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Linda was a beautiful woman for all the years we were married she had class and charm with wit too boot. Linda’s most beautiful asset was of course her hair. Linda’s hair growth rate was phenomenal one might say and as I said before 1″ a month. (For those who do not know the national average of hair growth is about ¼” to maybe ½” per month.) As story two was told, Linda had her last haircut in 1966, from knee length, to a pixie cut. Her parents had talked her into getting her hair cut as a sign of growing up. The so- called, dawning of age, the throwing away of a childhood look and becoming an adult. All of this done in the name of maturity, since she was of course graduating from high school and going to college. After Linda cut her hair, she missed it and vowed to grow it long again.

Linda detested her hair to be cut at all, just trimmed. But since her hair had grown to her ankles, it was cut even across and was all one full length. It seemed that she would have to cut it just to stop all the chatter at parties and gatherings with her parents, his parents, so called friends and of course the relatives. All these people constantly asking, wondering, the biggest talk and question at these events was “When is Linda going to cut off all that hair long hair she has?” “Why we have never seen Linda in a short cute style since we have known her.” “Why does Linda keep growing her hair longer,” ” Is not shoulder length hair, considered to be long hair by fashion experts and today’s standards?” They would talk not behind her back but directly to Linda and address these questions at her in front of everyone.

Linda was combing out her long locks and said to herself, ” I am sick of the constant barrage of questions, like “When are you going to be cutting that long hair short?” or “What made you grow your hair so long?” and” Do you know why we have beauty shops?’ “Why are you constantly different, always with that hair it keeps getting longer instead of shorter?” etc, etc, etc and so on, Linda looked again at her long hair in the mirror and said to herself “I will appease them, I will cut it short for Thanksgiving Day, they will all see me with this long hair no more, I will cut it short, that will stop all the nagging and bickering once and for all, I will give them something to talk about this year, Then Linda looked at her hair, held it and started to cry, why can’t they accept me for who I want to be and who I am?” So now a haircut that was going to be an appeasement hair cut to stop all the endless chatter about a haircut for Linda.

The next morning, Linda thought of Ed her favorite barber and was going to drop by the shop. This was now 1973 and Linda had been away at school, got married to Tom in 1970, moved back to the old town in 1972, had their first child and was pregnant with their second child. Linda went to see Ed at the shop. But to her amazement Ed was not there. It seems Ed had retired and the shop was under new management, someone Linda did not know. “Damned” Linda said; I wanted to see Ed again and he is not here. Linda went home and looked through the phone book for a beauty shop in the nearby town. Linda came across a place called “EMANON” hair and beauty salon, unisex. This intrigued her and she picked up the phone to call the beauty shop and talk to an operator or beautician. Linda was nervous and shaking like a leaf in the wind when the beautician answered “EMANON” “HOW MAY I HELP YOU”. Linda said “I need a haircut for Thanksgiving Day.” The beautician said we have an opening on the 23 rd of November at 3pm, Linda talked to a beautician who asked what she wanted done and Linda said “I was thinking of getting my haircut to shoulder length or maybe shorter Linda said and then gulped, she could not believe she had done this. The beautician said “Ok, we will see you at 3pm on the 23rd of November.” Linda replied “Ok then the 23rd it is at 3 pm, thank you.’ There was now just 25 more days to cherish her long hair. She was not even going to tell her husband Tom about the cut, she was going to surprise him, just take him with her to the new shop and tell him they did long hair, then say she was getting her hair done up for thanksgiving day. Oh she could not wait, 25 days left before she could surprise Tom, as he sat and watched an updo he thought, become them lifting up her hair and cutting it to shoulder length. Linda thought about it and smiled then all of a sudden, she started to cry, was this because she was going to miss all the hair she had being cut to shoulder length? No, something inside said she was pregnant and needed a haircut, but she did not know why she was crying over loosing her calf length hair. 24 days flew by so fast it seemed like just yesterday she had called the shop. Tomorrow was to be the day

