I Got a Bowl Cut

 This all happened a couple of years ago while I was working for my mom’s landscaping business part time while I was putting myself through college. Most of the time I’d help out on jobs, just doing simple things like lawn mowing or a bit of pruning. Sometimes though, my mom would ask me to go around collecting payments from customers and that was when I first met Agnes. 

Agnes ran a beauty salon come barbershop in town, it wasn’t a place I frequented as a child because I’d always kept my wavy red hair long, only getting it trimmed every other month or so and the salon my mom used was one that was closer to home. Agnes’s salon had a beautiful window garden and a couple of shrubs that she would pay my mom to upkeep and as such, was one of the customers that I would call in on to collect payment. 

She seemed nice enough, an older lady who was always cheery and never had a problem handing over the cash unlike some of my mom’s other customers. It’s when she took an interest in my hair that our relationship took a turn. 

 It was a particularly warm day when I had called in on Agnes to collect her payment, my long red hair was tied back in a high ponytail but the humid weather meant that it kept on sticking to my neck and I had to keep pushing it back to feel more comfortable, something that was not lost on Agnes, “I don’t know how you cope in this weather with all that hair.” she remarked as she was sorting out the money. 

“Yeah, it can be a bit of a pain.” I smiled, just making idle chit chat. 

“And with all that outside work you do, it must get in the way a lot.” 

“Thank God for hair bands, right?” I joked. 

“I prefer a shorter style, it looks far more professional and you don’t have to worry about fussing with it all day.” she remarked, offering her own head as an example. Her hair was closely cropped at the sides and looked to be permed on top, definitely not a look I’d choose for myself but it seemed to be popular with women of Agnes’s age. 

“It suits you,” I offered, not knowing what else to say really. 

“You should let me cut your hair; you’d feel a lot better for it.” she blurted out. 

I momentarily thought about how I’d look with a style like Agnes’s and involuntarily shuddered, “Oh, no thank you. I like my hair the way it is.” I explained. 

“It’s a pity, I could give you a new style that you never knew you wanted.” 

I thanked Agnes for the money and quickly made my exit, I suddenly felt uncomfortable being around her as she had a weird look on her face as she eyed my ponytail. From then on, whenever I went to collect money from Agnes, I always made sure to wear my hair up but she was relentless about wanting to cut my hair. 

“Finally come in for a trim, have you?” she would always say. 

“No, I’m here to collect your payment, same as every other week.” I tried to remain polite but it was really starting to get on my nerves. 

“One day you’ll ask me to cut your hair and I’ll be able to give you that style you never knew you wanted.” Her persistence was admirable if totally unwanted. 

 It was later that summer when disaster struck. I was working at one of my mom’s jobs when my elastic hairband broke, no big deal I thought but I had neglected to replace the last spare I had in my mom’s truck, “I guess I’ll just have to deal with my hair in my face.” I said to myself, frustrated. The day went on as normal but having to continually brush back my hair was becoming a little annoying, that wasn’t the worst thing that happened that day. 

I was busy strimming the edge of the client's lawn when I happened to notice a decent sized rock in the long grass, not wanting to damage the strimmer I bent down to move the rock without thinking. My mom’s strimmer was really old and the pull cord motor was completely exposed, you can probably guess what happened next. 

“YOWCH! AAH! HELP!” I screamed out in pain as my long hair got wrapped around the motor and pulled tightly into its mechanism. My mom came running, worried I had done myself some serious damage, she was relieved to see that I was “just stuck”. 

“Just stuck?! This hurts! Help me!” I implored her as the strimmer was caught up near my shoulder. She tried her best to pull my hair back out but I cried out in pain. 

“There’s only one thing for it.” she announced, before I could even object, she had pulled out her pruning shears and CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH she hacked through my poor hair, relieving the pressure but leaving me looking worse for wear. 

“MOM! WHAT DID YOU DO?!” I screamed when I realised that a large chunk of my formerly waist length hair was now significantly shorter. 

“I saved your scalp, that’s what I did. You’re welcome by the way.” she answered as she looked over the trimmer, trying to find an easy way to remove my trapped hair. 

