No More Red Hair For Lily
Due to a lost bet, Lily, a beautiful teenaged redhead, had to visit her small town's barbershop and let the barber who ran it choose her next haircut.
Mrs. Grayson, the barber, had a particular distaste for redheads. Whenever Lily's older brother Colin went to her, he always came home bald as a cueball, his face red from the humiliation that she inflicted on him. Despite the anxiety gnawing at her, picturing her brother after his infrequent as possible trips to the barber, Lily kept her word. With her head down, in a misguided effort to protect her hair, she walked into the barbershop, the bell above the door jangling to announce her arrival.
Mrs. Grayson looked up from her station, her steely gray eyes locking onto Lily's vibrant hair. A faint smirk tugged at the corners of her lips as she recognized the girl. "Look at that red hair. Are you Colin's sister? Are you here for a haircut?" she said, her voice carrying an edge of disdain.
"Yes, I lost a bet," said Lily, "You can do anything that you want to my hair."
Mrs. Grayson smiled and motioned for Lily to sit down. Her heart pounded in her chest as she settled into the barber chair, gripping the armrests tightly. Mrs. Grayson caped her. Then she started to brush Lily's beautiful long hair.
"I don't usually cut women's hair," Mrs. Grayson muttered, picking up the clippers. ", but it will be an act of Christian charity to shave your head."
Lily bit her lip, trying to keep her voice steady. "Please go easy on me. Please don't shave my head."
"No, it's for your own good, my dear. All of this hair must come off," Mrs. Grayson replied. Without another word, she popped the guards off the clippers and turned them on, the ominous hum filling the room.
With tears dripping down her face, Lily watched as the clippers made the first pass, leaving a strip of fair skin down the middle of her scalp. Mrs. Grayson worked methodically, mowing away in swift, brutal strokes. Piles of red hair tumbled to the floor.
"It's always such a pleasure to shave that sinful red hair off your brother." Mrs. Grayson smiled, putting down her clippers. "I'm so happy to be giving you the same special treatment."
Mrs. Grayson then tilted Lily's head back and lathered her scalp with shaving cream. With a straight razor in hand, Mrs. Grayson scraped away the remaining stubble, leaving Lily's scalp smooth and gleaming.
Mrs. Grayson's eyes narrowed as she examined Lily. "Your eyebrows. They're too red. They've got to go."
Before Lily could object, not that she'd be listened to, Mrs. Grayson went back to work. Using her straight razor, the barber scraped off Lily's carefully shaped red eyebrows.
When Mrs. Grayson finally finished, she stepped back to admire Lily's bare, startled face. "There," she said, a note of satisfaction in her voice. "You now look properly humbled like a woman should be."
Lily barely recognized the bald, browless girl staring back at her in the mirror. She felt small and submissive in the barber's chair. That stupid bet wasn't worth it at all. It cost her beautiful hair, her dignity, and her self-confidence.
"Thank you," Lily said finally, reaching for her purse to pay the barber.
"You're welcome," Mrs. Grayson replied. "Tell your brother that he's due for a visit."
Mrs. Grayson took Lily's twenty and then shooed her out the shop. She had to clean up all that hair that was on Lily's head from her floor before her next customer. As Lily walked out of the barbershop, the bell jingling softly behind her and beads of sweat forming on her bald head due to the summer heat, she felt a wave of despair wash over her. As she trudged home, her scalp getting pinker and pinker, she couldn't shake the feeling of ugliness that now clung to her like a stink.
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