Linda arrived at the shop with Tom and Tom took a seat to wait for Linda to have her hair done. The beautician took Linda to a chair and seated her and asked what she had in mind. Linda told her she wanted to cut it too shoulder length or shorter. The beautician undid the pins holding Linda’s hair atop her head. Down came the hair, spilling like a waterfall to the nape, then to the bra, then to the waist, past the chairs back and finally bouncing and coming to resting on the beauty shop floor. The beautician screamed “OH MY GOD WOMAN, DAMNED, AND YOU WANT TO CUT THIS HAIR TO SHOULDER LENGTH.” Tom always liked to watch the reaction of everyone around Linda when her hair was let loose, BUT NOW HE WAS IN EYE CONTACT WITH Linda, did the beautician say CUT, no he must have heard wrong CUT? The beautician looked at all the hair she had unpinned and asked, “ARE YOU SURE ABOUT GETTING A HAIRCUT?” Tom heard the words HAIRCUT and stared at Linda with eyes wide open. Linda was going to cut all her long calf length hair short? By this time Tom was next to her asking; “You aren’t serious Linda are you, your really thinking of cutting off all your beautiful long hair are you really going to do this? Linda nodded and Tom got louder and said; “MY GOD LINDA, I HAVE NEVER SEE YOU IN ANYTHING BUT WAIST LENGTH HAIR WHEN WE WERE MARRIED, THEN YOU GREW IT OUT FOR ME TO CALF LENGTH, NOW YOUR TALKING ABOUT CUTTING IT TO SHOULDER LENGTH OR SHORTER, AIN’T NO WAY?” Linda explained what the problem was to the beautician as Tom listened and most of the beauty shop that had come over to see what all the commotion was about.

The beautician, with a practiced hand, raised Linda’s hair up to the light and said “Oh well, if that is what you really want to do, I’ll cut it,” Tom said “Wait a minute; don’t I have a say in this?” Linda said “I was going to surprise all of your family and mine and you especially by getting my hair cut to shoulder length.” The beautician said, “If this hair were mine, I mean, if I had a head of hair like this, I would have to think twice about having my long hair cut to shoulder length?” The beautician went on to say “Cutting all of this long beautiful hair short, just to make people happy, why that is the most insane thing I have ever heard, it is just crazy, cutting all this long hair. Short hair too you would be such a drastic change for you, I think a change that you could not handle, because deep down inside of you, I do not think that you really are ready to let me cut off all this long beautiful hair, especially to shoulder length. Now tell me, do you really want me too cut your hair too shoulder length?” Linda shrugged her shoulders and grimaced looking into the mirror as the beautician bunched all of her hair at shoulder length ” Now” the beautician said, ” I do not want to see you leaving here, with hair in hand crying. Gosh how many times have I seen this act of cutting to appease and crying for weeks or months afterwards.” Tom interjected and asked is there anything she can do to appease everyone and yet not cut all the hair I love off to shoulder length?” The beautician said, ” I was just thinking and maybe, how about if I suggest to you a compromise, a hair cut, but; something oh god it would be so different with all this length, a very differ
ent type of haircut, it is called a layered cut?” Linda looked perplexed, “A layered cut?” Linda asked. The beautician said ” Yes a layered cut for sure, I would love to see you in this cut instead of a should length drab cut. Why, with all this length of hair, done into a layered cut. What this length of hair, I would start by cutting it all off at knee length to start. Then I would move to cutting at waist length, then cutting the hair next at the bra length, then come up to say shoulder length, then I would cut it about chin length and lastly cut it to eye level?” “Yes”, Linda said, while she looked into the mirror, as the beautician spoke and lifted each section of hair, at each area she had suggested cutting. Linda spoke and said “I could keep the length at knee, thus having a shorter look, yet have a different style to wear and still have it long. So short of having to cut my long hair short to shoulder length, that I know I would have detested, I now have a way to make everyone happy.” Linda thought some more about the layer cut. This cut would make her hair thinner, she would not have all the bulk she had, plus each of the cut levels would be easy to curl. Tom said; “Do it I like the idea of each level layered and everyone could say what did you do to your hair Linda, uniquely different your hair looks.” Linda agreed and said to the beautician ” I want you to cut this long hair into the layered style you suggested.” The beautician said “Ok let’s get you caped up and then we can start.” Linda looked into the mirror in front of her and saw about 20 ladies standing there looking at her and saying to each other as old bities do” She’s going to cut all that beautiful long hair off”

