Headshave story of Shreya

Hi everyone, my name is Shreya and I would like to tell you the story of my headshave. 

This year I finished my 10th standard and my elder sister finished her 12th standard. My parents were really happy we passed with good marks. We live in a remote village and not many girls study here. We are going to join college and study further to become successful.

Before our exams we visited a lot of temples and we prayed that we get good marks. And now that we passed we wanted to go back and thank the Gods. We planned to travel to the temple on Saturday and return on Sunday. The temple was far so we had to leave on Friday night itself.

Thursday evening father came home after work and told mom and him wanted to discuss the travel plans. My sister and I were excited that we were going on a small trip. As we started chatting father said that, he had prayed to the Gods that if we both pass with good marks he would bring us to the temple and offer our hair. So he said Saturday morning when we reach the temple you both will have to shave your head before we go to the temple.

My sister and I were shocked to hear that we had to give our hair. We both started crying and asked mom if we could just cut a section of the hair instead of shaving. Mom said God did not just give you passing marks right, we had pleaded for good marks and you have got it. She said now it's your turn to fulfill what we had agreed. We could not believe that they decided to do this to us.

That evening mom applied oil to both me and my sister's hair. She even gave us a good massage and said take head bath tomorrow morning. The next day morning we both took a good shower and washed our hair. Both me and my sister had beautiful thick straight long hair that was below the shoulders. It used to shine in the Sun and was very smooth. Mom dried our hair, combed it well and braided it. She had bought fresh flowers which she inserted into the braids.We both took lots of pictures as we knew it was the last day with long hair.

We left to the temple that evening and reached the town early morning around 4am. We checked into the hotel and freshened up a bit. I did not also through the journey thinking about tomorrow. We went to the temple at around 6 am and dad bought two headshave tickets for us.

We went inside and saw lot of women coming out with freshly shaved heads. My heart started racing looking at them.

Mom took both me and my sister to the hall. Mom said first left my sister finish her shave and then next it was my turn. She removed my sister's braid and seperated the hair into two sections. She tied the hair into two pony tails one on each side and secured it with a rubber band. Our ticket was booth number 37. We got there and saw a lady getting her head shaved. As she finished the barber asked my sister ro sit down. He took the blade from my dad and checked if the ticket was correct.

He took my sisters head and bent it down, took a large mug of water and poured it on her head. He used his fingers to let the water enter inside and soak her hair. He massaged her scalp so that is full wet. My sister started crying as she knew it was about to start. He inserted a fresh blade into the razor and bent her head fully down. He two pony tails hanged down on either sides.

 He placed the razor right at the middle of her head and made a scratch. A big one, and her white scalp was exposed. He then turned her head towards the left and started to shave her hair on the right. The sttrrrrrrrkkkkk strrrrkkkk sound made me nervous as I saw her hair fall off from the head and hang. In 5 minutes he shaved the the right side of her head. He then quickly turned her to the right and started to shave the left side of the hair. In another 4 minutes her shaved the left side of her head. He had left some parts of the hair at the back and rest of the hair was hanging on to it. 

He asked her to turn around and she got up and turned quickly. He lifted her head towards the back and quickly shaved the remaining hair. Her two long pony tails fell on the floor. He sprayed water on her head again and reshaved her completely. She was fully shaved now. It was my turn next.

When my sister was almost finished mom removed my braid and tied it into two pony tails already. So as soon as she got up mom made me sit down in front of the barber. I could hear my heart beat suoer fast. He took my head and bent it towards him. i could feel the cold water entering my hair and flow on my face. He massaged my hair for few minutes and prepared it for the shave. He took a minute to insert a new blade as I looked up.

Then he bent my head fully down as I closed my eyes. I could feel the cold steel razor touch my head and scratch my scalp. Strrrkkkk first shave and I felt the cold air hit the shaved area. He turned my head to the left anf started to shave the right half of my head. Strrkkkk Strkkkkk i could feel the razor slide against my skin cutting my long hair off my head. In about 5 mins he shaved my right side and finished fully. The lump of wet hair fell on my lap. He turned me to the right and shaved the left half of my head. In the next 5 minutes I was fully bald. He spray water again and shaved the entire head again to make sure there is no hair left. By now I was fully shaved and looked like cue ball.

I got up and saw my sister and she still had tears in her eyes. I could feel the cold air hitting my bald head. I to touched my head for the first time and could feel the small hair that was cut off from the long hair. I saw someone take away my gorgeous long hair as I stood there. Mom took us for a bath and cleaned all the small bits that had fallen.

As we finished drying up she had the yellow sandlewood paste ready. We did not want to apply it on our head but mom said it will help cool the head as the razor would have made cuts. She was right my whole head was feeling like a burning flame. She applied the sandalwood paste generously on both of our freshly shaved heads. We went to the temple and prayed and thanked the God for the the results. My parents were very happy that we could fulfill their wish.

Writer - Nickole Alejandro 

Thank you