growing it out a bit to try other looks. My curiosity is piqued, so I ask if he has anything particular in mind. He goes out of his way to assure me that he thinks my shaved head is badass, and it looks fantastic. However, he says he always imagines a USMC drill sergeant with a radical high and tight horseshoe flat. The excitement in his voice is clear, and the sparkle in his eyes as he looks at me causes that tingle down below again. I cleared my throat before letting him know I, too, love that look and had it for several years, but found it hard to maintain as I couldn’t go more than a week without wanting it tightened up. I tried self-maintenance with mixed results. He wraps a steaming hot towel around my head, pressing it into my scalp, and says he understands. Then, out of the blue, he asks if I would be open to him taking care of the maintenance as often as I wanted. It would be an honor for him to do it pro bono. It was my turn to blush, and I stammered that I couldn’t possibly impose on him like that. He was quick to respond that I would be doing him a favor, as it is his all-time favorite cut to give, and he’d count it as his patriotic duty.

After letting the hot towel sit for a couple of minutes, he removed it and began vigorously applying hot lather around the sides and back of my head. He stood in front of me and asked if he should lather the top, or did I want to start growing it out for him to craft the iconic horseshoe flat. My heart was beating faster as I accepted his offer, wondering where this would lead. Alec began to meticulously shave the lathered-up sides and back, leaving the top clipper shaved. He laughed that he should have thought about this before clipper shaving me, as now it would take an extra 4 days to get back to where we started. Round two of hot lather is followed by the same meticulous shaving against the grain. His fingers follow the razor to make sure every hint of stubble is removed. Without warning, he slaps an ice-cold towel on my head and presses it firmly into my scalp. I tried not to look surprised as this was never part of Sam’s routine, but boy, did it feel great. I hear him rubbing his hands together behind me, and again, without warning, he is slapping my head with Pinault Bay Rum aftershave. Somehow, it didn’t sting quite so much when Sam used to do it, but I wasn’t complaining. He turns me back to face the mirror and holds a hand mirror behind my head. I lean in to check out his handiwork while rubbing my hands over my head. The sides and back are silky smooth, and the top feels like the finest-grain sandpaper. He catches my eye in the mirror and asks if everything is to my liking. I try faking him out with a somber look, but can’t stop myself from grinning and letting him know all of it was very much to my liking. As he puts the hand mirror back on the counter, I see him quickly adjust his crotch, which appeared to be straining somewhat.

Getting out of the chair, I go to shake his hand and ask if he’s looking forward to shearing the squad of new recruits arriving the next day. His broad smile tells me all I need to know as he shares that’s one of the main reasons he applied for the job. I instruct him to follow my lead to which he stands to attention and replies forcefully, "SIR, YES SIR!". The contradiction of the curly-mopped young barber at attention sounding like a USMC recruit makes me laugh. I go to pay, and he refuses to take it, reminding me that keeping me squared away is his patriotic duty. I can’t resist mimicking his response by standing to attention and repeating, "SIR, YES SIR!".
The new recruits are lined up, ready for their induction cuts. The first dozen are standing in the barber sho,p awaiting my instructions. I march up and down the line in front of them and stop at a pretty boy with his long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. "WHAT A DISGRACE!" I shout, "IS THIS HOW A US MARINE RECRUIT SHOULD REPORT FOR DUTY?". "No, Sir!" he responds quietly. "WHAT DID YOU SAY, RECRUIT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!" "NO SIR!" he barks. "SO, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" I yell. "Cut it off, Sir?" he says nervously as I continue to stand right in his face. "YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT, PRETTY BOY. GET IN THAT CHAIR NOW!" He steps around me and rushes to Alec’s chair. Alec is raring to go and, at record speed, wraps the neck strip and cape around the recruit while holding his ponytail. Picking up the Osters, he slices through the tail just above the band, holding it in place. He drops the shorn hair in the recruit’s lap, pulls his head back, and pushes the Osters straight through his hairline. He wastes no time peeling the recruit, swipe after swipe. I’m impressed by how quickly and thoroughly the hair is removed from the recruit’s head. Alec swaps out the Osters for his straight razor. After applying a quick line of lather with his thumb, he shaves around his ears and the back of his head before grabbing the cape and pushing the shorn recruit out of the chair, shouting. "NEXT!"

As the former pretty boy is about to exit the shop, I call him back and tell him to stand next to me. I have positioned myself in front of a recruit who has shown up with a fresh induction cut. I turn around and get in his face and ask him, "IS THIS HOW A US MARINE RECRUIT SHOULD REPORT FOR DUTY?" Confidently, he responds loudly, "SIR, YES SIR!" Getting even more in his face, I yell, "NO, IT IS NOT! EVERY RECRUIT IS REQUIRED TO GET A HAIRCUT AND ALL RECRUITS MUST LOOK THE SAME! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" With his confidence shattered, he repeats with less force, "Sir, Yes, Sir." I turned to Alec and asked if he could help us out. He replies, smiling, "SIR, YES SIR!" holding up the Osters to reveal the 000 blade he has used on pretty boy. You can feel the awkwardness in the room as the recruits are trying to figure out what is happening. Turning back to the nervous recruit, I tell him to get his ass in the chair. He sprints to the chair, and Alec has him caped in seconds. "Mr. Barber, sir, please tell this pathetic recruit how you are going to help him and the rest of this squad out." Alec turns to the counter, pulling the 000 blade off the Osters. He grabs the 00000 blade as he turns back to the room. "SERGEANT SIR! PERMISSION TO SHAVE THIS RECRUIT SHORTER?" he pauses, "AND THE WHOLE SQUAD, SIR. TO MAKE THEM ALL THE SAME, SIR!" I can’t help walking up and down the line to study the recruits’ reactions before stopping in front of the freshly shorn pretty boy. "PERMISSION GRANTED," I yell before bending down to whisper in pretty boy’s ear. "And you will be next back in the chair after your buddy to lose this stubble. UNDERSTAND?" He tries his best not to react, but his lower lip quivers and pulls himself together and barks, "SIR, YES SIR! THANK YOU, SIR!" The thank you takes me by surprise, and I put my hand on his shoulder and calmly told him that we will make a marine out of him after all.

Alec wastes no time running the 00000 over the already shorn recruit. You wouldn’t think there would be much difference; however, his dark stubble practically disappears, leaving only pale skin. As the cape comes off, I have pretty boy stand next to the chair as I put one hand on his head and the other on the bald 00000 head and rub them both. I turn to look at Alec, who is grinning from ear to ear as I thank him for his excellent solution before announcing that for the next 6 weeks, all recruits will be returning weekly to keep the shorter baldy cut. As Melanie and Ron join Alec to shear the recruits, they make a show of switching out their 000 blades for their 00000 blades. Ron is in his element, as this is how it used to be, and he never liked letting them off lightly with the 000. All sixty of the recruits are peeled in just under an hour, with Alec managing to peel the most.

After getting the recruits situated, I swung by the barber shop to find Alec by himself. Before I can say anything, he comes towards me with his hand extended, smiling. "Hey, Sergeant. That was awesome. I think we make a great team." I go to shake his hand, and he pulls me in, wrapping his other arm around me in a tight hug and whispers in my ear. "You’re making my dreams come true." Having caught me completely off guard, I lean into the hug before gently pushing away and try to compose myself. He chuckles as he fixes his eyes on me confidently and says that he expects to see me back in his chair exactly 24 hours from now so he can fulfill his patriotic duty. I blush even more before standing to attention and responding, "SIR, YES SIR!" (TO BE CONTINUED.)

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