HairSnip.com

That was just my luck.

I had looked at the flyer stuck to my fridge every day for ages. Every day I had wondered whether I should make the call and every day I had found a reason not to. That day, I drove past on my way into town and there was a sign in the window. "Lease for Sale" it said in large letters. I could see that there was a smaller notice stuck on the door, but couldn't read it from the car. Perhaps they had moved somewhere else I thought. I parked the car and walked back to have a look.

"Bold has now closed. We would like to thank all of our customers for their support. Helen and Jo" the notice said. There was a phone number, but that was for the property agent. I looked around me, deflated. It was typical of me really. It took so long to build myself up to something that by the time I came to do it, I sometimes couldn't even remember why I had wanted to do it in the first place! I really needed to be more impulsive sometimes, I thought. Well, there was no point standing there outside an empty shop. I took one last look through the window at what might have been, trying to imagine the place with staff and customers inside.

'Hello?' a voice said. I turned round to see a well-dressed woman with very short hair standing at the kerb.

'Hi' I said.

'I hope you don't mind, but I saw you from my shop over there. From the way that you were taking your time, I thought you might have been looking for Helen or Jo rather than just a haircut' she said with a friendly smile.

'It was just for a hair cut actually. It's just that I had been building myself up to make an appointment and now I get here, the place is closed.'

'It's a shame, isn't it? I used to work here, on reception. It was all a bit sudden really. One of the partners got too busy with her ordinary job, and the other one has another salon, so they just felt that it was a bit too much to keep this one running. They decided not to renew the lease and that was it. The salon closed about a month ago and I'm back to my old day job.'

'So there's another salon?' I asked, my disappointment fading.

'There is, but it's not like this one used to be. This was interesting, shall we say. The other one is just an everyday salon.'

'But the same woman runs it?'

'She does, but she tends not to do the same sort of work that she did here. This salon was where she could experiment a little bit, as you can see' she said, pointing to her head.

I didn't know what to say at first. It was hair, quite short, but still hair and in a place where you would expect to see it.

'Did you get your hair cut there?' I asked, for want of something to say.

'Yes, I need to get it done again though.'

'So what will you do now?' she asked.

'The girl who did mine has gone back to working as a mobile stylist, so I can get her to do it' she replied.

'So I could still get the "Bold" experience, just not in the "Bold" salon?'

'I hadn't thought of it like that. To me she's just a friend who cuts hair, but I suppose you could give her a call and explain that you wanted the "Bold" experience' she said, smiling pleasantly. She turned and checked for traffic.

'Come over to the shop and I'll get you her number' she added.

'That would be great' I said and followed her across the road. She jotted the number down on the back of one of her cards and handed it to me.

'Thanks, Jenny' I said, reading her name before turning it over to see the stylist's name. "Tina", it said.

'Give her a call, she's a lovely girl' Jenny said.

'Thanks, I will' I replied.

She ran her hand over her head.

'I'd better be doing the same. I'm getting shaggy' she said. That surprised me as her hair couldn't have been more than an inch long.

'You like it short then?' I asked.

'You could say that' she replied laughing.

'I wanted something edgy, not necessarily short' I replied.

She smiled at me.

'How long have you been thinking about making an appointment?' she asked.

'I don't know, a couple of months' I replied.

'Why did you wait so long?'

'It never seemed to be the right time; there was always something at work or my boyfriend or something like that.'

'And your boyfriend's not enthusiastic about you cutting your hair?'

'He wasn't, but he's not my boyfriend anymore' I replied, wondering why I was telling her. Her expression conveyed the appropriate degree of regret for a stranger whose relationship has ended.

'I was just about to make some tea, would you like some?' she asked.

'No thanks, I should be going' I replied.

'I was just thinking that I could ring Tina and see if she's free. We could have tea while we wait.'

'No, really' I repeated.

'I need to ring her to make an appointment anyway, so it's no problem to mention you at the same time. If she's free, she'd come to the shop and she could do both of us in one trip' she said.

I could think of no sensible objection. I had been thinking of making an appointment for ages and thought that I had missed the boat. Now here was a second chance, so should I pass it up? My hair was russet red (the result of a little home experimentation), slightly longer than shoulder length, but quite curly. Not corkscrew curls, but curly enough. Tim used to call me his 'Gypsy' when we first started to go out, but I found that a little annoying after a while. Having such curly hair was the main reason why I hadn't seriously considered going short before. I was afraid of just ending up with a frizzy mass that looked horrendous. Then I saw the "Bold" advert and thought that going to a salon that claimed to be avant-garde should give me a good chance of finding a stylist creative enough to deal successfully with my type of hair and give me a style that I would be happy with.

