Lidia granted all my wishes (I)
She revealed the sides of her head, and we indulged in Oasis Massein in Medellín."
Lidia hit me with an anniversary surprise I never saw coming: a last-minute, whirlwind trip to Medellín.
Honestly, if you’d asked me the day before if I thought it was possible to just pick up and fly to Medellín on a whim, I’d have laughed. It sounds so far, so exotic, right? But with a few empty seats left on the flight, and us living only three hours away from the airport, plus the fact that the flight itself was only ten hours, well... why not? So, if Sunday was our anniversary, by Monday afternoon, we were stepping off the plane and onto Colombian soil.
“I’m giving you everything you’ve been asking for these last few months,” Lidia whispered to me as the plane touched down, her lips brushing my ear in a way that made me shiver. Her voice was laced with a kind of promise that felt more than a little dangerous.
The next day, she blindfolded me before putting me into a cab. “Calle 75, El Carmelo, in Itagüí,” she told the driver, her tone as calm as if she’d ordered a coffee.
The driver, with that distinct paisa lilt, hesitated. “But señora, that’s pretty far, you know. It’ll cost a good bit.”
“Whatever it costs, just take us,” she replied, cool and steady, like the idea of this mystery destination was something she’d thought about for months.
“And that’s not exactly a place for tourists,” he added, his voice slowing down, clearly trying to gauge what kind of people we were.
“We didn’t come here to do tourist things,” she said simply, and with that, the driver just shrugged and pulled into traffic.
When the cab finally stopped and she untied the blindfold, we were standing outside this little barbershop. The place didn’t look like much from the outside, just a glass front with the name Barbershop Barberwoman written in plain letters. It was gritty, understated, and felt like the kind of place where locals went to get their hair sorted out quickly, not a spot for dramatic transformations. Yet here we were.
“Not a word from you,” Lidia muttered under her breath as we crossed the threshold, stepping into a small waiting area. Inside, it smelled of clippers and aftershave, that earthy, metallic scent of freshly cut hair mixed with the buzz of fluorescent lights.
Lidia walked right up to the barber—a woman, standing there in a worn t-shirt and jeans, wiping down one of the leather chairs. “Do you have an appointment?” the barber asked, her voice flat but friendly, eyes flicking up briefly before going back to her task.
“I do. Lidia. We talked on WhatsApp,” Lidia said.
The barber paused, then nodded, as if something clicked. “Yeah, okay. I remember now. Come, sit.”
Lidia settled into the chair, and the barber draped a black cape over her, fastening it at the neck with a tight elastic strip. Then came the question, direct, like she’d asked it a thousand times before: “So, what are we doing today? I don’t usually get women in here.”
Lidia’s eyes sparkled as she explained, “I’m keeping my long hair, but I want the sides shaved. Not too high, just two or three fingers above the ear, and don’t touch the back, just shave around the ears and leave the ponytail intact.” She pulled up a video on her phone to show the barber what she was going for:
On the screen, a girl named Cecilia was showing off her freshly shaved sides, turning her head from side to side. Her head was shaved just above the ears, with smooth, sharp lines that framed her face but kept the rest of her hair intact. She flicked her hair over her shoulders and grinned at the camera.
The barber studied the video for a second and said, “Yeah, I can do that. You sure, though? It’s not what most women ask for.”
“I came all the way from Spain for this,” Lidia said, her eyes locking on the barber’s through the mirror. “I’m not changing my mind.”
“You came here just for me to shave your head?” The barber raised her eyebrows.
“Not just for this,” Lidia replied, with that same teasing smile. “There are a few things I can only do in Medellín.”
The barber chuckled, but didn’t press further. She tied up Lidia’s hair into a high ponytail and began to section off the sides with a thin metal comb. As she sectioned off the first piece of hair, she reached for the clippers, glancing at Lidia one last time through the mirror. “You sure you don’t just want it buzzed first? You can still back out.”
“I said I want it shaved,” Lidia replied, her tone firm, leaving no room for hesitation.
“Alright,” the barber said, clicking on the clippers. The buzz filled the shop, and with one smooth pass, she shaved a line up the side of Lidia’s head, starting just below her right ear and stopping cleanly at the line she’d traced with the comb.
I watched in silence, my heart racing a little as I saw the bare skin of Lidia’s scalp revealed for the first time. The barber worked with precision, making several more passes with the clippers until the side of Lidia’s head was as smooth as a stone.
“So, what do you think?” the barber asked, brushing off some loose hair from Lidia’s neck.
“It’s... intense,” Lidia said, her voice barely a whisper. Her hand hovered near her head as if she wasn’t sure if she was ready to touch the exposed skin.
The barber didn’t waste time. She tilted Lidia’s head to one side, folding her ear down, and made quick work of the curve around her ear. I could see Lidia’s reflection in the mirror; her eyes were wide, almost as if she was surprised by how it looked, how she looked.
Once the sides were cleanly shaved, the barber switched to a straight razor. She sprayed the bare scalp with water and lathered up the area with shaving foam. With steady hands, she began dragging the razor across the skin, wiping it clean with a towel draped over Lidia’s shoulder.
By the time she was done, the sides of Lidia’s head were gleaming under the lights. She looked... transformed. The long ponytail was still there, but it floated above this stark, dramatic undercut, smooth as glass on the sides. Lidia ran her fingers over her newly shaved skin, her expression a mix of shock and satisfaction.
“Twenty-five thousand pesos,” the barber said, stripping the cape off and shaking it out.
Lidia paid with a swipe of her card, still rubbing the smooth sides of her head, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she’d just done.
She walked over to me, her ponytail swishing as she moved. When she got close, she grinned and leaned in, her breath warm against my neck. Her hand slipped on my pants, fingers grazing my skin. “You’ll have to wait, we’re not done yet,” she whispered, her voice filled with that same dangerous promise.
