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Options chosen by kensr on the ltah message board. Please do not share or distribute this story without properly attributing it to “lovetobeclipped”.

Anna and her mother Maria had always had a close relationship. Her dad had passed away when she was fairly young, leaving her mother to raise her with the help of her grandparents. While the two of them had different senses of style, and therefore dressed differently, they looked quite similar; from their stature, to their facial features, to their hair. They both had golden blonde hair, while Anna thought that her hair was a little bit more Strawberry blonde, and her mother’s more golden, everyone agreed that apart from age and clothes, they could be twins.

Anna had always kept her hair long, down to the middle of her back. Her mother would trim it for her every 6 months or so to keep it in good shape, but apart from that, the most she ever did was style it. Her best friend since pre-school, Audrey had similar length hair; the two had  grown up braiding each others hair, and by high school took pride in their ability to create elaborate braids and up-dos for one another. As she was now approaching her high school graduation, she had begun thinking about cutting it short. Part of her wondered what it would be like to chop it all off, the change was exciting to think about. She was hesitant to make such drastic change though, her hair had been this way forever, and she didn’t know any different. After it had been in the back of her mind for a while, she finally got the courage to voice it to her mother.

“Mom, what would you think if I wanted to try a shorter style for a change? I’ll be graduating soon and it feels like it’s a time for a change.”

“I think it would be a great idea if that’s what you want, I’ve always tried to give you the freedom to choose how you wear your hair, and I think especially now that you are almost an adult, you should do what you feel is best. What style are you thinking and when and where would you like to do it?”

“Well, I think it might be nice to keep it long for graduation, Aubrey and I have been talking for ages about how we want to do our hair. I was thinking though that since my birthday is not long after graduation, we could maybe have Aubrey over for dinner, and do it then. Do you think you can handle a bob?”

“I think we can make that work, I’ll probably want to research a little about how to best cut it, but I think it’ll be fun.

The two of them spent some time looking through haircutting tutorials finding the perfect look. After considering an angled bob, and even at one point a pixie cut, they decided to settle on a classic bob.

Anna’s senior spring flew by quickly with prom, parties, and final projects. It wasn’t long before it was graduation, and the girls were putting the finishing touches on each other’s hairstyles. Anna was wearing hers with two fall through braids around the top of her head and a bunch of large curls pinned up on her nape. Aubrey had hers twisted up with some curly tendrils  of her dark brown hair down her neck. The night flew by quicker than either of them expected, and it wasn’t long before they were home with diplomas in hand, exhausted from picture taking and celebration.

Three days after graduation, Anna was running down the stairs to open the door for Aubrey who greeted her with a big hug, yelling, “Happy Birthday!” as she hugged her best friend.

The two made their way into the kitchen where Maria had laid out homemade pizza and caesar salad. The three enjoyed their dinner, chatting about what the girls had planned for their summer, and how quickly college was approaching. After dinner, the girls helped Maria clean up. Once everything was put away, their thoughts turned to the haircut.

“Are you ready for the big chop?” Audrey asked her friend.

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I’m nervous, but excited to see how I’ll look.”

Anna brought a chair into the kitchen and sat down. Her mom draped a towel around her neck and then picked up a comb from the haircutting kit she had brought out. She carefully brushed through her daughter’s hair, removing what few tangles there were. Once Anna’s hair was combed through, Maria picked up the scissors. Using the comb as a guide, she placed the scissors a couple inches below Anna’s chin. “Last chance to back out,” she said as she help the scissors there.

“Go for it mom”

With that Maria closed the scissors, sending two feet of hair to the ground. Anna was half smiling, half grimacing as Audrey looked on, smiling and watching intently as her friend’s hair was slowly snipped off. Maria took the next snip, the scissors made a distinct crunching noise as they snipped though the dry hair.

It was surreal for Anna, she had thought about this cut for so long and now it was finally taking place. With each snip, her mother was removing years of growth, years of time spent braiding and washing, all gone with a quick snip. She was so excited though to see the final result, each crunch made her head feel a little lighter, and the excitement and shock had her intoxicated with adrenalin.

After a few minutes of Maria carefully cutting around her daughter’s head, Anna was left with a rough bob. As her mom stepped away, Anna gave her head a good shake, giggling as the hair swung around her face. “I love it already!,” she exclaimed with a grin.

“Well let me get it all cleaned up and hopefully you’ll like it even more. And then you’re next Audrey?” Her mom said the last part turning to Audrey with a smile on her face.

“We’ll see, I don’t know that I’m ready to part with my hair, but we all know how persuasive Anna is when she wants to be.”

The cut continued as they bantered, Maria had pinned up most of Anna’s hair, leaving the bottom layer to be trimmed. Once she had cut a nice straight line across the neck, she let down the next section, proceeding with a few more thin sections. Once the back was complete, Maria started cutting the sides to match. Section by section, she snipped away, first horizontally and then taking sections vertically, trimming the slightest bit from the ends to help shape the cut. After cutting a few stray strands here and there, she gave it all once last comb before handing Anna the mirror. “What do you think hon?”, she asked.