'If you're ringing her anyway, it won't hurt to see what her availability is like' I replied, thinking that the chances that she would be free right then were slim.

Jenny rang Tina and had a chat for a minute or two before Jenny told her what the real purpose of the call was. From what I could gather it was Tina's day off, but since it was Jenny, she agreed to come down to the shop for her. Jenny put the phone down.

'That's settled then. How do you take your tea?'

At that point she realised that I hadn't introduced myself. I told her that my name was Cate. We chatted a little while she made the tea and I told her about my design business and probably more about breaking up with Tim than I intended. She expressed surprise that I was 29, claiming that she thought I was younger than that. Always nice to hear!

We sat at her desk and the conversation turned to hair again. I asked her what had made her wear her hair so short and she told me all about the way that she had considered going short and wavered for ages, just like me, but that circumstances had come together which meant that it just felt right to have it cut off. She showed me a photograph on her desk of her on holiday with hair to her shoulders. I had to agree that she did actually look better with short hair, rather than the non-descript middle-aged default style that she sported in the photograph.

'You're in the design business, supposedly open to new ideas, creative, off-the-wall thinking, that sort of thing, aren't you?' she said, more as a statement than a question.

I nodded, not sure where she was going.

'Why not just let Tina do something that you would never ask for yourself, the way that I did when she cut mine?' Jenny said.

'Hi Jenny!' a voice called, interrupting me as I was about to fashion an answer.

'We're through here Tina' Jenny called back.

A tall woman with very short, dark hair came into the office clutching a bag.

'This is Cate' Jenny said.

'Hi Cate, pleased to meet you' Tina said, holding out her hand as a greeting.

Jenny thanked Tina for coming on her day off and offered her some tea in that hospitable way that she clearly had. I could see the "salon receptionist" in her come out now.

'I thought we could use that chair over there' Jenny said.

'Fine' Tina said.

It all looked a little basic compared with what I had glimpsed through the window of the salon across the road. A typist's chair in an office was not what I had imagined as the location for my haircut, even before I had peered through the "Bold" window.

Tina put her bag on the desk and took out a small pouch, unzipping it, to reveal an array of scissors. She took out a second pouch which contained a set of men's hairclippers. She unwound the cord and plugged them in at the socket under the desk. Here was a woman who meant business, I thought. She picked up her tea and took a sip before deciding that it was too hot for the moment.

'Ok then Cate, what were you thinking of doing?' Tina asked.

'I wasn't sure, that's why I wanted to go to "Bold". I thought that I could have something different that wouldn't look like I'd been electrocuted' I said, trying to relax.

'How different is different? A couple of inches, six inches, more?' she asked.

'That's just it, I don't really know how it will turn out until I do it. I don't know how it will sit, whether it will just frizz up too much or what' I replied.

'There are products you can use to tame frizzy hair, had you thought of those?' she replied.

'I'd rather not get into all that sort of stuff, it takes too much time' I replied.

'What do you do?' she asked, changing tack.

'I run a design business' I replied.

'Run as in "manage" or run as in "own"?' she asked.

'Own' I replied.

'That's important' she replied. 'You're the boss, so nobody to please except yourself. Husband, boyfriend, girlfriend?' she asked, smiling.

'None of the above at the moment' I replied with a hint of sadness as the break-up with Tim came to mind again.

'That won't last long, I'm sure' she said kindly.

'What do you think then, Jenny?' she asked, turning to where Jenny was clearing the tea-making things away.

'I think we'd best make a start' Jenny replied, misunderstanding Tina's question. Tina let the question hang.

Jenny moved closer to the makeshift styling chair as Tina set out an assortment of attachments for the clippers. She lined them up on the desk like some sort of obsessive compulsive and ensured that they were all perfectly aligned, according to size by the looks of it.

'Ok Cate, you get to choose' Tina said looking at me before looking down at her perfectly aligned gadgets. I looked at her.

'They adjust the length that the clippers cut. Pick one' she urged.

'I don't know how Jenny likes her hair' I said, feeling a little uncomfortable at the idea of deciding somebody else's haircut.

