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Here is Joe gently being teased into a different style of dressing.

Wednesday and his ears are throbbing a bit, but now he has got used to them he is getting to like them and wonders what he will wear when he can change them. At work Kay asked if he liked his ears, he told her he was getting used to them, then she retold a conversation she had had with his mum the night before, where his mum had accused her of influencing him and his style. But as far as Kay could tell, the tabard and first hair styling, maybe the second were her doing as part of a tease, but from then on it had been Joe who she felt was driving the choices, even his mum had suggested the highlights. Kay finished with a question 'do you feel I have pushed you into any of these treatments, and have you felt it wrong of me to do anything to you these last few days?'
'Not sure I liked the tabard at first, but I have seen it as part of the experience, and I am getting to like making myself look better, and it is good to see how life is from the other side, isn't it?'
'So you have no problem looking like a Josie rather than a Joe?'
'Still not sure about the name, but no I don't mind being Josie while I am here at the salon'
'Till Saturday then I look forward to seeing Josie, but maybe we had better cool it a bit with the feminine stuff, for your mum's sake'
'Maybe' was Joe's short reply.
Kay just kept eye contact and smiled at the ambiguos reply.

Things were frosty when Joe got home that evening, ending up with him stating that he liked looking pretty and being taken for a girl. Rather said as a teenage reaction to her ringing Kay than any real desire to dress that way, but as many know, if you tell a teenager no, then that is what they will do. So come Thursday morning while his mum is in the shower he is at her vanity unit giving himself a full face make up, foundation, blusher, stronger eye shades, brighter lipstick. And then before she could say anything he was out of the house and off to work. Kay saw him first 'does your mum approve?'
'She doesn't know'
'I see, well come inside and lets just take a closer look at what you have done' Kay then took five minutes toning down the roughly applied cosmetics explaining what she was doing as she did so. When finished the make up looked far more natural and Joe felt more comfortable. Though what his mum would say when he got home was another problem.

His mum was rather relaxed about the made up face when he got home, and just asked about his day at the salon, not wanting to exacerbate his teenage rebellion. But before they went to bed, Joe was downstairs in his soft pink pyjamas, she suggested that she help him in the morning with make up if he was going to do more than a lip gloss, Joe not sure what to make of this U turn, managed a 'oh right, thanks' in reply. But come the morning felt able to sit beside her while she did her face and accept tips as he did his own. That morning he decided to wear the black blouse because he might never get another chance. Kay just summed it up when he got to work 'very pretty Josie, I tell you Joe is disappearing a little bit every day now, but one day left then it is back to school'

Saturday was a bit of an anti climax due to there being a constant stream of customers and no chance to enjoy the last day being called Josie. If Saturday was dull, Sunday was a real down. First he had to take the highlights out of his hair and try to get it back to a pre work experience look, which ended up looking scruffy, the make up was easy but the nails took an awful lot of filing to reduce the depth of added nail, and then there were the four ear piercing, as he understood it he could not take them out, so they had to stay at least for another three weeks. His hope was they would be seen as being 'cool' and not sissy by his mates.

Over the first week Joe got used to being Joe again, he was proud of his news that he had been offered a job when he left school, but some made the connection between a job in a salon and the studs, luckily Joe was confident enough to brush them off and tease whoever was making the comments.

He was back at work the following Saturday, as Joe really, his hair was wrong so he opted for a plain look which got a disappointed reception from Kay. Joe promised to try a little more in the future. So for the weekends he started to blow dry his hair into a style something like he had had before, and would wear light make up and his female tops to work, this clearly met with Kay's approval who clearly preferred Josie to Joe at work. What was surprising to Joe was his mum was coming back to encouraging him again, at first she had helped him, but then cooled off trying to stop his feminine development, but now with Joe back six days a week she seemed to be looking forward to Saturday and having Josie back. She said he was softer and less bullish, also more helpful around the house the more girlie he was. This change was most clearly noticed when she bought him some pjamas and then pointed out his body hair was returning a few weeks later and bought him some hair remover.

With exams to focus on Joe was stopped from working full time at the easter holidays, but knew that within a few months he would be leaving school behind and starting a job he had enjoyed.

