Sharon’s Surprise
“Sharon, I have had enough of you chewing on you hair”, her mother told her as she was caught chewing the ends of her shoulder length hair. “We have talked about this many, many time, young lady”.
Grabbing her by the elbow of her left arm, Sharon’s mom, Sandy, guided her to her bedroom.
“I want you to take a quick bath, put on a nice dress and shoes, then meet me in the kitchen in forty-five minutes”, her mom commanded. “FORTY-FIVE MINUTES ….. Do you get me”?
Sharon knew her mom was completely upset with her. Her hands had been slapped, her hair put in a tight pony-tail, even threats of her little fingers being taped so she could not grab her hair and her hair being washed with hot source.
But, none of those threats meant a thing to her. She like chewing on the ends of her hair, even after chocking and spitting the chewed hairs up did not bother her.
Sharon, the only daughter of Sandy and Dave Miner who had three sons before Sharon was born, was five years old, had shoulder length darkish brown hair. Her three older brothers, who were seven to ten years older than she was, were at the age they did not want “little” sister around.
They had short hair all year round, Crew Cut in the cold month and short in the warm months.
She like the cold months hair cut on them, she thought their hair felt like a soft hairbrush.
After doing as her mother told her. Sharon slowly walked to the kitchen. Her mother was on the telephone ……
“Yes, that is what I want”, her mom told whoever it was she was talking to. “I can be there in fifteen minutes ….. I know but she needs to learn, ‘when I tell her something, I mean it.”
Hanging up the telephone she noticed Sharon standing in the doorway.
“Well, I see you did something I told you to do”, her mom said as she motioned her towards the garage-door. “I know you are not going to like this but it is the only way I know to get you to understand and hope you will stop chewing on your hair …..”.
‘Stop me from chewing on my hair’ ……
What was she going to do!
None of the threats worked. So, what does she will?
As they entered the garage her mom motions her to get in the care as pushed a button, which opened the garage door. They got in the car and drove off, to where Sharon did not know.
About ten minutes later Sharon recognized where they arrive ……
It was Aunt Dawn’s barbershop.
She was he dad’s youngest sister, who was the same age as her mom. They went to school together and Aunt Dawn had introduced her mom to dad.
She had wanted to be cosmetologist.
But, when she applied the classes were all filled up. The only thing they had opening in was the barber school. So, she signed up and was promised she would be in the next cosmetology class, which ended up being a year after she finished barber school.
Aunt Down was one of the first female barbers in the area.
She stated with Mr. Allen Tris, who had offered her a chair after she graduated from barber school.
He had a three-chair barbershop on Swabs Street. She took the shop over when he retired five years ago.
They had been going to her since Aunt Dawn graduated, which was five years for her.
Her mom opened the door and the little bell rang.
“Hi, Aunt Down”, Sharon called out as she walked toward where she was standing, behind the “big” barber chair.
Aunt Dawn leaned down and gave her a kiss, then picked her up and sat her on the booster seat, which was on the chair’s seat. She always put the booster seat on the big chair’s seat when she cut little ones hair.
Those, whose head was not high enough, for her to cut their hair, without the back of the chair being in her way.
Her mom took a seat in front of the chair she was sitting it. She and Aunt Dawn did not say a word to each other, than “hi” when they walked in.
Aunt Dawn put the cape on her and started combing her hair.
Then, she heard the “pop”, which she knew, from coming the Aunt Dawn for her haircut and trims.
The sound, “pop”, she had heard many times when Aunt Dawn gave her brothers their hair cut.
She tried to turn her head but Aunt Dawn’s hand was on the top of her head and holding it so she could not turn it. She looked at her mom who was sitting there watching.
Her head was pushed slight down, so she was looking at her lap. Her hair fell forward, and off her shoulders, on the sides.
Then, she felt the cold steel of the head of clippers touch the skin below her hair. Slowly the clippers moved up her neck and back of her head. Strands of hair slowly slid over the cape covering her lap.
Cool breeze touched the skin the clippers had uncovered. The clippers began another slow upward movement followed by more hair sliding down passed her shoulders.
She started to cry but her mom stopped her, “I told you ……”.
Aunt Dawn did nothing to help her but continued moving the clippers slowly over her head until all her hair was either on the cape or the floor around the chair.
When she looked at her self, through her tears, in the mirror behind where her mom was sitting, she began to cry more.
Her mom just looked at her, not saying a word.
Aunt Dawn removed the cape and Sharon started to slide of the booster chair. But, she was stopped by Aunt Dawn, who had placed her hands on Sharon’s shoulders and held her in the chair.
Her mom stopped her, too, saying,, “Aunt Dawn is not finished..”.
Sharon heard water funning and looking in the mirror on the wall, behind the waiting chairs.