'Jenny likes surprises, so go on, pick one' she said, looking at Jenny who nodded in agreement.

I looked at the row of plastic combs, ranged from longest to shortest. I knew that had to be the case, but I wasn't particularly sure how to determine just what "long" was and what "short" was. I still thought it odd that someone should trust a stranger with the decision as to how their hair was cut. I fell back on the safe 'middle of the road' approach and picked the second one in. I knew that it wasn't going to be as long as it could be, but equally it wasn't going to be as short. Jenny's hair was quite short anyway and if she considered the present length to be shaggy, then it must have been considerably shorter when first cut. I held my choice out to Tina and looked at Jenny.

'Is that okay?' I asked.

'It's not for her, it's for you' Tina said. I gasped.

'She's only teasing you' Jenny said quickly.

'Who says?' Tina retorted.

I was pleased to see that Jenny sat down in the chair and reached up to hold the towel closed at the neck as Tina wrapped it around her shoulders. The clippers started to buzz and Tina placed them at Jenny's forehead without further comment. Jenny still hadn't said whether she was happy with my choice, but she wasn't objecting. The clippers moved across Jenny's scalp and bits of hair started to fall towards her lap. Jenny sat motionless and expressionless at first, but then she caught me looking at her. Our eyes locked and she smiled at me.

'You really should try this, Cate, it's wonderful' she said.  

I returned her smile, amazed at her calmness.

Tina paused and slipped the guard off the clippers before picking up another one off the table. She picked it from the 'shorter' end of the selection than the one I had chosen. She placed the clippers at Jenny's temple and moved them up the side of her head. That was definitely shorter, but it looked good. I wondered what the attraction was for a woman to cut her hair so short apart from the obvious lack of maintenance. It must be great just to get out of the shower and not need forty-five minutes to tame your hair before you could even be considered presentable. Tina continued running the clippers around the sides and back of Jenny's head. Her hair certainly looked better now that it had that 'just cut' look rather than the slightly uneven 'shagginess that she had complained about earlier. I was surprised, but I had to admit that I was finding the whole process fascinating. Surprised as well at what I thought of as a male process should be making a woman seem more feminine.

I looked from Jenny's freshly cut hair to Tina's own ultra-short hair and back again. The room fell silent as Tina turned off the clippers. Jenny sat there amidst the clumps of hair and bristles. She still had that smile on her face.

'You'd best go and run your head under the tap to get rid of the bits' Tina said, a hand on Jenny's shoulder. Jenny got up, carefully clutching the two ends of the towel at her throat and went through a door at the side of the office without saying a word. I heard her footsteps on the stairs as she went up to the bathroom.

Tina picked up her tea-cup and looked at me.

'You still haven't told me what you were really hoping for when you thought about going to "Bold"' she said.

'I just wanted someone to come up with something to change my image, something that would be easier to look after' I said, not expanding upon my earlier remarks. This wasn't because I was holding anything back, I really didn't know what I wanted her to do. Tim hadn't wanted me to cut my hair, he said that he liked the way it draped over him when we were in bed. On the other hand, I was finding it tiresome to keep looking good and after seeing a couple of friends go shorter, just felt that I should do it too. They did have the advantage of knowing how their straight hair would turn out once it was shorter. I hadn't considered the possibility of going really short the way that Jenny just had, but that was probably down to the possibility never having arisen before.

'Were you planning on setting limits, how short you wanted to go, that sort of thing?'

'I think I was going to give them a free-hand, just to see how it turned out' I replied.

'Are you going to give me a free-hand now?'

There was no reason not to give Tina the same guidelines that I was going to give the stylist at "Bold". After all, had I not spent so long thinking about making an appointment, she could well have been my stylist there. What was different now, apart from the improvised surroundings? The only difference that I could think of was that I would have gone into "Bold" not really knowing that they took women quite so short. Was that an issue for me? It was time to decide.

'Yes' I said.

'Good girl' she replied.

'No-one's said that to me in quite a while' I said a little nervously.

Jenny came back into the office, rubbing a different towel over her head to dry it off.

'Waiting for me?' Jenny said.

'We were just having a chat. Cate's letting me decide her new style' Tina said.

'Wise choice' Jenny said, patting me on the shoulder.

'I hope so' I said, brushing a few bits of Jenny's hair from the seat before sitting down.

'You're sure?' Tina asked me.