At last the exams were over and Joe started working at the salon permanently. The first thing he did was to make arrangements with Kay so he could fit in better as Josie. This meant a definite change in his appearance she insisted, no switching back and forth between boy and girl. Joe just said he wanted to enjoy the pleasures of the salon once again so he would better understand what the clients were experiencing. It took half a day but by the end Joe would have more trouble being a boy on his way home than cow being taken for a dog. his now blonde hair was a mass of spikes and sculpted fringe, his eyebrows were neat tadpoles, his nails were longer and brighter, and along with his female tops and new 3" hoops and red studs in his ears he looked very much a girl at work. Then to his surprise when he got home his mother had bought him a new white hoodie to replace his grey one and filled his drawers with panties which would not show through his tight jeans. He had expected never to wear his school uniform again, but it was looking more like he would not be wearing any boy clothing at all, after a moments consideration as the penny dropped he smiled and knew he liked the feel of his new clothes more than his boy stuff, so why not forget about the harsh boy things and enjoy his more female things. The decision was made that Tuesday over tea, he asked his mum about the knickers and nightwear, she said it would either get it out of his system or be his way in the future, he said he preferred female clothes and did not see it as something he would give up. So in a sort of ceremony they cleared his drawers of all underwear, school clothes and overtly boy clothing. The end of which left big spaces in his cupboard, prompting the suggestion he goes shopping as he will need several outfits for working in, tops, trousers, shoes and coats, because no girl wears the same thing two days on the run or in the same week if they can help it.

Within a month despite his mother's reservations, Josie had become a permanent presence at both the salon and home. Though Joe still thought himself as a lad that preferred to dress in a rather unusual way for a boy. It was under Kay's now more gentle prompting that Josie became softer a gentler person, and generally a more feminine looking person. The hair had taken on an even more defined cut emphasising the girl in him. His ear rings became more decorative over time, small stones grew into hoops and onto dangling chains.

By the end of the summer holidays and the time came for him to enrol at college as an apprentice hairdresser he was admitting even to himself that work had rather taken over his life, he rarely went out other than to the salon and his whole world seemed consumed with finding out more about how to improve the way people looked, partly from reading, partly by seeing what happened at the salon and partly from trying things out on himself.

For the enrolment day he did not know what to wear, should he be as girlie as possible or back off to more boyish look. In the end he went for jeans, a plain top and no make up. The nails were still kind of longish, his ears still carrying studs and his hair a well cut blonde, but he felt easier signing in as Joe looking vaguely male than vaguely female. He still had to acknowledge his gender when he signed up as a male, so he was happy with style choice.

The reaction when he got home was unexpected, his mum asked if this more camp look was how he was going to be. He explained how it had been for college not work that he had changed his style, this made him feel she was wanting him to revert back to being a dull looking boy and only fired his enthusiasm to be more contrary to her wishes. The next day he went to work, fully made up, hair revitalised, biggest ear rings, and his prettiest blouse.

Kay and Denise asked if it was something they had said but Joe just pointed out he enjoyed feeling feminine so what was the problem. No problem they assured him and set him to his usual tasks. Come the break time Kay asked if he wanted to be a girl, he said not, he was a boy who just happened to enjoy looking feminine. So Kay asked 'how feminine?'
Joe asked 'what do you mean?'
'Well would you wear a dress or high heels, how about going out with a boy, all can be very feminine things'
'I just like being me' was all he could think to answer.
'Well just let me know if you want to develop that femininity some more, I am sure you would look great all dolled up.'

When he got home his mum noticed his pretty blouse and made the mistake of challenging his chioce. His reaction was to make up some argument about he felt restricted by societies constriants on how people dress and he was thinking of looking for something prettier at the weekend. 'But you are prettier than any boy I know already, what could make you prettier?'
Without thinking Joe just said 'A dress'
'A dress?'
'Yes I want to find out what it is like to wear something other than trousers' as he said it he was thinking that this maybe a hole to deep to get out of easily.
'A dress is very much a girl thing, would rather stop you being somewhere in between boy and girl that you are at the moment'
'Maybe, but I like being feminine and a dress seems like a next step'
'And what if I said no?'
'Then I would just have to find out on my own' Joe could not believe he had just dug his hole deeper, but then felt there was time to back down.
'I am not keen'
'I know but you can't stop me, it was you who had me have highlights, it was you who taught me the basics of make up, bought me the clothes and satin night wear what is wrong with a dress?' That was enough he thought, point made.
His mum thought for a moment and decided to take this head on, 'Right if you are so set on wearing a dress then you must do it properly. A dress looks best with heels, the higher the better, dresses are for a female figure so you need a smaller waist and a bigger chest, and maybe not essential but I think worth doing, your make up has to be full on, not the muted colours you currently use.' There was a pause 'You want to wear a dress Joe? then you bury the boy completely. Right Josie!'
Joe was backed into a corner he had just thought a dress would be an interesting bit of fun, but how could he back down, 'Fine. As long as you stop calling me Joe' This was said with maybe too much fight, but he was feeling pressured.
Both not wishing to back down 'Ok Josie I expect you by Sunday dinner to be looking like a complete girl, anything less and you go back to being a boy and we get your boy stuff out of the loft'
This was turning into a real fight that niether wanted to lose, but almost as soon as Joe had left the room both realised that they pushed it too far, if Joe turned up in a dress then it would rather seal his fate for how he looked in the future, which meant no more Joe. Why is he so set on the idea, was a puzzle niether never understood.