Andy recalled the situation that he was telling Jenny, his hairdresser, about.

He recalled sitting before a dressing table in his girlfriend’s room in their shared house at Uni.

She was styling his hair for the Winter Turnabout Ball at the Student’s Union.

His hair was blonded now, though he hadn’t see a mirror but he must have known.

Now, aged 60, he was telling Jenny, his current hairdresser all about it.

“Sarah told me to hold still because she was cutting my hair very precisely.” he said.

“She told me that if we were going to the Ball in character, we had to do it properly.”

“Properly? That’s a good Cornish word!” Jenny interrupted. “In character? ….. Did that mean she meant for you to be a celeb or something?” She had not begun trimming Andy’s hair yet.

Andy felt able to continue: “It seemed so — in her mind at least — though she hadn’t told me who.”

“So, you were going to be an actress or someone famous — she might have asked you who you’d like to be! Who did it turn out to be? Who were you at the ball? Jenny was fascinated.

Time was passing — Andy thought — and soon another customer would come into the salon. Soon his fantasy talk with this lovely girl — well, 40-something — this lovely woman, would have to stop.

“She didn’t let me choose — though I was delighted with her choice when I found out — she just went right on with the cutting and conditioning. The comb, I remember, felt silky smooth as it went through my wet hair. Quite unlike the tangled mop that I’d had in the ponytail. I remember being conscious that the hair was shorter — she must’ve cut quite a lot off…”

“While she dried my hair with a hand dryer, she went into details about what ‘doing it properly’ meant…….. She said I had to wear some really quite glamorous make-up, and ear-rings that dangled — she had some of her mother’s, she said — and we had to go to the Stage and Party rental shop in town. They did lots of theatrical clothes for hire really cheaply. I didn’t know what a ‘halter neckline’ dress was, but she said I must have one. They’d do me shoes too. “Heels, she said. You’ll have to try heels and see how women suffer!” Then, she said, she’d do my nails. And very glam make-up.

Andy looked at Jenny in her mirror. “By then, I knew this was going to be no ordinary Party!”

“I should think not…. How superb!” Jenny answered.

“I worked on Cruise ships for a few years before coming here to Cornwall — or back to Cornwall.”

(Jenny was Cornish through and through, from her curls to her wellies! That’s what Andy liked about her).

“We had some wonderful parties where guests dressed up to the “Nines”, and many were like that.”

Andy continued, not letting her know the character Sarah had planned for him to be at the ball. Then, the salon’s phone rang…….. “Please take that.” he said to Jenny. So she did. He only caught half the brief conversation,

“Oh, hello there.” “Yes, lovely day…” “That’s right…. Highlights…..” “Well, we said about three hours, didn’t we, that’s why we wanted to start at 9 o’clock…” “Oh, alright then.. let’s have a look in the book…. Yes, quite understand…. Before the weekend… of course……” “Well, Friday later in the afternoon — how would that suit…? I’ll stay late to finish you off… yes, I know it’s a special occasion.” “See you then.” Jenny finished the call. Said “Damn!” and returned to the styling chair where Andy sat.

“Big customer — always has lots of colouring done and comes in ‘reglar’ for a styling. Can’t afford to put her out! So, that’s Friday buggered — have to get to the pub late!” Jenny laughed — it’s business and the customers is always right, thought Andy. “It means we have plenty of time now.”

They turned back to Andy’s story, and his hair today….. Jenny had to start the cutting.
“Leave it longer, please. I just like it so.” said Andy.

“OK, it’s your call.” Jenny replied, combing the hair back off his face. “Tell me more, Blondie!”

“What, about the ball? Oh, yes….” Andy had lost his thread a little.

Where had he reached?......... Oh, yes, Sarah had told him what doing it ‘properly’ meant.
“She dried my hair straight and then revealed that it was Blonde!.........” Andy said now quite excited once more.

“She spun me round and showed me a mirror… and there I was….. Really quite a yellowy kind of blonde…. Bit tarty really…….”

Andy smiled to himself, remembering the stunning look that he saw in that mirror. Was that the moment at which he began his love affair with looking like a girl? It probably was.

“She was very pleased with her handiwork and had made it all sleek and soft……. All one length below my chin……. A Bob she called it. No fringe or bangs… But she said I could have those if I wanted. What did I know!?! And she said she wanted to tone the colour before the Ball.”

“So what did she plan to do with your hair as a style?” Jenny asked.

“She didn’t say. She just said we had to continue the next evening. Meantime, I had to face the world with blonde hair — all sleek and flowing. I really did enjoy the feel of it.” Andy sighed.

“Did enjoy the feel of it…” Andy lapsed into deep thought at that moment, as Jenny combed and began to cut his hair. He was conscious that, under his sweater, his blouse and bra would be perfect if he were sitting in this chair as a woman. His panties, stockings, suspenders and painted toes, likewise. One day, he might venture to the salon dressed. One day, jenny might get to know him as his alter ego.