'I'm sure that I want you to cut my hair, but I'm not sure that I want you to do what you're going to do, if that makes sense' I said.

'Would you rather know what I'm going to do, so you can say no, or would you prefer me just to do it?' Tina asked.

'I think I'd rather know first' I said, not quite so sure now about what I was about to do as I had tried to pretend to myself.

Tina nodded.

'Okay. I'm going to solve your frizz problem the best way that there is to solve it' she said, picking up the clippers. My heart started to race.

'How short?' I asked, still trying not to sound as nervous as I felt.

'I haven't decided yet. I'm going to start with the same guard that I used for Jenny and take it from there' she replied.

I was silent. My hair. She was really going to cut off all my hair!

'It's nothing I haven't done myself, so I know how hard it is to do it' Tina said as she draped a towel around my shoulders as she had done for Jenny.

'Did you just go for it?' I asked her, wondering if she had done it in stages to get used to the transformation.

'Shoulder length to clipper length, same as I'm doing for you' she replied.

'You didn't regret it?'

'Not for a moment. I was afraid of doing it, just like you, but I wish that I had done it sooner instead of messing about.'

I reached up and touched the ends of my hair. How long would it be before I could do that again, I wondered? I heard the clippers start. Tina was getting impatient.

'Could we start a bit longer?' I said.

'We could...' Tina said, but making the first cut anyway.

'I didn't want to go that short straight off' I objected, knowing that there was absolutely no point arguing now that the clippers had already cut a path across the top of my head. I watched as the first tangle fell. My curls! I won't be confused with a gypsy now, I thought as Tina cut again.

'There's not much difference between this one and the next one up' Tina said, continuing to run the clippers across my scalp. The hair at my crown was short now, but the length was still there on the sides which must have given me a very strange look for a moment. Tina soon put paid to that.

'So is this the one that you used for the top part of Jenny's hair?' I asked, struggling to think whether I had seen Tina change the guard after finishing Jenny's cut.

'Think of it as work in progress. I'm just trying to get an idea of what I have to work with at the moment, so don't worry about the detail' she said, skilfully avoiding the question.

Both sides of my hair had now been shorn and I could just see this mass in my lap, which moments ago had been attached to my head. My security blanket was gone now and there was very little between me and the world. The clippers were at my neck and running up the back of my head. There couldn't be much more to go now. They were on top of my head, going cross-wise and then front to back again and then after a minute or so, the clippers fell silent. Jenny reached out and touched my forearm. It had to be bad.

'Tell me' I said. 'How bad does it look?'

'It looks fine, don't worry' Jenny said.

Jenny had reached into her handbag to get a small mirror out for me to have a look at myself. It struck me that Jenny hadn't questioned how short her hair had been cut and she showed no sign of wanting to look at herself in a mirror. Perhaps that was because she had already looked in one upstairs? I took the little mirror from her, not sure whether I really wanted to look or not. I would have to eventually, so there wasn't really too much point putting it off.

These big brown eyes looked back at me. I moved the mirror up and backwards a bit so that I could see my full face. There was no frame, no curtain either side of my head. I reached up with one hand and ran it over my scalp. Little bristles rained down on me. I looked from the left and I looked from the right.

'That is so strange!' I said eventually.

'That's the hard part done, now we can decide what we're going to do without all the emotion of "what will I look like with short hair?"' Tina said.

'So what are you going to do?' I asked.

'Do you do presentations to your clients to give them an impression of what you think they should do?' Tina asked by way of reply

'Of course, it's the only way to get them to understand a design properly' I said.

'Jump up a minute and I'll show you what I have in mind for you' Tina said.

I stood up and Tina motioned for Jenny to sit in the "hot seat". Tina wrapped the towel round Jenny's shoulders as Jenny looked up at me and smiled. The clippers started up again and in a fluid motion, Tina ran them backwards from Jenny's forehead.

'No!' I said quietly.

Jenny's ultra short-hair was now partitioned by a strip down the middle of her head that was skin. Bald. And she was smiling!

'That's what I wanted!' Jenny said, beaming.

'Have you done it before?' I asked.

'Oh yes, I don't like it any other way now' she replied.

'That's why you complained about it being shaggy' I said, enthralled at watching this woman's head being shaved.

I watched as Tina made cut after cut and Jenny sat there looking increasingly content as the amount of hair on her head decreased.

'How long have you been shaving your head?' I asked.

