Her biggest architect project had just ended a few months ago and still Yuzuha Michiko hadn't gotten a haircut. Her lousy long curly hair had grown out to nearly her bra strap. But she couldn't wear it down because it was a frizzy mess and looked like took triangular shapes. So she adapted to a style of wearing her hair in a ponytail most days to keep it out of the way.
It was easy enough for the low maintenance during the project to keep her hair up and ignore the horrendous shape it was in. But not only had salons opened up so had the world. She was back to social nights and trying to date and this bird's nest was getting out of hand.
She had seen this really good salon from Shinjuku which had just opened a few months ago but was famous on Instagram. A bunch of people she follow had gone there and gotten really good haircuts. So she tought that surely they would do great with her texture. Some of the photos show curly hair in wet curls so seemed like they knew what they were doing. So she mark in her calender for her appointment. Just a few weeks from now and she started looking at some cool styles.
Michiko was thinking of a shoulder-length bob with lots of layers so it wasn't so triangular. Maybe even some shorter bits around her face. It seemed they could help her get something cooler than her current state.
The day of the appointment came and Michiko took the train from her area to Shinjuku and walked down into the busy road. The salon was on ground level and you could be seen inside from the streets. It was brightly lit with lots of sunlight in the waiting area.
As she walked in and up to the register but no one was there. There was one young girl with shoulder length hair sitting in the waiting area. She stood there waiting not sure if she should sit down or announce herself. Finally she saw the stylist with curly Bob in a olive samue as she was in the back talking to her client. She saw her notice me then she cut off her conversation with the client and came out to the reception.
"To the Winds of flower, to the stream of the river, Welcome to Katsumi Beauty. We are at your service, How can we help you?" She asked,
"Hello I have an appointment under the name Michiko Yuzuha" She said, squeamishly.
"With who?"
"Um with you i think?" She looked at the computer for a moment.
"Katsumi Kejoro?" She eyed me.
"Umm yes" I said.
"Let's go, over here" she motioned to her chair calling her partner
The salon itself was three clear stylist chair in front a mirror that ran the length of the wall. Right behind the chair we're two backwashes shampoo bowls. Michiko approached apprehensively and sat down in the middle chair as the other two were unoccupied. A woman came behind the chair, and Michiko was surprised to see a red eyed woman. She look pale looking but her white skin was glittering. Her black Samue dress almost matches her looks.
"Greetings, My name is Katsumi Kejoro. what are we doing?" her stylist, Katsumi, said and she stood behind her.
Michiko pulled out her ponytail and let the hair spread out on the chair behind her.
"Well as you can see it's quite a mess. I think was thinking we could bring it up to about here" she said pointing to my shoulder. "And then add some layers so it's not so bulky. Less weight. You know"
"Yes, we'll go short to shoulder and remove bulk so it's choppy layers." She said as she was checking.
"Yes!" I said, "that's exactly it. Glad you understand what I mean".
"Alright Dear, please come to wash your hair" the lady called her
As she stood, there was a flutter and the white cape was thrown over her. The stylist held the cape in front of her
She tightened in around her neck. It was huge and white. It covered her hole body and nearly her feet.
"Now follow me" Katsumi said. Michiko lumbered up with the large gown and made her way to the bowls behind the chair.
She thought this was going to be the highlight of the trip but this was the smoothest head massage She has ever gotten. The woman was smoothly removing the split ends and putting in the conditioner and shampoo. To keep her distracted she noticed the girl from the waiting area had taken one of the seats. Her name was Azusa and she looked young, probably a high school student. She was dressed very hip with boots and jeans and a white t-shirt. Her shoulder-length hair was curly. Less frizzy and wiry as mine but also curly.
Michiko could hear her telling the stylist who she met at the reception table that she wanted something really cool and shorter for summer and talking about different pixie cuts.
"Something really easy to maintain. I'll be traveling and all over this summer so easy grow out or recut."
Despite was seemed like such an exciting haircut . She loosely was picking up bits of the girl's hair then letting them fall back into place.
"If you want an easy haircut we can just do buzz it," the stylist joker.
I saw the girl's eyes widen. "Oh no that's definitely too short."
"Okay no buzz cut but easy to care? I'll do Pixie then yeah"
Michiko could tell the girl's initial enthusiasm and excitement were turning into uncertainty.
"That could be cool. We can still keep some of the texture and some length?"