The beautician caped Linda with a tissue around her neck, she then pulled all of Linda’s hair out from the cape and placed it all into Linda’s lap. The beautician then pulled the cape tight around Linda’s neck. The beautician then started to comb Linda’s long hair out for the last time. Linda took a deep breath as she watched the beautician combing her long calve length hair, holding the strands out with the help of her assistant.” Linda thought am I doing the right thing and she looked at Tom who was beaming from ear to ear with a grin. “YES, I am doing the right thing.” she said to herself as she watched the final section being combed out.”

The beautician then had Linda stand up and step up to a table. As Linda stood up the beautician got her scissors ready to make the first cut at knee length. The beautician said “This cut is going to be so different with all this length, most of the other layer cuts we have done only have layers at eyes, shoulders and bra, but you are going too love this cut.” With that said, the beautician took scissors in hand and stood on Linda’s Right side as her assistant reached for a length of Linda’s hair and held it tight as the beautician cut the first cut at knee length. Schink, schink schinnk went the scissors as the calf length hair was trimmed to knee length, long strands of hair now hit the floor as they were severed by more cutting as the beautician worked methodically around Linda’s right side to her back side and then to the left side hair piled up on the floor as the beautician worked to the left front and was done. Linda was embarrassed as everyone in the shop was muttering “I cannot believe I am watching her do this”, “Oh my god she is cutting it shorter” “Why did she not get it cut to shoulder length like she said she was going too?”. The beautician and assistant saw Linda was embarrassed and ran the crowd away from the area. Linda now calmed saw a perfect round circle of hair that was now cut at knee length. Linda felt a little loss as she looked at the dear lengths of hair surrounding the floor in a small pile. The assistant grabbed Linda’s hair about an inch higher and then pulled the hair straight out and the beautician severed the length to wait length. Again she worked from right to left as the assistant pulled out a length of hair it was shorn to waist length and the hair piled up higher on the floor around Linda’s feet. Linda and Tom watched as the assistant reached another inch higher and grabbed a swath of hair and let the beautician cut it at bra length from left to right this time. Linda watched as Tom watched in amazement at all the hair being cut off and piling up on the floor yet Linda’s hair looked fuller and more beautiful as the beautician and the assistant cut Linda’s hair at shoulder length. The beautician had Linda to sit down as she cut the hair at chin and lastly at eye level. Linda was stunned at all the hair she had piled up now in her lap and on the floor and yet her hair looked fuller? The assistant and the beautician then sectioned Linda’s hair and both started rolling the layered sections with hot curlers. Linda was looking at her self in rollers a thing she detested on women. The bottom rollers looked like orange juice cans and the size got smaller at the eye level. About 30 minutes went by and the assistant and beautician had Linda stand as they undid the rollers. Linda and Tom saw a woman emerging with hair that looked like a Christmas tree of layers from eye level to knee length. Tom said “Wow, that is fantastic, just look Linda at the levels the layers and the curl at each level. Wow this is going to knock everyone for a loop at Thanksgiving this year.” Linda swirled and danced about in a circle to watch the layers play and bounce to and through. “I love it Linda exclaimed, I love it.” The assistant swept up the cut hair and threw it into the garbage can. The beautician said; “Oh Linda, yes it is a beautiful cut, better then I thought it was going to be. It is surely one nobody else can copy. It is you and you alone. Nobody else will have your one of a kind layer cut, what with all the length to your knees.” Tom paid the beautician for Linda’s cut and then took Linda to dinner and then home where Tom lifted Linda at the threshold and took Linda up to the Master bedroom, set her down on her feet and said; “Oh Linda I am glad I came and you did not cut all your hair to shoulder length, but what a fantastic day you made for me my love.” Tom reached out and held Linda and caressed her long hair and kissed her then made mad passionate love to his new found lady with longest layered hair in the world.

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