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It all started with a bowl. Then even after the bowl was too small for his head it somehow stayed that way.
Hair wasn't something people thought about on Paradis. Outside of it being a liability, there were a variety of odd styles that people just had. Armin had been called helmet head multiple times, but it never really bothered him. When he would trim his hair into that bowl shape, it just reminded him of his grandfather, cutting his hair.
It wasn't till the unit set out toward the ocean that he even considered changing it up. It would be hot and dirty as they all traveled. So he really just took it a bit shorter, just added some layering on top, then he trimmed the hairs underneath in not an undercut, but just about an inch in length from the base of his ears down to make it less thick.
He kept it as such for some time. Until they visited the mainland. There he noticed he somewhat stuck out. No boy on the mainland had hair like his. When he looked at himself that night he decided he would just need to do what was best for the mission as he picked up the scissors.
He'd never cut his hair in really any other style, however. As he pondered where to even start, he heard a small knock on his door.
"Come in," he said, assuming it was Mikasa.
His suspicion was confirmed as she walked in to find him standing shirtless in front of the mirror, holding the blades, a towel around his shoulders. He wasn't trying to hide what he was doing, but her critical gaze almost made him wish he had.
"I'm glad you're here." He sighed. "Can you help?" He asked then startled, "I'm sorry, I didn't even ask why you're here, do you need me? Should I get dressed?"
"No," she smiled, "I was just here to tell you Sasha managed to steal a whole tray of sticky buns from the commissary if you wanted one. Whatever is going on right now seems more important. You never need help cutting your hair. Why now?"
"I stick out with it, so I was going to take it shorter for when we go to the mainland. But I have no idea how to cut it any other way." He sighed with a half-hearted laugh and a shrug.
"Is that why it's been like that since we were kids?" She asked.
That was probably an easier and definitely a less emotionally draining reason to give her. "Pretty much," he shrugged again.
"What were you thinking?" She pulled his desk chair behind him, and a hand on his shoulder silently indicated he should sit. He was growing every day it seemed recently, it would have been difficult to reach his whole head if he were standing.
"Shorter?" He said, trailing up like it was a question. She laughed. He hadn't heard his best friend laugh for a while, even if it was a little at his expense, he smiled.
"No wonder you had no idea where to start if you had no idea how you actually wanted it!" She smiled, shaking her head. She ran her fingers into his hair and paused, "when did you give yourself an undercut?!?"
"Before we went to the ocean. It's not really an undercut, just more thinning it out," Armin shrugged.
"Well, that is our guide then. Let's just take it to that length and see where we end up," Mikasa nodded resolutely, picking up the scissors, and starting to cut the longer strands.
In the end, Mikasa had left most of the hair on top sitting at about the same length as his bangs and the back was about the same 1 inch length till his nape. It looked like an inland haircut. So he thanked her and they went to get a sticky bun, pending Sasha hadn't eaten them all by now, anyway.
The next time Armin changed his hair, it was Levi's doing. He was in the men's bathroom, back to trimming it as he usually did now that Mikasa had created a baseline for him to follow, except the back was still fairly hard to get right. He normally managed it through careful measurements but this time his mind had wandered to Eren's current mental health as it seemed to deteriorate and that had led to thinking about Annie and just, well, he got distracted and it was fairly terrible looking when Levi walked in on him looking disgustedly at his hands for their betrayal.
"Sit" was all the captain said, pointing to the bench by the lockers as he went to probably piss, as he was coming to the bathroom. He did sit, mostly out of sheer habit of following the man's orders and partially because he had no other promising ideas as to what else he should be doing at the moment. He faintly heard the toilet flush and hand washing before Levi also entered the locker area and shuffled to his own locker before he returned with a pair of clippers to stand behind Armin.
"Thank you, captain," Armin said in understanding as Levi clippered the entirely botched back of his head. He felt the man hold up the upper part of his hair carefully and clipper underneath.
"You really did a number on yourself." Levi admonished. "Please straddle the bench so I can even out the sides with the back."
Armin once again did as instructed and felt the captain once again gently push the side up and away to clipper around his ear before he walked to the other side to do the same. "Got distracted, sir," Armin supplied weakly. Levi just hummed in response.
"You can borrow these next time if you want," Levi stated, going to put them back in his locker. "Don't forget to clean up the mess in both places," he admonished and walked out as though nothing had happened. Armin cleaned up around the bench first then went back to the mirror. He actually looked really good, he smiled. He made a few more snips to the top, taking it above his ears and tapering it to longer in the back. It was easier to cut without the hair underneath. He could see how the captain managed with a similar hairstyle.
He began to clean up around the sink.
Suddenly he paused, startled. Had Captain Levi given him permission to touch his things?