What We Show in the Shadows

This is my entry in the Nude Day Story Contest 2022. It's hard to know if the deadline has made the story better or worse. The story is slow paced and longer than I was aiming for. A good editor would probably advise me to put it away for a few weeks, then come back to it and try to cut out a good quarter of it. However, it is what it is. Some of the less essential passages are the parts I like the most.

For those of you who have read some of my previous stories (such as the people who have been generous enough to follow me), this story is most similar in its pacing and general vibe to Working with Models. That story seemed to find an audience of patient readers.

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What We Show in the Shadows

Thursday, 24 June, 2021: Extra busy at work. Raymond finally says he has new staff starting Mon. TWO boys, heaven help us. Daniel to replace Bradley on hair and Joshua to replace Stephanie doing makeup.

Monday, 28 June 2021: New boys started. Daniel is another train wreck, just like Bradley, William, and all previous middle chairs. Joshua is quiet -- I've yet to detect his problems.

Wednesday, 30 June 2021: Joshua still seems normal. He donated to my Shave for a Cure fund last night after only finding out about it yesterday. Blew me away!

Thursday, 15 July 2021: OMG! Alice & Joshua stayed late last night doing a consult for a bridal party. The bride claimed it was National Nude Day (it was -- I looked it up). They actually went through with it. Alice is full of surprises (Joshua too).

Thursday, 29 July 2021: Not sure how I feel about the big shave tomorrow night. Raymond annoyingly happy. Drama queen Daniel actually cried when he heard about it. Alice and Joshua supportive. Joshua offered to colour my skull if it's too white -- cheeky!

Friday, 30 July 2021: OMG I'm bald!!!

Sunday, 8 August 2021: Spent the afternoon being turned into Yoda's younger sister. Weirdly fun.

Sunday, 31 October 2021: Halloween!!! Worked all weekend helping Joshua. The special promotion really paid off.

Sunday 19 December 2021: Agreed to help Joshua create a female werewolf prototype. Alice found out that he has a FULL BODY design and challenged me to make it a nude day challenge. I didn't exactly agree, but I didn't refuse either.

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I'm not the kind of girl who writes long, intimate diary entries, but I still stick with the routine I established as a child of making a quick diary note at the end of each day. Every now and then, I will sit down and flick through my diaries and look at the patterns in my life. It is also possible, if I pick out a few entries as I have done here, to lay the foundations of a story.

I got into hairdressing straight out of school. When I had finished training and was ready to get my first real job, my BFF Alice twisted her father's arm and got me a job at his salon. Her father Raymond (never 'Ray') was the owner and senior stylist. He worked at the chair closest to the counter and waiting area at the front. I always worked at the chair at the back, closest to the stereo system. Between us, at the middle chair, we had an ever-changing procession of confused, dysfunctional boys. Currently we have Daniel (not Dan). Before him we had Bradley (not Brad), and before that we had William (not Will or Bill).

If you are noticing a pattern with names, that is entirely due to Raymond having a dislike for shortened names. He hates the fact that my name is Frankie. I hated the name Francine so much that I changed it legally as soon as I was eighteen. Raymond tried calling me Francine once, but I told him that I had a right to be called by my legal name. Whatever his failings, Raymond was always strong on civil rights. While I always called him Raymond as he prefers, if I ever wanted to tease him or get under his skin, I would call Alice either Al or Allie. He would fume while she would always giggle at his reaction.

Alice herself went to university and sailed through a degree in history and classics. However, she started having second thoughts about her future during her first month at teacher's college, so she pulled out and came to work for her dad doing nails, eyelashes, and other treatments. While her dad always encouraged her to think of this as only temporary, he was pleased to have her here. For a man who got a random woman pregnant when he was a sexually confused young adult, Raymond was a loving and committed father. In addition to his pleasure at seeing his daughter daily, he also liked the idea of expanding our range of services. While we were really just a haircut place, the kind of place that attracted men as well as women, Raymond had dreams of expanding and rebranding as a day spa. The remaining member of the team was our makeup artist. For years that had been Stephanie, but when she left for Australia, Raymond surprised us by bringing on board another lad -- Joshua.

