My First Hairdresser

2017

My wife and I decided to stop clipping my hair short. As a military person, my hair had been short for my entire adult life. So, this was a new direction for us. But we also knew that as a transgender person, it was important to explore and find out what worked for us, and what didn’t.

Army haircut standards had been relaxed, and I knew I had some leeway. So, I took a copy of the regulation, and went, nervously, in search of a hairdresser. We reasoned that a barber was going to typically be oriented to want to go shorter than we wanted to go. So it seemed logical to seek a hairdresser.

Yet, at the same time, visiting a hairdresser, and explaining what I wanted, meant telling someone that I was transgender. That idea made me very nervous. To this point, less than 5 other people actually knew. When I was in the chair, and the young woman asked me what I wanted, I went full-on technical. “Uhhhhhh……” I said.

Thankfully, my awesome wife was nearby. Stepping over, she quietly explained that I am transgender and that we were hoping to morph my hair, over the next several months, to something that, though still adhering to the new haircut standard, was still much more feminine. I sat there, waiting to hear the peal of laughter. Instead, the hairdresser explained that her fiance’s brother was transgender and that they had faced a lot of adversity, and she would be glad to help! I was blown away. What were the odds?

She examined my hair and mentioned that she thought that with my facial shape, and my hair structure, and the need to remain in regulations, she thought a pixie cut would be a good goal.

She set out to do the hair cut, and soon, I was done, and it looked good! There was a lot of pent-up fear that disappeared when, after she was done, I looked into the mirror. 

Over the next few months, she worked on keeping my hair generally tapered, with increasing length. She eventually took a job out of hair care.

My wife thought that not cutting my hair would drive me nuts. I thought having been used to seeing it very short, she would quickly reach a point of not liking it. Now, months later, we have found we both were wrong.