This week’s Friday Fiction Challenge from Ronovan Writes instructed us to  write about an Epic Fail, when something intended does not work out, in the worst way. Your basic nightmare, in other words. At least that’s how I rolled with the challenge this week. If you would like to read other takes on the prompt or enter your own, click HERE to enter Ronovan’s world.

Photo Credit: A meme template from imgflip.com 

Susan decided to save a few dollars and give her hair a layered trim.  She had watched several YouTube tutorials and was confident she could do it.

“How hard could it be?” she declared confidently.

Positioning herself on a stool in front of a mirror, she combed out her damp, shoulder-length hair, snipping a bit from one side, then the other. The sides weren’t lining up, so she trimmed the longer side, then a little more from the shorter side. It took some tweaking, but five inches on the floor later, Susan had finally managed to even up the sides and back. Not the layered look she originally planned, but she would make it work. It did require taking more off the front though. Undaunted, Susan kept going.

“It’ll be fine. It’ll be cute short,” she encouraged herself.

Combing her hair upward over her head, she snipped the front length to match the back. To add some layers, Susan lifted her hair to the sides and snipped some more…one side, then the other…back to the first side and back again. She just couldn’t seem to get it right. Before she knew it, her bangs were so short they fell an inch above her eyebrows and the sides barely covered the tops of her ears!

Trying not to panic, Susan decided her eyebrows would need some definition if this shorter style was going to look right. She carefully applied hot wax just under her brow lines, perfectly contouring the application before covering each side with cloth strips. While she waited for the wax to cool, her drying hair inched even shorter.

“It’ll be okay,” she thought as she ripped the strips from her brows. They must have shifted while cooling. When she looked in the mirror, her eyebrows were gone!

Poor Susan was left with only one remedy. She called work explaining that there had been a death in the family. Of course, she would need to be out for the rest of the week. And then, she rush-ordered a wig, with very long bangs!

~kat – 23 March 2016
(344 Words)