Karan was pleased with his smooth cheeks and kept feeling them. He was also getting the feel of his light head and always kept touching the top of his head as if feeling for the knot. I was also happy that I did not have to comb my hair all through and relieved that my comb finished half way the original length. It was a great transformation that both of us were coming to terms with. But as it was the result of an idea that we both nurtured since long we were not apprehensive of the consequences. We had a shower together and the quickness with which we dried up and the experience Karan had with water running off his hairless face and his buzzed head was only best felt. My shingled hair was my dream come true! We stayed on at the holiday home for a few more days and just sat back to relish the change in appearance.
After a couple of days, Karan had a sandpaper feel on his cheeks and I too played along with it. It was a different feeling. Soon after the ‘seven-day-itch’ started and Karan thought that he should keep his beard, but very closely trimmed. But I wanted him to stay on with the clean smooth look longer. Even my nape was starting to have bristles showing. We again went to the Unisex Parlour and were pleased to find Suzie glad to take us in, even though we had no prior appointment. Karan went in first and had his hair trimmed a wee bit shorter as his hair had not got into a proper style after the first short cut. He was then shaved smooth by applying warm lather and the refreshing feeling he experienced, made him change his mind to keep himself clean shaved. As his skin was tender, having shaved for the first time, he decided to let he expert hands of the barber take care during the first month. When it was my turn, I asked Suzie to trim off another couple of inches and also to clean up the nape for the perfect undercut effect. After I was caped, Suzie shampooed my hair dried it to a wetness favoring her styling prowess and put up my hair in clips so that she could shave the nape area. The warm lather felt good and the razor was cool with the cold AC air falling over the area being freshly shaved. The hair that was parted and put up in clips was then brought down by parts and trimmed to the size desired. The clean straight line just at the level of the shoulders and a little longer was what I wanted. Suzie did the right length. With this I could have options to either tie up my hair or leave it open. I went a step further and asked Suzie if she could give me bangs (fringe) on the forehead. She agreed and brought one part of my hair from the front to fall over my face. Very carefully she made a slanted fringe cut so that I could merge it with my hair as per requirement. I sure gave me a elegant and fetching look. A new style and I was enjoying myself with the versatility I had never experienced earlier. In the process, Suzie clipped, actually shaved of the hair in front of the ears where I was supposed to have the side burns. So my hair was as if it just slid over and behind the ears. It was a new and exciting style and Karan, in the newly shaved sensitive area, pampered me.
After being done up we emerged from the parlour. Suzie did not charge us as this was her regular practice to give a complementary cut for the first timers. We were on the seventh heaven of joy. Now we went shopping for our shaving accessories and had a gala time looking for all the shavers and depilatory creams. Karan settled for the Mach 3 Razors and the shaving gels while I went for the Gilette series. Karan shared that shaving was even more refreshing than brushing and cleaning teeth. We had a great time discussing our new lifestyles and spent a lot of time on bed exploring and the ‘Do not Disturb’ keeping guard.
Holiday time over we packed up and karan wanted to leave his turbans at the hotel itself, deciding that he would never go back. But I asked him to keep them for ‘old memories’ sake; just as we had categorized the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures. That we would change so soon we had never thought but it was a great metamorphosis and at when we reached home everyone was surprised, stunned but flummoxed! My m-i-l was beyond herself and embraced us to her heart’s content. She looked deeply at her handsome son and how he was covered in all accessories. He was content that he was accepted so happily. My f-I-l was expecting Karan to come his way and greeted him as a ‘buddy’. He complimeted me by saying, “Navjot beta you have adopted the family rituals very soon and I am happy you have taken Karan with you. Now only your parents need to understand which I hope they will.” Karan’s mami (Alka’s bhabhi) was visiting and while she was overjoyed to see Karan in proper shape, she said that it had been ages since she wanted to see Karan in this form. She went ahead to tell me that she had not been able to convince Karan in so many years, I had done in a few days! Secretly, I was happy to note that I was receiving all the appreciation and everyone liked my style and commented how beautiful I looked. In private, I showed my m-i-l my undercut and she was surprised that I had gone in for such an extreme style. While we rested in our room it was the undercut that Karan explored and I felt his smooth cheeks.
His holidays from office were still left so we made use of them by visiting a few of his friends at home so that they did not get surprised when he went to office in a new form. In short, everyone appreciated our move and said what a great couple we looked! The person who was very happy to see Karan was the family barber when Karan went to get himself shaved from the sand paper feel. At first the barber did not recognize him but when he was told he did the shave ‘ on the house’.
Kiran, my sis-i-l was on the phone for sooooo….. long when she was informed by my m-i-l of our change. She congratulated me for mending Karan’s ways.
My parents were angry but then resolved that it was my life and I had my choices, once I was married. They reconciled but it was very difficult for them. We rarely visited my parental home; instead they came over when they wanted to see us.
But I believe the best was yet to come!!!