My mom cuts my siblings and my hair. Well, with five kids it’s a huge money saver. I was second oldest and the only daughter. She used to give buzz cuts to my brothers and my dad. It was quick easy. Then she’d give me a one length cut and let me grow mine as long as I wanted. But going into high school she got lazy (or just overwhelmed with having seven people in the house) and she let my brothers grow it out over the school year and then she’d shave their heads completely for the hot summer months.

I was eighteen and had just graduated high school about to start college the day came for her to cut every ones hair. My brothers had accumulated a good seven inches of growth after going a year without haircuts, and mine was down to my shoulder blades. She called us all into the kitchen and began the cutting.

My youngest brother, Dave, went first. The unguarded clipper left a huge pale white streak of scalp where once his dark brown hair had been. And pass after pass removed the hair from his head. I always had liked watching this. I never understood why.

My brother Scott was next followed by my oldest brother, Will. About half way through Will’s hair cut the phone rang and my mom answered. It was her sister, and she kept on talking as she cut all of my brother’s hair off. My other brother Dan, who was closet to my age and the only other sibling that shared our dad’s blonde hair said he had to go to the bathroom. He left and my mom finished with Will.

She was still on the phone when I sat down in the chair, and she put the towel around my neck. Then a heard a pop sound and a buzzing noise, but before I could turn around to see what was happening my mom had pushed the clippers down the middle of my head! I jumped out of the chair screaming and my mom jumped realizing her mistake and yelled the only obscenity I had ever heard her say and she hung up the phone.

“What the hell?!” I yelled.

“Oh my God, Katie. I’m so sorry I thought you were your brother! I was on the phone. I was distracted I’m so sorry.”

By now I was crying. A huge chunk of my hair lay on the ground and a strip of hair was missing from the top of my head. I ran into my room, locked the door and continued to cry. After about an hour I worked up the courage to look in the mirror. It was not a pretty sight. There would be no hiding this. I would have to shave all of my hair off. So, I went back into the kitchen where every thing had been cleaned up and my mother sat alone at the table.

“I’m so sorry Katie.” She said.

“I know mom, everyone makes mistakes. And now I need you to fix it. You have to shave off the rest.”

“Are you sure,” she asked “maybe you can hide it?”

“Nope,” I said “it’s too far gone.”

So I sat back in the chair and my mom plugged in the clippers and flipped them on. The pop sound wasn’t startling at all this time. They got louder as my mom put them at my hair line and brought them backward. Fourteen inches of my beautiful blond hair slid down onto the floor. Then again and again. Then she shaved the back of my head leaving me completely bald. I had come to terms with it after she had finished and I made her promise that she would never do this to me again.