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It was Saturday and I was working at the Church yard sale. It was around 10:00 that morning when things had slowed down a bit from the early hectic rush of bargain hunters. A few minutes later, my sister-in-law, Carol, arrived along with her friend Betsy and her daughter Anna. Carol and Betsy went to High School together and both were in their late 30’s. Anna was Carol’s youngest child who was nine years old. She was a friendly young girl who considered me her favorite uncle. As the trio strolled around looking at the various items piled and stacked on the rows of tables we had set up, I heard Carol and Betsy talking to Anna. Apparently Carol wanted Anna to get her hair cut, but Anna was unwilling. Betsy, on cue from Carol was also trying to talk Anna into the haircut. Anna had pretty below the shoulder length hair and Carol wanted it cut into a very short page-boy. With school starting in a week, Carol figured it was one less hassle for her to deal with if Anna had an easy maintenance hair style.

Carol and Betsy were getting nowhere with Anna as they tried to encourage her to take the plunge. As Carol saw that I was standing there, she looked at me for re-enforcement and said to Anna, “Go ask Uncle Bill here what he thinks of you getting your hair cut before school starts.”

Then Carol looked at me and asked, “Uncle Bill, don’t you think Anna should be a big girl and get her hair cut so she will look pretty for the new school year?” Obviously Carol was expecting me to go along with the program and encourage Anna to lose her locks. But, instead, what I did to Carol was something she would never forgive me for. Anna had nice hair which she inherited from her mother. Carol’s hair was several inches below her shoulder. Over the years I knew Carol, she fashioned many hairstyles of many different lengths. But for the past several years, Carol had kept her hair long. She often wore it braided or pulled in a pony tail. Today, however, she wore it down, revealing its full length and beauty.

I looked at Anna and asked, “Do you want to get your hair cut?” Anna shook her head no. “Then I don’t think that she should,” I replied to Carol. Carol shot me a look that could kill.

Anna, who was delighted to have someone on her side, said to her mom, “I will do whatever Uncle Bill says.”

Carol looked back at me with pleading eyes. Suddenly my heart started to beat rapidly as I was suddenly struck with a thought. The prospect of seeing Carol getting her hair cut short was very exciting. But no, I said to myself, this is a long shot at best, but I must at least attempt to seize the opportunity when it strikes. When Anna said that she would leave the hair cut decision to me, I looked at Anna and said, “Tell your Mom that you will get your hair cut real short, if she does the same thing to herself”. Anna laughed and turned to her mom and made the offer.

Betsy was amused but Carol was infuriated. “No!” said Carol in answer to Anna’s offer. “You getting your hair cut should have no bearing on what I do with my hair”.

“Well then I won’t get mine cut”, said Anna. Carol then looked at me steaming that I had done this to her.

“Anna thinks the world of you, Bill. She would have agreed to a haircut if you would have given your blessing. Now I am going to have to deal with fixing her hair each morning for school before I go off to work. It will cost me at least 20 minutes each day.”

At this point I was wondering why Carol just didn’t make Anna get a haircut and be done with it. But I later found out that Carol did not want to take that course of action as she figured it would be too traumatic for Anna which could cause her harm. But I pressed on with my long shot in getting Carol in the barber’s chair.

“Look Carol, you are asking Anna to do something she is unwilling to do. She likes her hair long, just as you do. I don’t think it is unreasonable to ask you to do the same thing that you ask of her. And if having Anna’s hair short will save you time in the morning, wouldn’t having your hair short save even more time for you?”

“But it’s taken so long for my hair to get this length,” Carol pleaded. She ran her fingers through the luxurious brown tresses to reinforce the bonding she had attached to the hair she had grown the past several years. Then to my great surprise and delight, Carol paused for several moments, looked at Anna and asked, “If I get my hair cut will you get yours cut too?”

Anna looked at me for reassurance and said “Is that O.K. Uncle Bill?” Now I really pressed the issue. I was starting to sweat at the prospect of seeing Carol get a haircut.

I looked at Anna and said, “If I were you I would only accept the deal if your mom goes first. That way, you can get your hair cut as short as mom cut hers”. I was figuring out how I would be able to witness the haircut, when I heard the words that were music to my ears.

Anna said, “Well, O.K. mom I will do it, but only if Uncle Bill comes with us.”

Carol was now resigned to go through with it since she dreaded the thought of fooling with Anna’s hair each school morning. But she thought that Anna’s request was imposing a lot on me. When she started to talk Anna out of insisting that I attend, I quickly informed Carol that I did not mind honoring Anna’s request. If only she knew the truth of the matter that I was so excited at the prospect of what was about to happen.

“When are you planning on doing this”, I casually asked.

“Well, anytime”, said Carol. “The sooner the better, or I might chicken out”, she continued.

Carol, using her car phone, called the local beauty parlor to make an appointment for herself and Anna. Her regular hairstylist was in and had
openings that afternoon.

At 4:00 that afternoon, I had finished with the yard sale and met Carol and Anna at the beauty parlor. Betsy was not with them when I arrived. Carol and Anna had just arrived ahead of me and were waiting their turn. When Carol’s hairdresser was ready, she came over and asked who was first. Anna quickly pointed to her mom, who was sent off to get her hair washed. Upon returning to the styling chair, the hairdresser started to comb out the beautiful tresses and casually asked Carol what she wanted done. “I assume that you want me to trim the split ends a little?” she asked.

“No”, Carol replied in a drawn out voice. “I want it cut super short.”

“Oh, no you can’t,” replied the hairdresser. “Not this beautiful hair that you have been growing.”

“Yes, Anna and I are getting matching hairstyles,” replied a resigned Carol.

After the hairdresser spent the next ten minutes trying to talk Carol into something less drastic, she finally relented and got out the scissors. Cutting the hair in sections, the hairdresser started to snip away. Carol, quite nervous about what was happening, flinched at the first couple of snips. Her light brown hair started to fall about her. The hair in the back fell directly to the floor and the hair to the sides and front fell into her lap. Carol glanced at me knowing that I was to blame for this happening. She closed her eyes rather than to see her transformation. The stylist, although reluctant at first to cut Carol’s hair, had now taken to the task seriously. Only fifteen minutes ago, Carol walked with long flowing hair. Now she sat with hair shorter than most men’s haircuts. As the stylist put down her scissors, Carol thought it was all over. I was so excited at this point, I was trying to hide my arousal. Suddenly the stylist pulled out the clippers and turned them on. Carol said nothing but she closed her eyes again as the stylist buzzed the clippers around the ears and neck giving more definition to those areas. When Carol was done she stood up and gazed at her new self in the mirror. As she brushed herself off, she stared down at the heap of hair that now lay on the floor. To my embarrassment I saw that she noticed that I was aroused. But what could I do? Now it was Anna’s turn. The stylist proceeded to duplicate the haircut she created on Carol.
I pretended to show interest in Anna as she submitted to the shears and the clippers, but I kept glancing at Carol.

When Anna was finished, she walked towards me and asked how I liked her new haircut. Again Anna had given me an opening. I took my hand and rubbed my fingers through her hair and said that it looked great. Then, with my heart beating swiftly, I turned to Carol and briskly rubbed my fingers through her hair. “And mom looks great too”, I said to Anna. But I could not contain myself any longer and I lost it right there. I had scored the ultimate high in seeing Carol transformed into a different look. Touching the final product was the icing on the cake.

Carol never treated me the same after that for she knew what I had done to her and could sense the enjoyment it gave me. Although nothing like that would ever happen again to me, I did have my one day in the sun, thanks to Anna and the yard sale. Just like most good things in life, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

The End

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