Raymond found these boys in a variety of places as he was a man with fingers in many pies. He did some tutoring at one of the training colleges, and he sometimes recruited a student who he thought was very promising. Daniel fell into this category. Raymond also had lots of contacts in the movie and television industry. When he was young, he had been involved as a hairdresser for the Lord of the Rings movies when they were shooting in Wellington, and he did some travelling to other locations too. He was also involved in the more recent Hobbit movies and other projects shot in Wellington such as the original What We Do in the Shadows movie. He found Joshua when he was working on Wellington Paranormal, a television offshoot of What We Do in the Shadows. Joshua was a talented makeup artist who was working on breaking into the special FX and prosthetic makeup scene.

A common thread with all these young men was that their supposed talent was often over-estimated by Raymond, who seemed more taken with how pretty they were. Alice sometimes referred to them as twinks, but only when her father wasn't around. The other thing they had in common was that they were often quite dysfunctional. Some were rejected by their parents and/or bullied at school. Some were painfully shy. Some were angry at the world. I think a lot of them were looking for a father figure, and Raymond was certainly old enough to be their father, but his motives didn't run that way. He had an obvious romantic/sexual interest in them, but this was complicated not only by the fact that he was now their employer, but also by the fact that they had no such feelings towards him. Tensions would always simmer just below the surface, and eventually everything would fall apart and they would be gone.

From day one, Joshua struck me as different from the others. At first it seemed this was because he got less attention from Raymond as he started the same day as Daniel. While I thought Joshua was good-looking, he looked more rugged than Daniel who had the prettier look that Raymond preferred. While Joshua wasn't abnormally shy, he was naturally quiet, and he also flew underneath the radar because, as our makeup person, he wasn't working regular hours like I was, so we weren't working together for much of the week. He rarely had any appointments in the morning, so he often didn't come in before lunch, and he would often accept appointments in the early evening or the weekends when I wasn't working. When I did see him, I was struck by his level-headedness and the understated way he went about his work. While many of Stephanie's clients were hesitant about trying someone new, and then surprised that Joshua wasn't flamboyant like they expected, a lot of them were quickly won over by him and trusted him implicitly.

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There was another reason why I didn't take too much notice of Joshua when he started. That was because my thoughts were occupied by a promise I had made to have my head shaved as a cancer fundraiser. One of my cousins had been diagnosed with cancer, and during the emotion of it all I had quickly signed up to Shave for a Cure. Ever since I was little, I'd had long strawberry-blonde hair. It was so long that I always had to pile it up on top of my head or it would get in the way while I was working. While I didn't regret the decision to shave it for charity, it is fair to say that the prospect of it made me anxious and distressed. Unfortunately, the reactions of my co-workers weren't always helpful.

Raymond had often told me that he thought I would really suit a pixie cut, so he had reacted to my decision with a delight that really annoyed me. Daniel, on the other hand, actually cried when he heard I would be losing my hair, which only increased my inner turmoil. Thankfully, Alice and Joshua were more sensitive to my needs. Both of them focussed on the cause rather than the effect on my appearance, and they both quickly made generous donations on my Shave for a Cure webpage. Of course, I expected nothing less from Alice, as she had been my best friend forever. But Joshua's donation, made without any fanfare only a day after first meeting me, actually brought a tear to my eye. As I say, it was an emotional time.

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I did regret choosing a four-week fundraising period. Obviously, such a long time helped with the money I was able to raise, but it felt like it was hanging over me for such a long time. Emotionally, it would have been easier to have it over and done with inside a week or two. Fortunately for my sanity, something happened partway through that time that provided an amusing distraction.

One Thursday morning, when Raymond was away from the salon and we had no customers, Alice couldn't wait to tell Daniel and me about something that had happened the night before. She and Joshua had stayed late to meet with a bridal party to consult with them about their big day. They had their own hairdresser lined up, but they were still looking to arrange makeup and other beauty treatments.

