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Write a story set in a salon or barbershop.

Posted in Fiction on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 70 stories

Pennies and Years

Winner of Contest #33 🏆

I’d know his face in a dream, I’d know it in a thunderstorm. It sets my stupid heart fluttering and my fingers trembling in the scissors, every single time. Even today, when it appears at the barbershop window like a mirage, drenched in the rain, his hair looking like it’s been caught in a lawnmower, my pulse feels like it’s going to burst joyfully from my neck. I don’t know his name.   The way I know him is a long story. It starts with the girl I was a decade ago, in messy pigtails and overalls, the girl who ran wild throughout th...

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Magical Hair

Submitted to Contest #33

It was too late to run away. My mother scooped me up in her arms, though I kicked, flailed, yelled for her to let me go. It was too late to wish for something I could remember, but never could have again.Riding in a car made me feel sick. My parents always gave me the stomach medicine that churned and twisted inside of me, every time the car doors opened. It was about time that I got rid of the booster seat that I was strapped to, to keep me safe if there was an accident. All this time, in the car today, I wondered if, when an accident did c...

42 likes 3 comments 3
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Bella Visit to The Barber Shop

Submitted to Contest #33

It was a lovely sunny day in the little town of Maples when Anna and her dog went for a walk into the woods to do some bird watching. There is water flowing in the brook not that far away and Anna can smell the fir trees in the air and Bella, with her hair so soft and golden, decided to go exploring in the woods to look for something to fetch for her owner. How the sun shined on her hair and then she started barking at something in the trees. Anna went over to see what she was barking at and it was a squirrel gathering some nuts to eat. Bell...

33 likes 2 comments 2
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He Loved My Hair

Submitted to Contest #33

The Rose Gold Salon was just on Main Street. A cute little boutique ran by Mr. Gianni and his three daughters who worked as the Rose Gold’s very own hairstylist crew. The sisters worked diligently, occasionally peeking out of the window of the salon, noticing the people walking down the sidewalk in the hot summer air.  A few clients had already stepped inside as a walk-on or if they had an appointment, this kept the girls very busy. Another customer walks in around twelve thirty-five, a well dressed elderly woman, gracefully strolls int...

23 likes 3 comments 3
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Etoile

Shortlisted for Contest #33 ⭐️

I dreaded today. All the reasons came flooding in as I lifted the warm blankets and placed my feet into new protective pink slippers. Barefoot had gone by the wayside. A soft panic grew and faded as I prepared myself to face the inevitable. Logically, this was the right decision. At seventeen, life wasn’t fair. In the scheme of events, today’s task was minor. Yet, it was a line of delineation, wasn’t it? A point of change, of no return. I changed into my jeans, red runners, and the last concert T-shirt with its Black Flag band logo. I p...

21 likes 10 comments 10
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It's All Gonna Be Okay

Submitted to Contest #33

My friend Anna worked at the barbershop down the street, which is where I met her. She was more of an older sister to me, someone I've wanted my whole life. Today is our six-year "anniversary." Every time I need a haircut, she's the one to do it for me. My hair cut was scheduled today at 3:30pm. I was extremely nervous today because I had to tell her something that I couldn't even tell my own parents. I tell my parents that I'm heading out. "Be back by 5 alright?" my mom tells me. I smiled but remain silent. I head out to the barbershop and ...

19 likes 6 comments 6
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Twice, Seliece Thornton

Submitted to Contest #33

The barbershop is no place for a woman. Especially a woman with as many curves as Seliece Thornton. Many reverse mohawks were birthed in the wake of her savage strut. The moment she walked onto the floor haircuts were known to be ruined by an impulsive turn of the head. The hypnotic way she swayed her hips was an incantation to all who dared to look. Per the Unwritten Bylaws of Noah Washington’s Barbershop, a subtle glance is allowed. Maybe even an extended leer, but anything more would be counted as blasphemous and you would be shunned...

