Made in Taiwan 16

Day 76 continued

“What time is it”? I mumbled. My lips feeling extremely odd, and my words coming out muffled.

Turning, Lin tilted her head to the side, having not understood what I’d just said.

“Xianzai shi ji dian”, I said. This time asking the question in Chinese and having to open my mouth a little wider than usual to speak clearly.

Understanding me the second time around, she said it was around noon and to be patient while she finished up my hair.

My first reaction was surprise, hearing that three hours had passed in what seemed like a few minutes, but then I thought about what she had just said. “Hair! What did she mean hair? I was supposed to be wearing a wig.

Lifting my right arm, I rummaged around under the sheet that was covering my upper body, searching for a way out. I could still feel long acrylic nails attached to my fingertips and felt disappointed that Lin hadn’t removed them.

Seeing me thrashing around, Lin leaned down and grabbed my arms by the biceps. She was pretty strong for a girl her size, and as I looked up at her through my thick feathery eyelashes, I felt a little intimidated.

She said to stay calm before quickly moving around behind me.

I nodded and looked out at the Taiwanese faces smiling back at me. But before I could look away in embarrassment, I suddenly felt a strange new sensation. It started at the top of my head before sweeping down. I quickly realised it was a comb, but as I felt a tugging at my scalp, the most disconcerting thing was that it just kept on going and going.

Feeling a mixture of disbelief and surrealism. A shiver ran down my spine as Lin moved the comb in one steady stroke down to the small of my back.

Sat there like a statue with Lin brushing out my now shockingly long hair, the penny finally dropped. This wasn't a wig! This was hair, and it was firmly attached to my head!

While I tried to comprehend what was happening, Lin looked over and said something to one of the students, sat watching. The young man in question looked extremely pleased to have been chosen and jumped up enthusiastically.

I watched as he sashayed across the room before disappearing from the corner of my vision. But he wasn’t gone long. Returning in an instant, wheeling some sort of trolly towards me.

Lin thanked him and asked him to stay and help her. Looking down past my inflated lips, my eyes widened, seeing row upon row of colourful cylindrical objects. Varying in size from very small to huge. Lin picked up a medium-sized one, and if I hadn’t guessed already, I soon realised what was happening as she took a long strand of my new hair and started rolling it up tightly. The young man who watched on keenly was then told to do the next one.

Appearing in front of me, Lin smiled and said something about leaving for a moment. Feeling very overwhelmed at this point, I panicked. “No, stay”, I lisped. Sounding rather pathetic and feeling even more so, when one of the girls watching started to giggle.

Lin leaned down, stroked my shoulder gently in a comforting manner before saying some soothing words, that I barely understood. I was now red in the face with embarrassment. With the other girl, now giggling too. The whole situation suddenly felt so much more real and utterly humiliating.

Lin stood back up and watched for a moment as the man carefully sectioned a part of my long hair before swiftly rolling it up. Looking satisfied, she then left the room as I stared at the wall, avoiding eye contact with the girls directly in front of me, and feeling absolutely humiliated.

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Stood shaking on my high-heeled sandals, I could feel my heart racing. Having been announced ready, it seemed It was time for the big reveal. A large object, that I guessed was a mirror, with a sheet draped over the top, had been wheeled in and placed in front of me.

I tried to focus on my breathing and not look at the smiling students, filming me with their camera phones or the older woman who had now joined them. It turned out, she was some sort of senior tutor at the university, there to critique Lin’s work.

I remember hearing a countdown, “3, 2, 1”, and then suddenly, the sheet was whipped away as the world as I once knew it, changed forever.

(See image 20)

They probably heard my gasp in the next room as I stumbled on my heels and almost fell. Looking at the new me, reflecting back at me, I gulped and was almost sick. The image I'd seen all my life was gone, somehow replaced by something impossible. Simona!

I shuddered while examining the extreme changes at the hands of Lin and her student volunteers. But the funny thing was, in that moment, the thing I remember noticing first were my new pink nails shining in front of my gaping mouth. I guess a part of me had expected to see the pouty lips and the flirtatious lashes, but the sight of a new set of pink acrylics annoyed me. It meant Lin actually had removed the old ones but then replaced them with a new, even girlier set.