“What am I supposed to do with this? I look like an idiot!” I complained as I held my hair. 

“Go and see if you can get in at the salon as an emergency case, I’ll take care of things here. Come and pick me up when you're done.” said my mom. 

As I jumped in the truck, I looked at the time, there was no way I’d be able to make it over to our usual salon before it closed. I had no other option. I’d have to go to Agnes’s. 

 I had an uneasy feeling as I pulled up and parked just outside the salon. There was something creepy about just how insistent Agnes was about cutting my hair but what choice did I have? The way my mom had cut my hair to free me from the strimmer meant that I had a large chunk that barely came down to my cheekbones, even if I were to wear it up it would still look stupid. I took a deep breath and opened the door to the salon. 

It was close to closing so I wasn’t surprised to find that it was just Agnes and presumably her last client of the day that was left in the salon. As I opened the door Agnes turned to look at me and almost started saying that they would be closing soon until she realised who it was. 

“Oh my god Susan! What on earth happened to your hair?!” she cried out. 

“I had an accident at work.” I replied, blushing, “I was wondering if there was any way you’d be able to help me out?” 

She smiled at this, knowing that she was going to get what she had been pestering me about for months, “Well, it is near closing time but I think I can make an exception just for you. Take a seat and I’ll be with you just as soon as I’ve finished with Mrs Lancaster here.” 

I took a seat in one of the old plastic chairs and waited nervously for Agnes to finish with her client. I looked around the salon, at the dated photos of hair models on the wall, the women’s magazines on the table that no-one past a certain age read anymore, the old-fashioned hood dryers. I knew that Agnes did men’s hair as well but this was clearly a woman’s salon more than anything else. 

 Once Mrs Lancaster left Agnes locked the door and turned the sign to “Closed”. She beckoned me to take a seat in her stylist's chair and wasted little time in getting her hands on my ruined mane, running her fingers through it and assessing the damage. 

“Well, you certainly did a number on yourself didn’t you?” 

I explained to her what had happened and this only seemed to bolster her opinions on my hair, “I did tell you didn’t I? A nice short style would be more appropriate for the work you do. You’re going to lose a lot of length I’m afraid, are you ready for that?” she asked. 

I solemnly nodded, “I was thinking maybe you could even it out, into a bob or something?” 

“Just you leave it to me dearie, I’ll have you looking good and presentable in no time.” she smiled as she pinned the powder blue cape around my neck.  

First, she started combing my hair out, a lot of it hung in front of my face as she started spraying it with water. Then without warning, I felt the scissors cut into my hair, SHNICK, SHNICK, SHNICK, but they were cutting about an inch above my eyebrows! 

“Agnes! What are you doing?!” I cried out. 

“I’m cutting in your bangs of course dear; you can’t have a bob without bangs, can you?” 

“I’d never had bangs in my life because I was worried that it would make me look childish, “I didn’t actually want bangs Agnes,” I meekly offered but of course it was too late by now. 

“Don’t worry sweetie, I promise they will look fantastic when I’m done.” she replied before she carried on snipping SHNICK, SHNICK, SHNICK, when she was done, I was left with a clear view of my new bangs, blunt and way higher than I would have chosen even if I had chosen to have bangs. I sighed and Agnes kept on cutting. 

She got to work on cutting the rest of the length of my hair, gathering large chunks and hacking through it. I had to admit that the feeling of having less hair was a relief after carrying such a heavy weight around for such a long time. My head felt light and the breeze from the fan on my neck was a nice sensation as I watched my lovely red hair fall in piles on the floor. 

What wasn’t a lovely sensation was when I felt Agnes begin to cut the hair that my mom had freed from the strimmer, I definitely didn’t want that hair any shorter and jerked my head to see exactly what she was doing. That was a mistake. 

SHNICK! The motion caused Agnes to slip and cut diagonally right near my ear. 

“SUSAN! Just what do you think you’re playing at? I could’ve cut you, jerking around like that!” she chastised me. 

“I just didn’t want that hair any shorter than it already was.” I reasoned but she wasn’t impressed. 

“I was just evening it out, your mom did a real hatchet job on it you know and now it’s a lot shorter, just look at what you’ve made me do.” she said as she twisted my head so I could see the damage. 