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Bad Hair

Submitted to Contest #33

My name is Jordan White, but to the world, I am a Murphy. I was born a Murphy, even before I was given a name. No matter what I do: everything that can go wrong in my life, goes wrong in my life.In grocery stores I’m always in the longest cue. I never get a seat in the bus or metro; I always have to stand in the back. Taxis don’t stop for me and I have no success at hitchhiking. Bouncers at clubs hardly ever let me in, claiming the maximum capacity of the venue has been reached. The list of things that work well for normal human beings but n...

16 likes 22 comments 22
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…By a Thousand Cuts

Submitted to Contest #33

Gretchen recognized her husband’s mistress as soon as she entered the salon. ‘Those Medusa curls!’ She thought it pretty gutsy coming to her for a cut. “Don’t tempt me,” she thought. The woman approached her and offered her hand. “I’m Samantha,” she said with a smile. “But you can call me Sam.”‘I could call you lots of things… Does she not know who I am? This is going to be weird.’Gretchen had Samantha sit. She spread a sheet over her to protect her from clippings.  “Not over my face, please. I’m not a corpse,” Samantha laughed.‘Not yet...

14 likes 5 comments 5
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The Salon Apartment

Submitted to Contest #33

The apartment above the beauty salon was often empty.Kenzie, the salon owner’s daughter, had lived there during college rent-free, but once she graduated, she moved in with her fiancé and his three dogs. The salon owner, Penny, wouldn’t allow pets in the apartment: “Just think of what those women would think if they saw a dog running through the salon, Kenzie. They’d never trust the cleanliness of the business again.” It was hard to find tenants who didn’t have pets. One applicant even had a pet squirrel, to which Penny responded by promptly...

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Color, Permanents and Gossip

Submitted to Contest #33

Color, Permanents and GossipSuzanne Marsh“I really should have named this Salon de Gossip, Soap Opera de Salon not O'Neara'sBeauty Salon. Honestly, you would think the women of this town would have better thingsto do than gossip. Sadie Thompson is coming in this morning for her cut and tint, shehas more gossip than anyone else I know.”O'Neara disliked gossip; Sadie always told some really juicy gossip, her favorite was the one about Mabel Merriweather. Mabel was always causing a ruckus of one sort or another. She was also on the schedule for...

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The Simple Secret

Submitted to Contest #33

The Simple Secret.I have found that I often get some of my best ideas whilst sitting and pondering in a barber’s chair to the snip of scissors and buzz of clippers. There is something relaxing to the drone of the barber as I ignore, usually him, and let whatever creative function manifest.   Just feeling the final spray of the fragrant liquid designed to keep unruly strands of hair in place led me to the spray-less paint roller.      Another time, the mere wrapping of the covering sheet over me le...

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The Last Haircut

Submitted to Contest #33

I took my seat in the red leather barber’s chair and waited for the cape to be draped around my throat.For two hours I’d been standing in line with every man in the city, or so it had seemed. All of us in varying states of scruffiness, respectfully standing, chatting about what was coming while we waited for our turn at Carlos’s Cuts. Now, finally reclined in the chair, the feeling of weightlessness in my feet was euphoric. Jimmy was in today. I closed my eyes and listened to his breezy banter while he tidied a man’s head in the chair n...

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Bad Hair Day or How I Learned to Love My Curls

Submitted to Contest #33

“When are you going to change your hair style?” asked the man, whose name I no longer remember. He was my hairdresser, and this was 1989. It was not a good time in my life. Sometimes a major change in hard times is necessary. Refresh, recharge, start over again. Sometimes that’s a bad idea.“What’s wrong with my hair?” I asked him, thinking Jesus what isn’t wrong with me? I could go through the list. I had been let go-oh hell let’s not sugarcoat it. I was fired because I didn’t have the experience my boss wanted. My feeling about that, rightl...

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The Women at the Salon

Submitted to Contest #33

“My mom likes my hair out of my face.” She pulled her hair back in the mirror to show the hairdresser. “But she’s dead so let’s give me some bangs.” Then she let it go. The hairdressers do their own hair when there are no appointments. They talk to one another or to the mirror like they were the hairdresser and the customer. One dons her gloves and paints her hair in a deep red. She does this often enough that her partner never knows what hair color they’ll come home with. They wait underneath the hairdryers flipping through magazines like ...

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