“I love it; you did an awesome job Mom, thank you. It is even better than I imagined it.”

“It looks so cute on you”, chimed in Audrey.

Anna thanked her and then looked down at the ground at all her hair. “My god, I had a lot of hair,
” she said with a laugh.

She and Audrey swept up all her hair, and threw it in the trash while her mom cleaned up her haircutting kit and put everything away. Once everything was cleaned up, the two girls went up to Anna’s room, talking excitedly about her new cut. Audrey and Anna started a movie and sat down on Anna’s bed. They watched the first bit, but soon grew bored and started chatting about their past school year, and all the experiences they had. Aubrey played with her hair as they talked, and after a rare moment of silence turned to Anna and asked, “So you think your mom was serious about cutting my hair?”

“No silly, she was just teasing you.”

“I know that, but it got me thinking, what if I did cut it; I mean we’ve had long hair together for so long, seeing how great you look makes me want to try something new as well.”

“You’d look great with a nice pixie cut,” Anna responded, “or maybe you should go all the way and buzz, I’ve seen some women who look really cute with a buzz, and with your facial features you could definitely pull it off.” Anna added the last part in jest, but as she said it she could see the wheels turning in her friend’s head.

“Does your mom have clippers?”

“You mean you want to cut it now?

“It could be fun, chop all this off,” she said, holding up a handful of her hair, “try a new look, why not?”

“Ok, I guess if that’s what you really want I can see if we have some.”

Anna found her mother, who while shocked at their plans, dug out the clippers she had from when she cut her late husband’s hair. When Anna’s dad was alive, Maria had always cut his hair and while on the older side, the clippers started right up. Maria showed her daughter how to use them, and gave her a few attachments. Anna thanked her mom and ran back upstairs to her room.

“I found some clippers, are you sure you’re ready to do this? You know we can wait a few days in case you change your mind.”

“Thanks, but I want to do it, in a couple days I might lose my nerve. While it is a bit spur of the moment, I’ve been trying to build up the courage to try something new for a while. Let’s get on with it.” Audrey said with a grin as she sat down in Anna’s desk chair.

“Ok, if that’s what you want.”  Anna got a clean towel and draped it around Audrey’s neck, “You’ll probably have to shower afterward, but hopefully this will keep most of the hair off you.” Anna picked up a pair of scissors from her desk saying, “I suppose I don’t need to be exact chopping off the bulk of your hair, the whole lot is coming off either way.” With that she put the scissors around a chunk of hair at Audrey’s jaw, and closed them, dropping the first section into Audrey’s lap. She continued, unceremoniously hacking off lock after lock as she made her way around her friend’s head.

With strands of brown hair littered across Audrey’s lap and the floor surrounding the chair; what was left hung in a very rough jaw length cut.  Anna put the scissors down said,  “Well that about covers the first half,” she said smiling at her friend in the mirror, “what do you think? Should I switch my career path to hair stylist?”

“Stick with what you’re good at, you got the job done though. I can’t believe we’re doing this, now I know how you must have felt earlier. My heart is racing, but I’m enjoying the process.”

“Are you ready for part two?”

“Go for it.”

Anna snapped the longest attachment onto the clippers and turned them on. She put them up to Audrey’s forehead, watching in awe as they plowed through the hair, leaving a soft pelt of hair where they had gone. Audrey reached up to feel it, “oh my god, it’s so fuzzy, it feels nice,” she exclaimed.

“Just wait till your whole head is like that.”

Anna ran the clippers back over Audrey’s head, widening the path more and sending another foot of hair to the ground. She meticulously continued the pattern, removing all the hair from the top. “I think I should leave it like this, you look like an old man.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“I’m just kidding, let’s get you all finished up,” Anna said as she turned the clippers back on and placed them in front of her friend’s ear. She slowly pushed them up the side of her head, connecting with the buzzed patch on top. As she continued along the side of her head, the style started to take shape a little bit more. Once the left side was finished, Anna started in front of the ear on the right side, removing all the hair up to the top once more. It wasn’t long before only the back was left. “Want a mullet?” she asked Aubrey jokingly.

“Buzz it off; nobody should ever have a mullet.”

It only took a few more minutes for Anna to finish cleaning up the back, after checking for any strays, she pronounced the cut complete.

“So what do you think?” Anna asked as Audrey looked in the mirror.

“I think I love it, and it will be so easy to care for.”

“You look really pretty with it, your eyes pop so much.”

“Thanks, thanks for cutting it.”

Audrey went off to shower while Anna cleaned up all the hair. When Audrey returned she came in with a big smile, “this is so awesome!” she exclaimed as she brushed her hand over her head, “it feels so good in the shower, and it dries almost instantly. No wet hair in the morning for me.

It had gotten late, so the two of them started getting ready for bed. They were so giddy though that it took about an hour of chatting for them to finally be ready to sleep. As they fell asleep they both felt content with their new cuts.

Thank you for reading, any and all feedback is welcome.

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