Your barber, Roberto, is in today, so you request a haircut and beard trim from him at the front counter.
Roberto waves you over to his chair, and sitting in it, you notice that you don't fit as well as you used to in it. The chair slightly squishes your thighs as you slide in, but eventually you get comfortable with it.
"So what will it be today", says Roberto.
"The usual and a beard trim", you reply, before realizing that he probably has no idea who you are.
"The usual? Sorry, not sure I've cut your hair. Been here before?"
Saving face, "Oh, yeah, uhh.... sorry, I just...uhh...moved in to town, an old habit. It's a been a while, something a different than now -- how about a high fade and a beard trim to stubble?", you said, but you noticed that there was something different in your voice, maybe a tonal change? Not sure, but the way you talked seemed to be a bit different than usual.
Pinning the top of your hair with a clip, Roberto begins to shear off the side, the curly dark brown hair falling as the side of your head gets closer and closer to stubble and a perfect fade. Then, grabbing his shears he begins to cut the top portion down and down.
"So, what's your name?" Roberto asks.
Thinking quickly on your feet, "Nikos", you respond, but you meant to say "Nick". Saving face, you say "But most people a call me Nick". Wait -- that was it, there's a bit of a Greek accent in your voice, you're sure of it.
Roberto continues, "Nice to meet you Nick, where did you move from?" Once again, you mean to say "just across town", but instead you blurt out "Athens -- sorry, I mean -- Albany" again, with a bit of a Greek tinge, "but my family is from Athens. We moved here when I was very young".
"Well, welcome to New York" Roberto says as he finishes up your hair and starts on your beard. Taking the trimmer down and shearing off a lot of it, it's reduced to a long stubble. You can clearly see your face has reshaped as well, it's very well defined. And is that a cleft in your chin? You wonder if or how you will ever be able to go back to the way things were.
Roberto puts the handheld mirror behind your head and you see the clean and defined fade all the way around, and you admire how the sides of your hair look faded into your long and thick stubble.
"Care for any product?" Roberto asks, catching you off guard. "Some paste maybe?" you reply, but Roberto says "Oh no, that won't do, you need some pomade to keep these curls. Paste won't work at all". "Ok, that sounds good, I think it will look good on me", noticing that your English is ever so harder to speak and that accent is growing a bit stronger.
You pay for the cut and once again head outside. Looking at the windows again, you notice that you're definitely looking more presentable. You feel the sides of your head and admire the fresh feeling, and how the curls on top sit so nicely. Feeling them, how luscious and full and light. Feeling your cleft and stubble with your hand, how thick and full it feels. You definitely have the looks of a model, but as you look down, your clothes definitely need to change to fit the bill. The shirt is hiding your wonderful chest and arms, and your shorts are ratty.
Deciding to splurge a bit, you head down to the fashion district to see if you can find something that will show off your newly found physique.