She saw steam rising from the sink where her aunt was standing doing something.
Then, Aunt Dawn turned holding a white wet steaming towel.
She walked, as Sharon watched in the mirror, behind the barber chair and wrapped the warm towel around her now buzzed head.
She rose a little when the warm towel touched her head. It was not as hot as she thought it would be.
After a few minutes it started cooling and Aunt Dawn removed the towel.
She turned and tossed it back into the sink as she walked to a silver object on the shelf.
There was a winding sound coming from it. When the sound stopped Aunt Dawn turned and walked back behind the chair.
Sharon watched, in the mirror, as she began spreading white over her head, She spread a little with a rubbing feeling. In a minute her buzzed head was all covered white.
After wiping her hand of the excess lather, Aunt Dawn reached into the glass case and removed a straight razor. She walked to the right side of the chair and took hold of the leather strap, which hung from under the right arm of the barber chair.
Pulling it taught she stropped the open blade over the strap.
When she let the strap go she looked at Sharon’s mom. She looked back and shook her head “yes”.
Dawn watched as the straight razor was raided to the center of head.
She took a deep breath, of fear,
and watched as Aunt Dawn began shaving her head.
Sharon did not move ….. She did not say a word …… She wanted to bust of crying but did not …..
Sharon closed her eyes ….. She was feeling a felling which was strange to her. She did not know what to do……. So, she just sat with her eyes closed, not wanting to open them until Aunt Sawn was finished.
Aunt Dawn took her time shaving Sharon’s head. It was part of the punishment her mom wanted Sharon to experience. Hoping the slow head shaving would teach her a lesson and she would not chew on her hair when it grew out.
Now, some thirty years later, Sharon was walking toward the barber shop.
But, her mom was not with her, nor was Aunt Dawn the barber.
Her dad and mom had passes away and Aunt Dawn had retired. The barbershop was now owned by her cousin Terri, Aunt Dawn’s oldest daughter and she and Sharon were the same age, was the owner. She followed in her mother’s steps and became a barber. When her mother retired she took over the barber shop.
When they were fifteen Terri had confessed to Sharon, the day her mom shaved her head she was hiding in closet.
She told Sharon she was confused about what was going on. And, it looked, to her, like Sharon was enjoying her head being shaved.
Sharon confessed she did not understand what was going on but it did have strange feelings.
Now, Sharon was driving into the little city she grew-up in, when to school, and left after college for a job in North Dakota, where she met her ex-husband.
They had divorced, a year earlier, after a nine-year, childless, marriage. One day she came home and there was a note, for him, telling her he was not coming back. A few weeks later she received the divorce paper, sign it and sent it back to his attorney.
A few weeks later her attorney called and told the divorce was final. They walked away with when they went into the marriage with. Nothing more ….. Nothing less.
After visiting the cemetery where her parents were laid, she drove to downtown to say “hi” to her cousin, Terri, and a few friends.
She parked in the little area besides the barbershop.
She walked in, Terri saw her. She stopped cutting the hair of the boy in chair.
“SHARON ……”. Terri called with open arms as they walked to each other and hugged. “Way didn’t you call …..”?
“SURPRISE …..”, Sharon told her.
“Have a seat”, Terri told her. “I don’t have one coming after Roy. We can sit a talk a little”.
Sharon smiled and sat in a waiting chair.
She looked up the boy, Roy, in the chair. Terri was giving him a Crew Cut and she was dong a great job.
When Terri was finished he paid and went off.
“I see you followed in your mom’s steps”, Sharon said as she got up and walked towards the chair.
“You gave the young man a great Crew Cut, just like your mom would …..”.
“Thanks you”, Terri said as she shook the cape of hair clipping. “So, what have you been up to”?
“And, why didn’t you call …..”.
Standing by the barber chair, speaking to Terri as her fingertips rubbed the right arm of the barber chair. She was breathing a little harder as her mind recalled the last time she sat in the same barber chair, years ago. The strange feelings she had.
She stepped on the metal plate and sat in the chair. He mind racing …… Her heart racing ……
With a deep breath, Sharon asked Terri, “Are you as good as your mom was years ago that day ….”!
Terri shook the cape and said nothing as she tossed the cape across Sharon.
Neither said a word to each other as Terri put the paper strip around Sharon’s neck and pulled the cape up and around her neck, pinning it in place.
Crossing her legs, Sharon commented, “It has been years since I had a great hair cut, like that day”.
She knew Terri know what she was saying and she could not believe she was saying it to her.
As Terri pumped the chair to raise it a little Sharon shook her head causing her, now shoulder length, red hair to wildly fly around her head.
She watched as Terri reached under the shelf and brought up the clippers. She watched as Terri clicked it on and put a few drops on the running teeth. She watched as Terri turned it off and wiped the excess oil off the teeth.
