RANSVESTIA

The next morning I walked through the door of the beauty school, feeling quite awful, ugly and insecure. Miss Childs glanced up and greeted me just as if she were accustomed to seeing a man wearing pink nylon uniform with ruffled front and cuffs, nylons and pink low heeled shoes.

"Well, Janey, I see that you had the courage to make it after all. You don't look too bad either; you just might make a nice looking girl. How do you feel?"

"Well, first of all, I'm kind of scared, and well, I don't know how the rest of the class is going to accept me."

"That's why I wanted you to come in today, if you were going to. The class doesn't start until tomorrow, and the shop is normally closed today. I thought that we could put in a little extra work. Why don't you come back into the shop with me and we'll see what we can do."

I followed her back into the shop where she instructed me to get into the first chair. She quickly put a cloth over me and started to assemble her tools.

A LITTLE WORK! That was about the biggest exaggeration that I had heard in a long time. When I stepped out of the chair, almost five hours later, there wouldn't have been one of my former acquaintenaces that would have known me. She had started off by washing my hair, and then altering the color to a light strawberry blonde. While this was being done, she had tilted the chair back and plucked my eyebrows to thin arched curves. Then she put a special compound, in a beauty mask, all over my face. Then she started cutting and shaping my rather long but shapeless hair and finally set it in pin curls at the bottom and larger rollers on the top and front. While we were waiting for it to dry, she put a lotion on my arms up to my shoulders and in a few minutes completely denuded them of hair, when the lotion was washed off. She explained to me that the beauty mask would do the same for my beard, but that it wouldn't be permanent and that I would have to start electrolysis treat- ments with her in the evenings until all of the hair on my face and chest was gone. Then she washed off my face and started to apply makeup while she explained the mystery of each step. I learned to smooth the base and use other shades to accent or reduce the features needed. I watched as she applied shadow, lightener over the top, and mascaraed my lashes, ending with a curl. Lipstick and blusher followed. Then the curlers were removed and my hair, now a lovely blonde, was backcombed and teased. A spraying followed and I was given the chance to admire the new Jane.

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