'The first time was my first day at "Bold", a sort of welcome present from the owner, although it would have happened sooner if I hadn't spent so much time worrying about what people would think' she said.

'But it was a conscious decision?'

'One that took a while to make and one that needed a little push at just the right moment, but the only thing that I regret is not doing it sooner, just like Tina' she said.

'Really?' I queried.

'Absolutely. It's so practical for one thing, but in a way, it's just a big statement to the world that you're willing to be different, to stand out from the crowd. It opens up all manner of possibilities, starts conversations with strangers, just makes you more self-confident.'

By now Tina had almost stripped Jenny's head bare. She didn't look freakish in the slightest, she still looked feminine and, just as she had said, she seemed to be more radiant than she had been when I first met her just a short time ago. Tina was running her hand over Jenny's head and paused to look at me.

'So, what do you think of the proposal?'

 Tina asked.

I was torn between admiring how good Jenny looked and having to address the question put to me by Tina.

'It looks good' I said.

'What else do we need to do to convince you of the benefits of the proposal?' Tina asked.

I paused for a moment. Should I?

'How soon would you be able to implement the proposal?' I asked, entering into the spirit of things.

'We'd treat you as a priority. I'm sure that our current client would be understanding' she said, looking down at Jenny. Jenny got up from the chair.

'It looks like our current client is very understanding' she said and motioned with her hand towards the empty chair. What was I doing? An hour ago I had hair that was the envy of many of my friends (they would have thought differently if they had fully understood the effort that went into it looking that good!) and now here I was about to get my head shaved. What was I doing? That was simple! I was doing something different, for me anyway. I was acting on impulse. I saw something that I liked, but was not quite sure why I liked it, and now I was prepared to give it a try. As Tina had quickly discovered, there was no-one in my life to raise any objections. I sat down. Tina turned the clippers on.

The clippers ploughed a furrow across my scalp as they had with Jenny. I couldn't see what the effect looked like on me, but it was too late now. Neither Jenny nor Tina spoke while the machine moved economically over my scalp. The shower of little bits of hair was all mine this time. I didn't feel as anxious as I thought I might, as the big cut was the first one, just like Tina said. From curly mane to animal fur! All I was doing now was removing the fur that would grow back in a matter of weeks if I let it. Jenny had moved over to stand opposite me and I was conscious that she was watching me intently. I smiled at her. She matched my smile and nodded slightly. I thought for one brief moment that I saw her tongue lick her top lip, ever so slightly, but I couldn't be sure. We appeared to have a mutual appreciation thing going on! She did genuinely look good without hair and I could only hope from the unconditional look of approval on her face, that I did too.

I surprised myself by agreeing to be blade-shaved without discussion. Shaving-foam can and razor held aloft, nod of head, shaving begins. How simple could it be? I was really motoring down the road to discovery now! Jenny was still watching, I was still smiling, just thinking about the reactions of people when I next walked into the office.

'Isn't it really relaxing?' Jenny asked, breaking the silence at last.

I had to agree, even though I knew that I should probably be stressed out at the thought of facing staff and clients with no hair. What the hell, I would just say that it is a way of expressing my individuality and letting my artistic side run loose. I could feel that Tina must be close to finishing now and was starting to get really excited at the prospect of seeing myself for the first time completely bald. Seeing myself without my lion's mane a few minutes earlier had been a jolt, but my next glimpse of myself was going to be really weird. Me, hairless!

The end of Tina's work was signalled to me by a hand on the back of my head. I'm not sure whether it would be best described as a stroke or as a caress, but it sent tingles darting to places that they had no right to be darting to in the current company. I suspect that my reaction didn't go unnoticed by Jenny. She passed the mirror over to me. I held it up and peered into it.

Was that really me looking back?  I'm sure that everyone who does this reaches up and strokes their head as I did just then. It wasn't just about the look, it was about the 'feel' too. I felt. The tingles darted again.

'Well?' Tina asked.

'I love it!' I said. Jenny smiled.

'Isn't it wonderful?' Tina said.

'So you've done it too?' I asked.

'The last day of "Bold", we all did it, although Jenny here wasn't able to be with us that day, hence the shaggier look today.

'What did your man think?' I asked, eager for more information about the experiences of my fellow baldies.

'He liked it, but he says that he would rather that I have some hair than no hair.'

'Does he want you to grow it again?' I asked.

'Definitely not. He says that I'm not allowed to have my hair longer than a number three ever again!' Tina replied with a smile.