"They brought a couple of bottles of wine with them," said Alice, "and they seemed keen to have some fun together. They had just come from trying on bridesmaid dresses, and the bride had been teasing the bridesmaids that it was something called National Nude Day. I Googled it -- it's actually a real thing. Incredibly, it seems like it started here in New Zealand and it's now spread around the world. So, anyway, the bridesmaids were trying to turn it back on the bride, saying she should lead the way, and I made it worse for her by getting up and closing the blinds at the front."

"So what happened?"

"Well, there was lot more banter first, but eventually the bride got things started and we all got naked."

I instantly noticed the word WE. "Did you really get naked with them?"

"Yes!"

"Wow!" I said. Alice's self-confidence is inspirational. She is a larger woman -- even she uses the words chubby or fat -- but she never lets it limit her. "Did you tell your husband?"

"Yes," she grinned. "Let's just say he got pretty excited by the idea. He kept on saying he wished he had been here. Of course, I doubt it would have happened if he was here."

"Hold on, though. When you said you all got naked, did you mean Joshua too?"

"Yes. He took a bit more coaxing, but he didn't refuse. It was like he did it to be polite."

"Did you tell your husband that?"

"Of course. He's not prone to feeling threatened by guys like Joshua. None of the women seemed uncomfortable that he was here. I guess it helps that he's nice to look at."

"Did he get stiff?" I asked.

"No, but I don't think we would have been upset if he had. I mean, I was feeling turned on even when it was just the bride taking off her clothes, and I've never been attracted to women either. By the time he was naked, well... Even without an erection, that boy's got the full package." That last line was delivered with a perfectly straight face. I knew what she meant, even as Daniel stood there looking confused.

A customer arriving stopped our conversation in its tracks, and Raymond's return later sealed it. When poor Joshua arrived after lunch, he stopped in his tracks when he saw Alice, Daniel and me staring at him. Alice giggled, and his face turned bright red. He hurried over to his work area and started organizing his lipsticks.

Since the afternoon passed awkwardly, I decided to clear the air when it was just the two of us left to lock up. "I hope you don't mind too much that Alice told us about last night. I thought you were very brave."

"Thank you," he said quietly. "I actually felt privileged that they were comfortable to do that while I was here. I just really didn't know how I should behave. I was scared of offending them."

"It sounds as though you were a real gentleman," I said. "Did you find any of them attractive?"

"They were all lovely women," he said, which was a predictably safe reply.

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While Alice and I tend to refer to Joshua and Daniel as boys, I hasten to clarify that they are adults. Alice and I were twenty-four, while Daniel was twenty and Joshua twenty-one. So it isn't as inappropriate as it might have been for me to say that I spent the following days picturing Joshua naked. I even allowed myself to imagine what it would have been like if I had been there that night. Would I have been willing to peel off my clothes to celebrate National Nude Day with them? How would I have felt having Joshua's eyes on me?

I wasn't sexually inexperienced, but I wasn't one for getting naked without some anxiety. I can do T-shirt and panties without too much trouble, and I can dispense with them in the heat of the moment, but I like to get them back on soon afterwards. I like my legs and bum when they are poking out from under a shirt, and I feel sexy having breakfast dressed like that, but my torso is skinny and my boobs are tiny. One of the reasons I hate Raymond saying I would suit a pixie cut is that, especially with my big green eyes, I know I would look too much like, well, a pixie.

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As I said, Alice and Joshua's naked adventure helped to distract me from my forthcoming head shaving, but it couldn't delay it. We did it on Friday night in the salon, and I let Raymond do the honours since he was my biggest donor. I managed to put on a brave face (despite Daniel's tears), surrounded by my workmates and customers who came to support me. We passed around the hat and got an extra two hundred dollars, and it was a good feeling knowing that my hair would be made into a wig for cancer patients. I didn't cry until I got home.

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Joshua turned up at the salon at closing time on Monday, even though he had no clients booked that day. "Hey Frankie, can I buy you a coffee?"

Wearing a woolly hat to ward off the cold and people's stares, I went with Joshua to the place around the corner. He seemed nervous, although maybe I was projecting my own anxiety. "What's up?" I asked.

