It was amazing to me how fast my hair grew and within 10 days I was itching to go back to Joe?s; to feel the bare teeth of the clippers on my head and, for the first time, a razor on my head. My husband had encouraged me to do it because he thought I looked sexy with short hair. The battle waged in my mind for a while and I held out for three weeks to make sure this was what I wanted. By then my hair was bushy and about an inch all over and I was due for a trim. I had been going through my mind what I would say to Joe once I got to the shop. When I sat down in his chair, he did not ask what I wanted. He placed the tissue around my neck and snapped the cape around my neck.

This time he got out a bigger set of clippers. No guard this time. These were very quiet clippers and he started at the top of my head. My hair began to peel from my head floating into the air, leaving a bare patch on top of my head where the clippers had been. Very slowly and methodically he mowed my hair off the top of my head. Then the sides and finally the back. He ran the clippers all over my head two more times and I was completely bald! He then took a wet towel and rubbed my head and face getting all the stray hairs off. He asked me to walk over to the sink where he rinsed my bald head with warm water. That was an incredible experience!

Towel drying just my face, he was careful to keep my head wet and we walked back to the chair. A whirring sound and warm shaving cream was rubbed all over my head. He pulled out a straight razor and methodically worked from the forehead back taking very short strokes. The places he had gone over were now showing in the mirror and there was no trace of hair! Stroke by stroke he removed all of my hair and then took me back to the shampoo basin, a place I had been to many times in a salon only for a different reason! He washed my scalp with warm water again and left me lying there. As a shampooist would shampoo my hair he once again rubbed shaving cream all over my head and took a Mach 3 razor all over my head. Then he rinsed my head with cool water ?to close up the pores.?

A walk back to the barber chair and a look into the mirror revealed a very bald head! From the angles of mirrors in the shop I could see no unsightly lumps or moles. I was relieved. As a stylist would take gel or mousse and rub it in my hair, Joe took some oil and rubbed it in his hands starting at the top of my head and massaging the oil into my clean scalp. It was odd that just two months earlier I had spent the day at the salon for the ?treatment,? a gift from my husband. The works; highlights, pedicure, manicure, a full body massage, but it paled in comparison to the head massage I was now getting! Joe?s hands were strong but gentle and with great care he rubbed the oil into my scalp.

My head was so shiny! And he handed me a mirror to view the back as he dusted my face with talcum powder. I looked at the back and my neck seemed to go on forever! The first touch was amazing! I could not take my hands off my scalp as Joe took the cape off. I got up and looked at myself close up in the mirror and thanked Joe. I walked over to the register and asked him how much I owed him. He told me it was free. I tried to argue with him but he explained that this was his first head shave for a woman and that he enjoyed it more than I did. I pulled out a $20.00 bill and said this was his tip. He gave me a bottle of oil and told me to buy a Mach3 razor and some shaving foam. I thanked him and journeyed out into the world as a bald woman for the first time, nervously??