Barber's Choice for Mark.. by TJ Clement

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Mark had just finished up his lunch break with his coworkers and was walking back to his car. Strategically, he had parked his car a bit further down the street than he needed to so that he could pass the barber shop and sneak a look. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed by his fetish, but he liked the voyeuristic nature of just catching a glimpse of someone getting a nice cut.

Sauntering up to the window, he slowed down so he could get a better look. He could see his reflection in the early afternoon sun; tall, well-kept light brown hair under a baseball cap, wiry beard that was a bit too chin forward. Someone walked up and opened the door.

"Mark?"

It was Pete, friend that Mark saw frequently at the local queer bar.

"Oh hey Pete!" Mark went in for a hug, Pete still keeping the door open. They embraced, Mark smelling Pete’s cologne on him as he hugged him.

"Coming in? Thought you’d be at work right now." Pete smiled a big smile. He was always a happy guy, life of the party. Currently, he sported a slightly grown out crew cut. I knew from his Instagram stories that he got a cut every two weeks and documented it thoroughly.

"Just finished up my lunch break… I’ve got a meeting soon." Mark did not have a meeting soon, but his ADHD had kicked in and given a response.

"Look like you could use a haircut, though. Come on." Pete gestured inside the shop. It was mostly empty except two barbers and one customer. Mark’s stomach lurched. "I’ll even let you go first that way you’re finished in time."

"Well, okay. I guess I do need one."

"I’m not paying for it, though!" Pete laughed and they both sat down. The barber who didn’t currently have a customer walked over.

"Waiting on Randall or can I take one of you?" He was in his mid-thirties, about Mark’s age, and handsome. Big handlebar mustache, dark hair slicked back. His tools hung from a nifty cloth tool belt that looked perfectly tailored for a barber.

"You can do Mark here, he’s joining the army so won’t take too long. You’ll have fun with it." Pete laughed, obviously joking. Mark’s stomach lurched again and he got a feverish feeling like he was having an out of body experience.

"Well, I’ve got my recruitment special coming right up. I’m Spencer."
Mark got up and, like a dream, walked to Spencer’s chair. Spencer pumped the chair up a bit turning the chair around to face the mirror. Mark took off his ball cap and held it in his hand as Spencer whipped a cape around his neck.

"So what’ll we be doing today?" Spencer asked, putting a hand on Mark’s shoulder. Mark tingled. He had thought of this exact moment so many times while walking by the shop. Shaved head? Buzz cut? Crew cut? Be safe and get a trim? That’s what he was thinking, but then what came out was:

"Didn’t y’all already my cut back there?" Mark winced. He could never get a joke to sound right.

"You joining the army?" Spencer chuckled a little.

"Nah, just a funny thought. I think I’m a little old for basic training" Mark smiled a little even though he was still feeling completely out of his body.

"You’re fit enough, I think they’d let you in. Just gotta flex at them a little bit." He showed his bicep in a low curl fist. "Better than me anyways." Flirting? Surely not, this guy had a ring on his finger. Must be one of those straight guys who likes to play with queer men since they know it riles them up.

"Maybe maybe… I’m thinking it would be fun to surprise Pete over there with a cut to match his. He’s always strutting like a peacock after getting a cut here and acts like his haircut is the most unique… I don’t know, is that w-weird?" Mark stuttered on the last word. So cute. Spencer laughed.

"He’s got a fun cut, I would do that for you. I’ll get you something to drink while you decide. Like a local IPA? Yearnings Brewery, Caramel IPA."

"Sure, I’d love it." Drinking on his lunch break? First a haircut now this? What was he doing? Mark pulled out his phone and texted his coworker.

"Working the rest of the day from home, let me know if you need anything." Send text.

His coworker would be suspicious cause he never did this. Spencer cracked open the can of beer and handed it to Mark who took a swig. Emboldened by that, he took a chance.

"Why don’t I let you decide, I think you’ll pick well." Don’t say it Mark, don’t say it. "And don’t just trim it, do something different." Now you’ve done it. A wry, knowing smile spread across Spencer’s face.

"Oh I see. Barber’s Choice. Yeah, I’ll do something fun."

[Does he know that I have a fetish? Did I just out myself as freaky?]

Spencer got quiet, looking through his tools. Picking up the clippers, his fingers grazed a few of the different clipper guards. His choice selected, he snapped the clipper guard into place and came back behind Mark.

"Sure about this?" Even despite the beer, Mark’s throat was dry as f***. He managed to smile give a nod. "Okay then.."

Spencer put the number 2 guarded clipper to Mark’s sideburn. Mark twisted the baseball cap in his hand, adrenaline shooting through his toes. The familiar buzz in his ear, the cold of the steel against his skin. [Goddamn, it felt good.]

