Things began to change a little in the second month. Doris
took Anderson to a hairdresser. No names were mentioned, but she
clucked with disapproval at the military haircut. Anderson thought
his hair was long; it was longer than the uniform regs allowed, but
still short. The stylist recut it into a hairstyle that was short
but fairly feminine. She looked at his nails. “Your nails are a
mess. You need to stop chewing them.” She painted them with a
clear liquid, thed waited for the coating to dry. “Now chew on
them,” she said.
Anderson tried, the stuff tasted horrible. he spit out a
fragment of nail and said as much.
“That’s just the point. Take the bottle with you and put a
coat on your nails each morning. After a while, you won’t even
think of biting them.” She then pierced his ears. “You’re about
what, 26,” she asked.
Anderson nodded.
She pierced them twice more, so he had three gold studs in
each ear. “You’re young enough so that looks about right,” she
concluded. After a lecture on how to care for the piercings, she
took him over to a vanity table and began showing him how to apply
cosmetics, indoctrinating him in the mysteries of foundations,
bases, power, lipstick, gloss, mascara, eyeshadow, and cold cream.
After she was done, she scrubbed it all off and had him apply it,
correcting him as he made mistakes.