“How did that go? How did your flatmates react to you as a blonde…. And what about the rest of your college class?” Jenny pushed him into more recalling of that evening.

“They were cool about it. After all, we were a real mixed bag of lay-abouts and typical student youngsters. In fact some other guys said they’d maybe do something similar.” But then, it was just a blonde change, cut perfectly, ok, but it could be feminine, or whatever.

“I just treated it as something I’d decided to do and got some help with doing. “ he reasoned.

“Then there was the Ball….. How did you prepare for that?” Jenny wanted to know all about it. She was getting on with cutting his hair now and just asked occasional questions to prompt Andy’s story along.

“Choosing clothes was easy — there was plenty to select from and Sarah had already found the halter neckline dress for me to wear. It was a slinky gold shimmering satin job…. And a pair of size nine gold stilettos to go with it. Ten Quid to hire the lot — bargain! She also got me a new from Marks & Spencer’s body stocking that would cover my chest and upper arms to hide my chest hair and pimples. That would feel very nice, I was to find out later!”

That shopping had been done the day before the ball, he told Jenny.

“We had a dress rehearsal the night before…. But I still didn’t know who my character would be!”

“More important, there was the makeup and the final hairstyling to be done. That had to wait until the following day — it seemed like the whole day!” Andy meant that so much.

“Oh, and I haven’t mentioned Sarah’s costume and how she would be dressed….. We got her a pin-stripe suit — a small-size man’s suit . She was to flatten her tits and wear one of my interview shirts and ties. Her shoes had to come from the same theatrical lenders that all my tat came from. She was going to slick her hair down and go for a “City” worker’s character; she’d look like the Julie Andrew’s character in Victor/Victoria, the film that came out later.”

“I kinda like girls dressed that way sometimes….” said Jenny wistfully.

“She looked stunning, I have to say.” he admitted.

The dress rehearsal had given Andy confidence to “go for it” as he said…. To do it “properly” as Sarah had said. He was going to be the “Belle of the Ball”. All blonde and shimmering gold. Hey agreed that Sarah would go for a really sophisticated make-up look for him. Not at all tarty.

She had resolved to work on his hair in the afternoon, before she dressed him as the unknown celeb. That meant toning his yellow-blonde hair with a professional toner — a beige blonde that was almost peach in colour…. Baby Blonde by Clairol.

Sophisticated. Feminine.

Who else could it be but Marilyn Monroe? But Andy didn’t know that… then.

“I still didn’t know who I was to be when I sat down on the afternoon of the Ball. Sarah said she wanted to tone my hair — whatever that meant, I didn’t know. Then she said she would set it. Whatever that meant — I was soon to find out.”

He was re-living the experience. The wonderment of what was being done to him. “The toning didn’t take long……. I just sat there waiting for whatever she was to do next.”

Then, he smiled again, as he recalled how Sarah had tested the change in his hair colour before washing out the toner. She then reached for the tray of rollers and told him that he would be going for soft curls, lovely feminine curls, that would frame his face.

He sat in Jenny’s chair, as she reached the closing stages of his cut. Loving the reminiscences about his first hair colour and set. It had changed his life. It really had.

“It was then that she told me to look forward to looking like Marilyn Monroe…. I nearly died! You have got to be kidding! I said. No way! You can’t get me to look anything like that glorious woman! I dare you!!! I said to her. Then I realized what I’d just said.”

His memory was crystal clear about that moment.

“You dare me, you dare me? Sarah said…… OK, she said………” Andy blushed at the thought. “You will be my Marilyn!” Sarah had said. And so it was to be.

“She reached for this tray of rollers and began to section my hair off into small sections. Then she wound each strand round a roller… some were really big, and others quite small. Some went around the crown of my head, others ran around the sides and the nape of my neck……”

“…..And they were tight… I mean tight!”

“I’m not surprised,” Jenny interrupted, “….. The tighter the rollers, the better the set!”

Andy had then been put under the domed dryer that Sarah had at home for her studies. The rushing sound of the hot air nearly blew him away, he said.

He recalled how being under the dryer he felt especially feminine, sitting there telling Jenny about this experience with his underwear closing in around his body. Andy knew that his crossdressing in later years was all due to that one week at Uni, when the Winter Turnabout Ball took place.

“So, it took half an hour or more and then Sarah took me out to let the rollers cool, and the set take form, which gave her the chance to start with my make-up.” Andy’s smile told Jenny that this was now a full-scale conversion and transformation. Something that Andy was not to forget. Jenny now saw deeper inside her customer than before.

“She put a beige sort-of creamy powdery stuff — which I now know is foundation — after first covering a couple of blotches with something thicker — concealer, they call it, don’t they?”

He sought Jenny’s confirmation — and she nodded. Her final trimming of the hair below the nape of his neck meant that she was done. “TELL ME HOW MARILYN TURNED OUT”. SHE SAID.

CHAPTER THREE follows