"Sure," the stylist said, "we keep some parts long"
After only 5 minutes her head-scratching was over and Katsumi ushered her and her floppy gown back to her seat. Michiko stared at herself in the mirror with her hair in a floppy towel. Azusa was being caped next to her. Michiko tried to smile encouragingly at her. Her nerves were appearing but she tried to smile back as the cape subsumed her.
Katsumi appeared again . Michiko straightened her back in the chair. She combed her hair out very briskly and about as gentle as the head massage before it. Then, without any preamble, she took her scissors to Michiko's shoulder and cut the hair straight across. Half of it came spilling down the cape and into her lap, while the rest fell into a pile on the floor. Michiko gasped at how fast it happened. Next, she pinned the top of her head up with a big clip. Then she took hair from her sides and was going through and rapidly snipping away at pieces. She would curl hair into a knot and then just chop into it. Michiko was anxious to see the end result . Hair was flying everywhere and hee cape was getting covered in 5 inch long pieces of hair. Michiko was totally saddened. She sat there watching herself as the torture continued. She knew It would be a bad haircut at this.
Michiko looked in the mirror at the girl in the chair next to her. Her situation was no better. Her stylist didn't seem to be following any sectioning pattern and was just putting her hand on the girl's scalp and chopping off any hair that was above her knuckles. She started at the front and the whole front section was snipped to half an inch. The girl's jaw dropped. The stylist put her fingers on the girl's head again and snipped. A torrent of rain dropped in front of her face and plastered onto the cape. In about a three-minute stretch shr watched the girl go from beautiful shoulder-length curls to looking like her head just got ritually sheared. Abruptly her stylist stopped, grabbed the mirror and showed the girl the back.
"See I left some length in the back" the stylist said, showing how she'd left essentially a rattail that ran down to her shoulder. She also had slightly longer sideburns that made her hair look a bit like a Chelsea.
"See, keep some length, easy to maintain" the stylist said. She could tell the girl was in shock after losing all her hair so fast.
"My bangs,"she said "oh no I don't like bangs. They make my face look so small.
"Should have said that before we have you tiny bangs. I told you easy to maintain."
Michiko returned to her own situation. She watched as her long top hair was let down and covered up the massacre on the sides of her head. She was expecting Katsumi to style the top layer into the shorter bits. Instead she took two short snips of the bottom and left it. She quickly grabbed the mirror and showed her the back.
It looked kinda okay and little bad. Michiko realized now after just 10 minutes of cutting she thought she was done with the haircut. She had shorter than shoulder length hair and it looked terrible. Still wet and unstyled, the back and sides were so short but the top layer just sat over them. It had terrible shape and She knew once dried would be even worse. Michiko tried to explain this to Katsumi
"Can we blend the top into the sides a bit more? I really dont like it thinned because it'll be too frizzy." she tried to reason.
"Okay but you want to remove Bulk?" She queried.
"Well yes but without losing too much."
"Ok Miss"
Michiko focused her attention on the girl in the next chair. She too wasn't so happy with the result. Her long bob now hacked into an uneven mess close to her scalp.
"I just…" Azusa said disheartened "I just want to easy and simple. My bangs I'll have to fuss with every day now." She pouted.
"You don't like the bangs. Okay. So you like the sideburns? kept these long bit for you." The stylist said .
The girl gulped. Their different interpretations of "longer bits" were evident now.
"They're fine I guess. It's Kinda cute."
"Okay you no more want bangs and simpler but keep these bits." the stylist said
"Okay," the girl replied meekly, staring down at her cape-covered lap.
"To get it when I will use clippers. Will make it super simple and easy for you." The stylist said reassuringly and patted the girl on the shoulder. The girl looked concerned and watched as the stylist grabbed clippers from her drawer. They were huge and they roared to life. The girl instinctively moved her head away but before she could even get a word in, the stylists put her hand on the girl's forehead, and clippers at the crown, and pushed her hands together. A line was sheared straight down the top of the girl's head, nearly to her scalp. Her face went into shock: the stylist looked at her eyes in the mirror then turned back and pushed the clippers over her head again. This was the wildest thing I've ever seen in a hair salon the stylist was buzzing this girl's head and it didn't even seem like she wanted it.
Michiko looked back at the girl in the chair, completely in tears looking over at the people in the lounge. Her long hair she entered with was completely Unsalvageable. the stylist buzzed everything on her head down to the scalp leaving only the sideburns . It was a hideous cut and it seemed only the girl and I knew it. She looked pitiful with the buzzed clippings all over her and the long lengths in a pool in her lap.
As Michiko was finished,she spotted a mullet look not to her appreciation but suddenly she felt light as she walks back to home.