The Silver Haired boy from Russia

An unfortunate beginning to his new life

Victor stood in front of the mirror, crying. He could barely see through his tears as picked up the scissors and cut off the first lock of long, silver hair. He knew it was only hair. He knew it would always grow back and he knew people would stop staring at him. But, it was his hair. It was a part of him. He had been growing it since childhood. It meant something to him. Something liberating about having this long hair that could make him look androgynous to the point that he would hear occasionally the whispers of confused onlookers saying;

"Is that a boy or a girl?" 

He swiped away the tears streaming down his face and as he cut off another lock, his distressed state turned to pure anger. He clenched his jaw and with the scissors, started to chop his hair off in a frenzy. His state of mind was so strong that he didn't care that sometimes he would accidentally cut his fingers with the scissors. Once he eventually somewhat calmed down, he was breathless and sweating. He threw the scissors into the sink and looked down at all the hair that was clogging the drain. He looked up at himself and started to cry again. His legs felt weak so he sat down on the toilet seat with his head in his hands. His hair was in bits. Everything uneven and looking like parts were about to be torn out. He couldn't bear to cut up any further from his shoulders. Nothing was going to be the same again. He thought back to why he had to do this and balled his fists into his hair.

---

"Victor I need to sit down and have a word with you" Victor's mother said in a steady and calm voice. 

She and Victor sat down at the kitchen table across from each other.

"Your father had to get a job in Japan and to make things easy for all of us, we will have to move there"

Victor's eyes widened in horror. 

"But we don't even speak the language! I know I took some Japanese classes in the past but I forget everything! Why do we have to move?!"

His mother sighed.

"I know. We have to move due to financial reasons. It will be much cheaper to live there all together. I completely understand that this will be hard for us. Your father and I have found a school that you would be more suited to as they have teachers that can help you along the way"

Victor tried hard to think of any possible way he could feel optimistic about it all to save himself from declining into a pessimistic recluse. One thing did pop up though and it was the new surrounding he would have. New places to explore.

"Victor" 

Her voice was now stern and almost felt cut throat. It snapped Victor out of his thoughts.

"This school, like all the others we have looked at, has strict rules on uniforms and appearances"

"Um...okay?" Victor didn't see the big deal. His school had uniforms too so he knew how to keep them clean and tidy.

"Victor...I need to let you think about what you will have to do to be accepted into this school"

Victor sat dumbfounded in his seat. Also appearances? He never had a problem in his own school. But maybe it wasn't too strict on that.

Then it hit him like a hammer.

"NO!" Victor yelled at her "I WON'T DO IT! BRING ME TO ANOTHER SCHOOL THAT CAN ALLOW IT! I DON'T CARE IF I HAVE TO GET TWO TRAINS THERE!"

Victor's eyes started to tear up.

"Victor!" Her voice was still stern. She knew her son loved his long hair and she did too but it was one more thing that he had to sacrifice along with his life in Russia. Victor didn't want to listen to anything else after that. He stormed out of the kitchen in tears and locked himself in his bedroom for the rest of the night. 

---

"Victor?" 

Victor heard the sound of her voice outside the bathroom door.

"Victor we're going to the hairdressers this afternoon"

"NO! I DON'T WANT THEM TOUCHING MY HAIR!" 

"I know, Victor. Just do this for me. I want you to get-"

Victor swung the bathroom door open. His mother looked at his hair in shock.

"What did you do to your hair?!"

"YOU WANTED IT SHORT, DIDN'T YOU?!" 

He expected his mother to scream and hit him for ripping at his own hair but he was taken by surprise when she calmly walked off and down the stairs without saying a word.

*

Victor quietly walked into the kitchen where his mother was watching tv. She didn't look at him.

"I'm sorry" He whispered "I did a lot of thinking and I need to get myself together"

She turned her head toward him. Her son looked so pale and frail that she almost was willing to change the school he was going to.

"I ruined my hair. I can't go out looking like this. I'll...I'll go" 

The tears that dripped down Victor's face stung as the fell from his bloodshot eyes. His mother stood up and hugged him tight. He hugged her back because deep down he knew she was as devastated as he was.

"We'll be okay" She said quietly and reassuringly to him.

*

Victor looked at himself in the mirror in the hairdressers. His hair was cleaned up and looking decent. But he still hated it. He hated how the back of his neck was going to be exposed all the time, he hated that he wasn't able to style his hair into anything he chose and he hated that he knew he wouldn't be able to confuse people anymore.

He inhaled and exhaled a deep breath when he walked out of the hairdressers. He ran his fingers through it but because it still felt like he had long hair, he got a fright when he suddenly couldn't feel the rest. His mother came and collected him. As she drove home, she didn't ask how he felt about it as she knew it was already hard for him to take it in. Once they got home, Victor immediately rushed upstairs to stare at himself. He kept pushing his bangs from his face, getting so annoyed that he took a hair clip that he had and clipped it back. He kept pressing his fingers into the parting in his hair and running his hand up and down the back of his head, not exactly liking the fuzzy feeling of the partial buzz cut at the base of his neck. He sighed and took the hair clip out and watched his new bangs fall in front of his eye. 

He would just have to give up and get used to this new look.

*

It was the day he set off to Japan. After standing in long queues and sitting in the waiting area losing his patience due to the delays in his flight, he eventually got onto the cramped plane. He was sat uncomfortably at the window seat beside some stranger. When the plane set off, his heart broke as he watched his beautiful, snowy, country get further and further away.