'Did that surprise you?'

'I was amazed. I thought that he liked me with long hair, but he says there's something about me with such short hair that turns him on. Who am I to argue with that!' she replied.

I stood up to let Jenny take the seat again after she had so patiently waited for me to be clippered and shaved. Tina repeated the process and this time it was my turn to sit and watch. The look on Jenny's face was more than satisfaction and I started to wonder whether she was looking at me with the hint of a slightly improper thought on her mind. I'm no prude and have certainly shared the occasional evening watching a porno with a boyfriend before now, but I have never been drawn into much direct experimentation of a sexual nature. Here I was though, feeling things that I shouldn't be feeling while watching a woman with shaving foam on her head. A woman whose tongue had just protruded for a milli-second between her lips. Was I just being silly? The woman probably sensed a stray hair and was just getting rid of it. It didn't happen again, so was I just letting my imagination get carried away with me? Tina interrupted my thoughts.

'What do you think Cate, should I shave her eyebrows?'

That really brought me back to the present moment. Shaved eyebrows? Isn't that a bit strange, I thought at first, before overcoming my own objections. Those initial objections quickly became curiosity.

'Only if Jenny wants you to' I replied diplomatically. I had just watched her have her head shaved. Now her eyebrows? Why did I find that arousing? I so wanted to tell Tina to do it!

'Jenny will, if you want her to, won't you Jenny?' Tina said.

Jenny nodded.

'Jenny has a bit of a wild side underneath her conventional exterior' Tina said, although how she could class a shaved head as conventional, I'm not sure. Tina stood there, can of shaving foam in her hand.

'I'm in the mood to shave eyebrows, so if I don't do Jenny's, I'm going to do yours' she said mischievously.

I looked at Tina. Did I imagine it or did she wink at me?

'Jump up' Tina said, patting Jenny on the shoulder. The chair was now empty, but expectant.

'Would you like me to go first?' Jenny asked, clearly thinking that she would need to persuade me.

There was a definite frisson in the air. I was sure now that Jenny was coming on to me. How many new experiences could I cope with in one day?

'No' I said, sitting down in the chair. Tina reached out her fingers towards my face. Fingers laden with white foam. I closed my eyes and felt the cool foam as it was smeared across each of my brows. There was barely any sensation from the razor as my eyebrows were transformed into something that could be wiped away with a towel.

'You can open your eyes now' Tina said. She still had the towel in her hand, but was using it to wipe the traces of foam from her fingers.

'No peeking' Jenny said as I stood up. She took my place and I had the opportunity to watch what had just been done to me. I must admit to not really knowing the practical benefit of eyebrows, but they must have a purpose of some sort. The aesthetics of eyebrows however was clear, as Jenny's whole appearance changed with the removal of those two strips of hair. She was quite different without them. Not exactly alien, but definitely strange. Was my own transformation as dramatic? Why wouldn't it be? I'm not sure that I would have done it if I had seen what I had now seen, but that just made me glad. I had done something on a whim and it was too late to undo it now. It was about time really. After all, I was nearly thirty years old and if I didn't do something a little bit wild, then it would be too late. It was something that I could tell my children, if I ever had any, when they asked about the most outrageous thing that I had ever done. At least now I could tell them that I shaved my head and eyebrows and didn't have to reply "nothing, my dears" while my head was actually filled with images of being screwed in a store room by some guy I had only met on a course that morning, which would have been the only other candidate to answer that question!

Tina held the mirror up for both of us to have a look at her latest handiwork. Jenny and I looked at each other and then into the mirror. We both laughed at what we saw! I was no less strange-looking than Jenny, with ridges of bare flesh above each eye.

'Please tell me that you have got an eyebrow pencil in that bag of yours, Tina' I said.

'Don't worry, I'll draw you some before I go' she said, much to my relief.

Jenny lifted her hand to stroke my scalp and urged me to do the same to her. The first flash of the camera caught me by surprise, but then both Jenny and I happily posed for a few pictures for what Tina called her 'rogues gallery' of people whose heads she had shaved completely. Apparently I was number seventeen, although she did admit that only six of those were women. Tina agreed to let both of us have copies and gave us her email address so that we could arrange to get them sent to us.