She watched as Terri turn and placed her left hand on top of her head and gently and slightly push it down, causing her hair to fall to the sides of her head.
She sat as she felt the warm, humming clippers touch the skin of heck below the hairline.
She took a deep breath as Terri began slowly pushing the clippers into her hair.
Her eyes caught the red hairs sliding down off her shoulders into her caped lap.
She smiled as Terri slowly clipper the back of head of the red hair. Now Terri was buzzing the front of her head.
Soon she was looking at her self in the mirror behind the waiting chairs. She like how she looked.
Terri undid the cape and removed it and began tucking a white towel in the color of her blouse and spreading out over her shoulders
Then, she felt the warmth of the towel as Terri wrapped her head. The soft white shaving lather came next and Sharon knew what she wanted, what she thought of for years, was coming true.
Terri now stood on the right side of the chair with an open straight razor. She took hold of the leather strap and stropped the open straight razor over it.
Like years ago, like her Aunt Dawn, Terri raised the blade to the center of her head and began slowly shaving Sharon’s head.
Both would look at each other with a smile but neither said a word. Sharon would watch in the mirror, Terri continued slowly shaving until she had shaved the last of Sharon’s warm lathered coved red hair was shaved away.
With the last stroke the razor Sharon’s head was smooth and hairless.
She sat waiting to feel the soft hairs of the hair duster gently touching her hairless and smooth head.
But, instead Terri pushed the chair a little to the left. Her right hand was on the silver handle and her left hand was on something she had put in the back of the chair. Something Sharon did not see her do.
The back of the chair slowly lowered back until it was flat and she was looking up at the ceiling.
Like years ago she felt a feeling she had never had come across her.
Then, her eyes caught a white towel being lowered over her face and wrapped around it leaving only her nose exposed. She took a deep breath as the warmth felt good.
She heard the winding sound again then the warn towel was removed.
Her eyes caught Terri gently spreading warm lather on her face, just her dad had done his years ago.
Over both cheeks, over the top of her lips, over her neck ……
Then, she looked up at Terri holding the straight razor open. She grabbed the leather strap and stropped the straight razor a few time.
She rea
ched over Sharon’s face and began shaving her face on the left side.
Sharon laid still and let Terri move her head as she wanted. She had never had this done. Aunt Dawn did not do it to her that day. But, she had seen her do it to men when she went with her dad for his haircut.
Terri turned her head to the left and shaved the right side. Terri then started shaving her neck, first the right side then the left side.
When she was finished, Terri slide her fingertips over Sharon’ shaved face, then her head.
Sharon had closed her eyes because it felt strange but nice.
Just as she was about to open her eyes Terri was dabbing shaving lather over her eyebrows.
Sharon took a deep breath and within seconds Terri shaved off her eyebrows.
Terri wiped Sharon’s face and eyebrows with a warm towel and applied some talon powder.
The back of the chair began to raise then turn to her right.
She took a deep breath and looked in the mirror.
Terri has not only shaved her head and face …… She shaved her eyebrows giving her look she had not expected. She looked expressionless.
The chair was turned to the right and Terri told her, “Close your eyes …..”.
Sharon felt Terri applying make-up to her face. When she was finished she turned the chair to face the mirror over the shelf.
She looked non-expressionless. She like the look.
“I think I might get my nose pierced”, she said to Terri as she pointed to the left side of her nose.
“Yes, it would look nice”, Terri commented. “You might consider piercing your ears a few more times too”.
Sharon turned her head side to side.
“I might …..”, she replied.
Terri turned the chair to the front, as the door opened and in walked Mrs. Ryan.
When she saw Sharon she stopped and stared, but did not know it was Sharon. Reaching behind her she felt for a chair and sat.
Terri lowered the chair as she dusted Sharon’s head and neck.
When the chair came to a rest she stepped out.
“Well …..”, Terri asked. “As good as mom”?
Sharon turned her head side to side, as she looked at her self in the mirror behind the waiting chairs.
Then, she turned to Terri.
“No not as good as your mom”, she told Terri. “A lot better …..”.
She looked at Mrs. Ryan, who was trying not to look up at her, then turned and walked back to the chair, where Terri was standing.
“Great seeing you again”, she told Terri as they hugged. “I told you it was a surprise. Didn’t I”.
“Yes”, Terri said as she kissed Sharon on the left cheek. “It was for both of us.
“Will you becoming back”.
“YES”, Sharon replied. “Once every three weeks for a “surprise” from you”.
With that said Sharon walked out her cousin’s barbershop. To return, three weeks later for another “surprise”. This time she would tell Terri she was moving back home and would need a great barber who gave “surprised”.
The End …… Copyright © November 2012 ….. JimB