"Frankie, I would really like your help with something, but please say no if it makes you uncomfortable."

"What is it?"

"You know how I'm trying to build up my portfolio of special effects makeup? I've had a few friends model for me, but they're all men. I've been keen to find a woman, but it's harder to make it work because of the hair. Most women have too much, and by the time it's all pinned down, it really limits the options of what I can do."

"Are you telling me you want to turn me into some sort of orc or goblin?"

"Yes, although not any of those."

"What then?"

"It will be hard to pick just one. The important thing for me, though, is that I don't want to change the shape of your face much. You have a beautiful face, and I don't want to lose that. If I wanted to create an ugly woman orc, it would be simpler to use a male model and have him wear a padded bra." I giggled at the thought. I was still glowing from his compliment about my face.

"Maybe you wouldn't need to pick just one," I said. "It's going to take a while for my hair to grow. If I enjoy doing it the first time, maybe I can be convinced to do it again."

"Awesome. In that case, I've been working on a design for a young female Yoda, or whatever species Yoda was. Most of the work is in the ears and head. She has hair, but it starts a lot further back on her head, so that's why you would be perfect."

"I think I would be willing to try that," I said. I had enjoyed the Star Wars movies, but that wasn't my motivation. I wasn't a hard-core fan, and I had never tried cosplay. The reality was that I was just happy to have a bit of attention, and it would be nice just to spend some time with a nice guy. With my whole bald head situation, it wasn't like I was feeling confident about dating any time soon.

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Joshua and I chatted a bit longer about his ideas. At one stage I mentioned that I had been curious to know how I would look like with elf ears like in Lord of the Rings, so Joshua offered to do that after work the very next day. We also made plans to do the Yoda thing on Sunday afternoon.

I guess you could say that the situation was awkward to start with. I'm used to some level of awkwardness when I'm cutting people's hair, but this was at another level. Doing the elf ears wasn't too bad, although it felt weird having someone touching my ears so much, but the female Yoda involved him getting up close to my face.

The Yoda makeup also made me self-conscious because Joshua asked me to wear an off-the-shoulder top. I have an instinctive dislike of off-the-shoulder clothing because I think it highlights how small my boobs are. Fortunately, the first thing he did was drape a protective cloth around my shoulders and neck. He left it in place right up to the time he finished painting my head green. He then loosened the cloth so that he could also colour my neck and shoulders. It all made sense when he produced a Jedi robe for me to wear while he took the photos for his portfolio.

I had to admit that Joshua did a great job. I also started to have some fun with him as the afternoon wore on. I know it's a stereotype, but I just assumed he would have great taste in music, so I encouraged him to put on a playlist. However, I soon decided that his taste in music was rubbish, so I enjoyed mocking him for it. By the time he was cleaning my head in the shampoo basin, I was happy enough to agree to do it again.

During the following weeks, I continued to meet with Joshua and allow him to transform my head into something weird and wonderful. The others started to take an interest and were keen to see the photos each Monday. As my hair started to grow back, I allowed Raymond to keep it short and style it as he saw fit, and I wasn't displeased with the results. Not only was I enjoying the freedom from looking after long hair, I was generally feeling more carefree and less worried about what people thought about my appearance. I quite liked it when people admired photos of me looking like an alien or a cadaver.

Of course, it wasn't just me who was benefiting from the photographs. Raymond and Joshua had some meetings where they agreed on a business plan. Raymond provided some money for more supplies and some advertising in return for Joshua doing a Halloween special. With Halloween being on a Sunday, they figured they could offer special appointments starting Thursday and continuing all the way through the weekend. They got permission from me and Joshua's other practice models to use our photos, and the advertising began.

The Halloween promotion was an enormous success, but a lot of hard work, even though Joshua was doing quite simplified versions of stuff he had done with me and others. Alice and I were both roped in to help. I normally resist doing extra hours, but I was happy to make this exception. My experience modelling for Joshua made me an ideal assistant, and I could also take care of an hair styling to complete someone's look. Alice was also very useful, particularly helping transform hands into claws.