Smiling, Lin moved over to stand next to me before addressing the new woman in the room. Still in utter shock after seeing my terrifying transformation, I barely understood a word of what she said. I just stared gormlessly into the mirror as she went about explaining what she had done while occasionally pointing over in my direction.

If I had understood, this is what I would have heard.

“Thank you for coming over to inspect my work, miss Wang. This was a strange request by my sister’s friend, but it has given me the perfect opportunity to show you my skills. Here is the picture I was sent”. At this point, Lin passed her phone to the woman to inspect.

“The task was to transform this girl, if you swipe right, you’ll see the before picture, to look as close as possible to the picture. The hair extensions weren’t in the original plan. But as I washed her hair and saw how perfect it would be for them, I had to ask. Luckily she agreed”. At this point, Lin paused for a moment as the woman made a comment.

When the woman finished speaking, a smiling Lin continued. “First, I started with the face, with a chemical peel and microdermabrasion removed the dead skin and fine hairs, giving me a base to work off. At this point, I also shaped and waxed her eyebrows. This allowed me to draw the corners back in later to match the picture. Next, I moved on to the eyelash extensions. The junior students really helped me out here by prepping her nails and laying out the hair extensions, saving me a lot of time. Alternating between the lashes and the acrylic extensions, this was a great opportunity to give our junior students some hands-on experience. You can judge for yourself, but I think they did a wonderful job”. The woman stepped forward at this point, leaning in to examine my hands. With a nod of her head, the students all clapped and seemed very excited.

“The next job was the trickiest. Using Botox injections and lip fillers, I tried to change the shape of her face to match the picture. It’s not a perfect match, but I did the best I could and, with the help of the students, moved on to the most time-consuming part, the hair and nails. I also pierced her ears around this time, seeing that the girl in the picture was wearing earrings”.

Seeing Lin point at my ears. I suddenly noticed the shining stud earrings in my ears and let out a little whimper. Looking back now, they weren't the worst of the feminizing changes force upon me that day. But suddenly noticing something so obvious, something seemingly permanent, really shocked me.

Seeing my reaction, Lin asked if I was ok. My mouth moved but no words came out, making Lin laugh. Turning, she continued speaking her explanation. “And that’s it. Oh, apart from a few touches of makeup and curling her hair. Thank you once again for coming over, miss Wang”.

The room erupted into applause as miss Wang looked happy. I was now swaying from side to side, with my legs feeling like jelly. The room was spinning as I blinked my voluminous lashes, desperately trying to avoid blacking out. Luckily, Lin was there to catch me before helping me over to a nearby chair to sit down.

Taking a few deep breaths, one of the junior students brought me over a glass of water. Grasping it between my pink claws, I lifted the glass to my swollen lips. But not used to their new inflated size, I ended up spilling most of the liquid straight down my chin.

shocked and appalled as the glass was taken away, I looked away in shame. It all seemed like a nightmare. How was I going to hide these changes from the people who knew me? But worse still, I still had to get Simona's new ID card and take her assessment.

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Closing the front door quietly, I felt a huge sense of relief, having made it through the horrendous afternoon. Having just lived through one of the worse days of my life, I was mighty glad to be back in the safety of the apartment.

Looking around and not seeing Simona, most likely out on the balcony, I debated in my mind which had been worse. Being flirted with by the man who had helped me get the ID or having to sit for two hours while the exam officer stared at my legs.

Taking a step forward, the loud clicking sound of my heel colliding with the tiled floor, echoed through the apartment, reminding me of how much my feet hurt. For a moment, I considered taking the torturous sandals off. But in my tired state. The thought of messing around with the buckles with these long nails just seemed like too much hassle.

Taking another step, I set off slowly towards the bedroom. Simona must have heard my distinctly feminine approach because I was barely halfway up the corridor when her head appeared in the bedroom doorway.

We locked eyes for a second, and her mouth dropped open as I continued my slow, noisy approach.

Arriving in front of her, I stopped and stood awkwardly as she looked me up and down. I didn’t speak. I had no words to describe how I was feeling, knowing I was more likely to break down in tears than form any kind of legible sentence.

Finally, after looking me up and down several more times, we locked eyes once more, and surprisingly she looked angry. “What the fuck have you done, GG? You look more like me than I do”! She exclaimed loudly, covering her mouth with her hands.

(See image 21)