When Sumiere came out of the shower, she found her boyfriend fiddling with her phone, glancing through the photos in her"favorites" folder. could see that he was agitated by the way that his long beard quivered from his heavy breathing.
"Looking for something?" He was so intent on searching her phone that he didn't even notice her come up.
"Yes, the pictures of that you're cheating with", he hissed. "I should have known. You're never in the mood for me but you still wear your nice lace underwear and work out. You have photos of this other guy on your phone."
Sumiere was stunned to hear that. She was most certainly not cheating on Suneo. "Go ahead, look through the photos on my phone. Look at my messaging app and phone call records. Take a good look at the bloke in the photos and tell me if you know who he is. Go on, tap the pictures and zoom them up as big as you need."
She waited as Suneo studied the photos of the "other guys" in more detail. Sure enough, his eyes grew bigger when he recognized him.
"That's me, when we were first met."
"Yes, that's right. You didn't even recognize yourself and thought I had a new lover. There's the clue. You don't look much like the man I dated. The man in those pictures was urbane and sophisticated with his handsome clean-shaven face and short, textured spiky crewcut."
Suneo fingered his mid-chest-length beard. Sumiere hated that thing but it was his choice how to present himself. His hair was now at mid-back, but he usually put it up into a man bun. She hated this too, but she understand that it's usually unwise for a woman to comment about a man's hair to his face.
"That's what it is? You used to not be able to get enough of me. We were two gingers against the world."
"Some women are visually-stimulated to a degree, too." Of course she still love Suneo as a life partner and housemate, but don't find him sexy like this. He looks too much like a dwarf or old-time wizard in a fantasy film.
"At least you're not cheating on me."
"I would never dream of cheating on you. I'm not seeing anyone else. I admit that I like to look at old pictures of you and remember the early years."
Sumiere would be attracted to him again in that way if he looked even a little like the way he used to.
"Does this mean you don't like my beard? I thought it looked handsome."
"No, I don't like your beard. I want to see your attractive face. That beard covers the whole bottom half of your face, plus it usually smells dirty. I don't want to kiss that ratty thing."
"And that means you preferred my hair super short, too." Suneo was quick to put two and two together. Sumiere loved the look he had when we first met: buzzed back and sides with about an inch on top, textured and styled into mini-spikes. It was similar to the haircuts that were popular among young men when I was a teenager discovering boys around the turn of the new millennium.
She nodded. "You looked gorgeous. I'm sure you're still stunning under there somewhere. I didn't just marry you for your looks, of course, but it's a nice bonus."
"If I shaved my beard and cut my hair, would you find me sexy enough to want to get it on again, like when we were first together?"
"Probably." Without a doubt. Sumiere didn't want to promise too much and she didn't want to make him feel bad by being too eager, but she did want him to reach the right conclusions about how to be attractive to me.
Sumiere said nothing more about the issue that day or the next. They carried on as usual in every aspect of our daily lives. It was enough that Suneo knew that she wasn't cheating and had a clue as to how to get me to desire him again.
One Thursday evening, Sumiere came home from work to find Suneo already home. She could see the difference immediately: he had cut his beard so that it ended right past his chin instead of at mid-chest like an 1849 gold prospector.
She gave him a hug and nuzzled his nose a bit before kissing his forehead, but She didn't go beyond that. He seemed a little disappointed that he wasn't getting a bigger reward, but it had been a long time since she had given him even that much.
On Friday night he told her that his colleagues had responded favorably to his shorter beard. Some of the women had expressed a desire to see his bare face, now that it was just a little bit easier to imagine him having lips and a chin.
"They said I look younger and less like a mountain bandit. My boss said I look more intelligent and educated with less facial hair. That was horrifying, to think that people thought I was backward and uneducated, possibly even criminal as well."
Suneo was up before her on Saturday morning and had already locked himself in the bathroom but she didn't hear the shower yet. He was in there a long time before the water started running.
When he finally came out Sumiere gasped and ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. She covered his newly-bare face in kisses, even the tip of his chin. He had shaved. She couldn't stop nuzzling his smooth cheeks. He was still gorgeous under that massive beard, after all.
After breakfast as they cleaned up she could see a mischievous gleam in his eye.Sumiere had a suspicion of what he had in mind but didn't dare to hope. He had left his hair in a messy bun and not washed it in the shower.
"I bet you'd love to do the honors and snip off the man bun."
Suneo handed me kitchen scissors to cut off the man bun right at the base.Sumiere never hesitated a single moment as she hacked through the hair. It was only after she held the severed man bun in her hands that it occurred to her that he would need a follow-up haircut in order to look presentable.
"I think a professional should take it from here." Suneo was right. "But of course you want to come and watch. I made an appointment for that, at the salon inside the covered market."
Salon?
When they got there, she saw that it was a beauty salaon called Katsumi's beauty A barberette was waiting in front of a workstation with clippers hanging up next to the mirror.
"Hello, I'm Suneo."
"Greeting, my name is Katsumi. How may I help you."
"I may have told you in the call about my cut"
"Yes, Please have a seat"
Suneo had given instructions over the phone so that Sumiere wouldn't hear the consultation. He knew she would enjoy the suspense.
Katsumi had him caped up in no time. She did not wet down his hair, but she did section off the top. Sumiere saw her insert a tissue at the neck of the cape. At least the neckline would be clean.
Katsumi was quite pretty, but she could see she was a true professional. Some women don't want their husbands going to hot barberettes, but she felt that she could trust Katsumi, and more importantly, she could trust Suneo. Besides, he had chosen; if he had seen fit to let her work in shop, she must be good.
She ran her hands through the messy mullet that Sumiere had given Suneo, feeling his head for bumps. She knew that his head shape was good and that he didn't have any lumps or bumps that would interfere with clipper-work.
Katsumi picked up a comb and a pair of clippers. She did not attach any guards and began cutting his nape hair clipper-over-comb. This was pretty close to his scalp. She continued in this fashion all the way up to his crown, then extended the cropped sections to the left and right until his ears were exposed. Sumiere realized that she was just taking off length as a preliminary step as she turned off the clippers and snapped on an attachment.
She couldn't see which attachment it was, but she could see a clear difference between the sections that she had cut clipper-over-comb and the newly-buzzed parts. As Sumiere watched she changed the attachments several times to taper down toward his neck and sideburns. She was satisfied to see the smooth, clean taper down to nothing at his nape, which she carefully cleaned up with edging clippers. Katsumi was keeping the neckline softly blended and natural, but she did go up and over around the ears plenty of times. Suneo must have told her that Sumiere like a clean ear line.
Finally she took down the top. It occurred to her that she could just leave the top as-is, which would look dreadful, but if Suneo was trying to tease her, she might. Katsumi combed through the top hair, then parted it on the right. She sprayed some water on it, then began grabbing some hair between her fingers. At about an inch or so from the scalp she snipped the hair with her long, mean-looking shears. Good, it was going to be a crewcut.
Once Katsumi had reduced the entire top to about an inch she inserted the comb at the edges to blend it into the back and sides. Next she blasted Suneo's head with the hairdryer, then switched to thinning shears to texturize. When she was all done she rubbed a little bit of product in the top to make it stand up in very short spikes. Here was the Suneo she remembered!
As they thanked, Suneo drove the car while Sumiere touched his buzz cut and said." You look more handsome now"
"Am I, then for our next visit, will you cut your hair as per my liking"
"sure, anything you want" she said as they shared a kiss.