The pink dye had finally washed out, leaving the faintest of tints to her silvery mane. Melian sighed as she examined herself in the mirror and decided that another couple of washes and even that trace of color would be gone. She considered turning and heading back to her little bed, but for some reason kept staring at herself in the mirror. Without its collection of braids, her hair had a soft wave to it. And when did it get so long? Granted, she hadn’t trimmed it in a while, but she was fairly certain that it had never fallen below her a** when unbound before. Absently touching her hair as she stared, Melian was suddenly struck by an idea and hurried from the bathroom to the phone on the table beside the bed. This was an idea she had to move fast for, before she lost her nerve.

Calling down to the front desk, she spoke to the clerk, asking him to send someone to fetch a few things for her. And thankfully, while not the most expensive of hotels, this one was nice enough to have an errand runner on duty in case a guest should require anything. Once she was sure the clerk had everything down, she hung up and settled back to wait. Which, it turned out, was not long at all. Jumping to her feet at the first knock, Melian was at the door and opening it to greet the errand runner, accept the bag that was handed over and handing over a sizeable tip before thanking the girl and shutting the door.

Taking her bag to the bed, she emptied it out and smiled. An inexpensive set of clippers lay on the coverlet along with a pair of scissors, a couple of combs and a box of dye for later. Good enough. Taking the clippers, she opened the box and spent a few moments reading over the instructions and inspecting the tips. Finally, she picked on, attached it and carried the clippers into the bathroom with her along with the combs and scissors. It took a few minutes to puzzle out parts and how to pin the bulk of her hair back to keep it out of the way, but finally, she was satisfied and went to work with the clippers. As she worked, she could feel long strands of hair wriggle and waft down to the floor. Within moments, her feet were covered in a small pile of silver hair. And by that point, she found herself wishing that she’d asked the errand runner to stick around and help her with the back of her head. Though, she managed simply by moving slowly and a lot of twisting about.

An hour later, she was stepping from the shower and toweling her head vigorously. Enough hair to outfit a wig lay in a neat pile, ready to be moved to the trash can. Once dry, Melian’s fingertips brushed against the shaved side of her head before focusing on the other side and deftly putting two french braids along the other side and pulling the remaining mass back into a high ponytail. Taking a couple of her hair crystals, she tied them to the ends of the braids, fluffed up her bangs and spent a moment admiring the overall effect.

Okay, she looked kind of cute with the modified undercut and shaved side.