With professional precision, Spencer pushed the clippers up the side of Mark’s head, leaving a fuzzy quarter inch of hair in its wake. Mark’s breath was more shallow now, though he tried not to show it. He felt his face flush. Spencer went for another swipe slightly to the right of his first. Buzzing close to Mark’s ear so that the noise reverberated through his body. He focused on that.

[That’s so short! I haven’t had it that short in a while.]

Another swipe, another. Spencer was at the back of his head. Pushing Mark’s head down, he gently held let his hand rest on the top of his head while he continued buzzing a good three quarters of the way up Mark’s head. Spencer dusted off the back of Mark’s head once he got done with that section. His hand cold to the touch.

[God. Feels like having sex. Better almost. Wish he would f*** me after this. That’d be too much to hope, right?]

Spencer started on the right side. The buzzing intensified as it got close to Mark’s ear. Spencer stepped a little closer so that the front of his jeans touched Mark’s arm. His bulge presses into Mark. Mark doesn’t say anything and neither does Spencer, but Mark feels like there’s a knowing acknowledgement of the line crossed.

Spencer steps back and takes the guard off his clippers. What’s next? A new guard for up top? Scissors chopping of chunks of hair? A t-line clipper set for a line-up? Mark shifted, taking a sip of his beer.
"It’s good beer." He managed, his voice cracking a little. Spencer just smiled. He put the clippers back in his tool belt and brought out the scissors and comb.
Here’s where we find out what kind of cut it really is.

The other customer finishes up and leaves. Pete comes and sits in the barber chair, the other barber wordlessly throwing a cape around his neck. [They know what he’s here for.] He shoots Mark a "you good?" look and Mark nods.

Spencer comes back in close to Mark, pressing in again, a bit more deliberately this time. Mark’s mouth again goes dry. Spencer combs through Mark’s hair, doing it very slowly. Putting his hand on Mark’s head, he scoops up a good amount of hair from the back of Mark’s head and measures it out. Deftly, he switches the scissors to that hand while keeping the comb in the back of his hand. Lines it up and "snip". Three of the four inches on top falls off his head and onto the cape.

[S**t.]

Spencer chuckles a little. "Bit more real now huh?" Mark takes another sip of beer. It’s already starting to hit and the warm fuzzy feeling makes him even more elevated.

Snip. Snip. Snip. Large chunks of hair fall from his head in quick succession. So much hair. All that growth. Snip. Snip. Almost to the front…

Mark watched as Spencer made it to the front of his head, just a fringe of hair left at his old length at the front of his head. Hesitating slightly, he looks at Mark’s eyes in the mirror, a slight grin creeping at the edge of his mouth. Chop. There go the bangs, falling soundlessly onto Mark’s cape. It’s the shortest Mark’s hair has been in a very long time.

[F***.]

Mark’s head is in a whirl as Spencer continues cleaning up the top. He’s moved to the sides and doing scissor over comb clean up when Mark really can take a look at himself. Barely an inch of hair on the top of his head, short crew cut, much in the style of Pete’s, except it’s his own head he’s looking at. It takes Mark a moment to readjust his own image of himself to this stranger in front of him. He likes it. Seems more masculine, more tough, like someone who has spent years in the military and let’s their hair grow to the longest they’ll allow.

Spencer puts his thinning shears back in his tool belt and grabs his smaller set of clippers, outlining the haircut smartly.

"What to do about this beard…"

Mark didn’t care about his beard as much, but it would be interesting to see what Spencer chose for him. He ended up picking up the clippers and fading the top of the beard into his hair. Then, comb over clippers for the rest of the beard, tightening it up ever so slightly. Mark looked hot.

Spencer then got a hot towel out of the warmer that sat between the two barbers and pressed it onto Mark’s neck. The sensation was out of this world. Spencer’s hand rested for a moment longer, caressing the back of Mark’s neck.

[F***, maybe he really is into this.]

Spencer dusted off the rest of Mark’s neck and ears before loosening the cape and, with a flourish, took it off Mark.

"Well, there we are. What do you think?"

Mark took a step forward and looked at himself closely in the mirror. The shorn crew cut was amazing. And to think, he almost just went back to work.

"Looks great, thank you." Mark reached for his wallet. Spencer shook his head and pointed to a little sign. "Barber’s choice? Free cut". Mark laughed.

"Oh, well, that works."

"Isn’t that the reason you let me do that?" Spencer laughed as he swept up the hair.

[No, it’s cause you basically just f***ed me.]

"Listen, I’m not mad about the cut or that it’s free. Pete, why don’t you do that?"

Pete laughed. "They gave me my first cut that way, but you become a regular like me, you gotta pay up."

"Gotta keep the lights on." Spencer winked at Mark. Goddammit.

"You’ll be a regular now, right?" Pete asked, his eyes finding Mark’s in the mirror. Mark looked from him to Spencer and then back.

"I think I’ll have to." Mark took a deep breath and got out of the chair, walking towards the door. "Y’all have a good day."

Once outside, he felt up the back of his head.

[F*** this is hot. Now I’m all horned up…]

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