It was bad, the diagonal cut meant that I’d easily lost another couple of inches. “What am I going to do?” I whined. 

“You mean what am I going to do.” replied Agnes, “There’s only one thing for it, I’m going to have to give you a bowl cut.” 

“Please no, I don’t want that.” I pleaded. 

“Oh stop being silly, what else can I do now? Unless you’d prefer if I shave you bald? Would that be better?” her tone was authoritative and she knew the answer to her question. 

I shook my head no before she continued, “Well then, you had better sit still and I don’t want to hear another peep out of you until I’m finished or you’ll be walking out of here with half a hairstyle and that wouldn’t look good for either of us. Understand?” I nodded sadly and watched her reach under her counter for something I never thought would be used on my head, a pair of hair clippers. 

 They whirred into life with a loud CRACK as Agnes turned them on and sat about evening out my hair. It wouldn’t be longer than a couple of inches all over when she was done and I felt my cheeks glow with embarrassment, thinking about having to walk around with such an unflattering hairstyle. What I wasn’t expecting was how the clippers made me feel. 

I’d never experienced such a thing and I don’t know if it was the shame, I was feeling about how my hair would soon look but the feel of the clippers vibrating against my head stirred something in me. The redness on my cheeks was no longer merely from embarrassment, to my horror I’d started to become aroused. 

I began to sweat as Agnes manoeuvred the clippers around my head, stopping occasionally to comb my hair and make sure it was perfectly straight, it didn’t take her long to figure that something wasn’t quite right. 

“Are you okay?” she asked me. 

“Ah yeah, yeah I’m fine.” I replied, my voice cracking as I did so. 

“Say, you wouldn’t be enjoying this now, would you?” She knew. 

“No, why would I enjoy having my hair ruined?!” I protested but she wasn’t buying it. 

“You wouldn’t be the first young lady to get a little excited sitting in my chair you know.” she replied, “plus that cape isn’t an invisibility shield you know, I know what you’re doing under there.” 

I hadn’t realised that my hand was clamped between my thighs but Agnes had. I blushed even more furiously if that was even possible as she roughly pushed my head forward. My chin was on my chest as I felt her pushing my hair up and passing the clippers over my occipital bone, there was no guard on them and she was shaving me as close as possible with the loud whirring of the clippers buzzing in my ears. 

“What are you doing now?” I managed to ask. 

“I’m giving you an undercut; you’re going to look like a cute little mushroom when I’m finished.” she said, it was already too late to ask if that’s what I wanted but she said it with complete authority anyway. I shuddered a little at being totally at her mercy. 

“Yeah, you like this.” she laughed as she carried on shaving me, “feel free to play with yourself, I know you want to.” 

I unhooked the front of my overalls under the cape and slipped my hand into my panties, pleasuring myself as Agnes continued to make me look ridiculous. She paused to cup my breast through the cape, she didn’t ask, just took what she wanted just like she took my hair. She leaned over and kissed me and I moaned my approval. 

“I’m finished, not that you’d notice with how horny you obviously are.” she chuckled before whipping the cape off me. I still had my hand in my panties and I climaxed as I caught sight of myself in the mirror, I looked like a fool and it was just too sexy. 

 “Hurry up and clean up your hair while I finish closing the shop.” she ordered, I fixed my overalls and grabbed the broom, sweeping my fallen tresses into the bin, just like my pride. I’d been groped by this older lady who obviously took pleasure in making me look stupid and I’d found enjoyment in it, how much worse could it get? 

“When you come back next week, I’m going to shave you with a straight razor, would you like that?” she asked me. 

I never said that I was coming back next week, and I definitely didn’t want to keep this hairstyle any longer than I absolutely had to but still, I found myself nodding. 

“How... how much do I owe you?” I asked her. 

“You want to pay me for your little eye-opening experience?” she asked in a mocking tone, “Don’t worry, I think you can pay me back next week, eh?” 

I just nodded and composed myself, heading towards the door. 

“I told you you’d love it, didn’t I?” Agnes asked me. 

I didn’t love the hairstyle but I loved the experience.