The  modelling session over, Tina packed away her clippers and the unused scissors. Jenny got a vacuum cleaner and tidied up the area around the chair where her own hair mingled with mine. I watched as the last remnants of my red curls disappeared up the tube. It had been only a matter of minutes since they had been firmly rooted on my scalp, but I was already getting used to being without them and any regret that I had experienced at seeing them on the floor was rapidly diminishing. I was bald and determined to enjoy it.

Tina stood out of the way while the final pass was made with the vacuum cleaner and the office was changed back into its proper function rather than a hair salon. She rummaged in her bag and came out with a clear plastic case of make-up bits and pieces in preparation for covering up her assault on our eyebrows.

'I'm fine thanks' I said.

'But I thought..?' she said.

'I want to get used to them like this for a while' I replied.

'I've got to go, are you sure you don't want me to do them?'

I nodded.

'Jenny?' Tina queried.

'You go, we'll sort ourselves out' Jenny said.

I paid Tina for both of us, happy that what she was charging for the two cuts was still less than I would pay for one session with my usual stylist. My "previous stylist", I should say, as there was no chance of me going back to him for a long time, if at all.

'Well then Cate, that might not have been the "Bold" salon experience, but it was as close as you could have come now. I hope you enjoyed it' Tina said.

'Definitely. Thank you so much, Tina. I'll be in touch' I said, giving her a peck on the cheek. Tina and Jenny said their farewells and then it was just the two of us. I looked around me at the scene of my shearing, just an ordinary shop once more. I looked through the window and across the road at the now vacant "Bold" salon.

'You must have had a grandstand seat when it was open.

'Never a dull moment while the salon was there. It's such a shame it's gone, I really enjoyed it.'

'A good place to work, was it?'

'To work in and to observe from over here' she replied.

'I bet you saw some things!' I said.

'You can say that again! I'll tell you about it if you've got time' she replied.

'I'm nearly out of time in the car-park' I replied.

She looked disappointed.

'We could meet for a drink or something, later. I could tell you then' she said.

There it was. I hadn't been imagining it earlier.

'Jenny, that's awfully sweet of you. I'm not, erm, I don't know how to say it...' I said.

'I'm not either' she replied.

Shit, I thought. Me and my big mouth.

'Oh, God. I'm sorry Jenny!' I said, suddenly feeling foolish and thinking of all those signals that I had misinterpreted.

She moved towards me and took my hands in hers.

'I'm not, but after watching you today, I really want to try' she said with a timid smile.

I looked at her.

'Really?'

'Really' she repeated.

'I just want to feed you strawberries in the jacuzzi' she said, her breathing becoming more rapid.

'There's an image if ever there was one' I said. Could the day get any more weird? I woke this morning as a curly-haired 'gypsy' and within hours I was a shaven-headed would-be lesbian! She was still holding my hands, stroking my skin with the lightest of touches.

'I haven't got a jacuzzi' I said.

'I have. And strawberries' she said.

I freed my hands from hers. I looked at her. Hairless and browless. The events that had brought us both to this point flashed through my mind. I touched her cheek briefly and took my hand away. As I watched the disappointment spread across her face, I reached up and brushed her left breast lightly with the backs of my fingers. There was another new experience for me: touching up another woman! I felt a hardness that I didn't expect to feel and let my fingers linger.

'One more surprise for you today' she said.

'A piercing?' I asked, definitely surprised.

'Plural' she replied.

'I've obviously led a very sheltered life' I told her.

'Perhaps you should let me open your mind' she said.

I smiled.

'What?' she asked.

'I'm sorry, you said "mind", but I was thinking "legs"' I replied laughing, before feeling slightly embarrassed at my own crudeness.

'That's the spirit' she said and kissed me lightly on the lips.

'Jenny' I said.

She looked at me.

'I don't think I want any strawberries' I said.

She kissed me again, exploring, savouring, her hand moving up to caress the back of my head.

'Neither do I' she said after a moment. She released her hold on me and looked around on her desk for a moment before picking up a sign that apologised for closing early due to unforeseen circumstances.

'Haven't you got one that says you're closing due to unforeseen horniness?' I asked. She smiled.

We walked out of the shop together and paused while she locked the door behind us. I looked across the road at a closed shop that had led me to an open shop, that had led me to a new experience, that was now going to lead me who knows where. Well, I had a fair idea what the next hour or so would bring. Sex. With a woman. With an older woman. With a bald head. I laughed to myself and took Jenny's hand as we walked to the car-park.

Comments welcome to dream_writer@hotmail.co.uk

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