The following is an NBM story, containing themes of living decapitation. It's a halloweeny thing, so it contains mild gore. If this kind of thing puts you off, that is understandable. Please seek something else to look at.
This one is a bit experimental for me, as it departs from my usual bodiless-head-only shtick, but I hope you enjoy it.

Melinda looked at her reflection in the slightly greasy glass door of the downtown establishment. was not a pretty sight. Her long blonde hair lay disheveled and unkempt over her head in a chaotic manner and her green eyes carried the thousand-yard stare of a woman who hadn't seen the daylight in months.

It was the kind of look that proclaimed: "I have lost control of my life." She consoled herself that she would not have to suffer this indignity for much longer. Opening the door, she was welcomed by the familiar chime of the door-bell and Didier's barber- and styling shop.

Didier's French-accented voice called out from a back room.
"I will be with you in a moment, you may take a seat in the waiting area. Help yourself to a cup of tea if you wish, it may take a few minutes!"

Melinda sat down on the comfortable leather couch and leafed through some stylistic magazines. Although there were some hairstyle magazines present, the majority of them depicted more radical examples of cosmetic procedures. She let out a content sigh, enjoying the quality tea and the pleasant ambient music. The only aspect that slightly disturbed the tranquil atmosphere were the occasional muffled sounds of flesh and bone being sawn into pieces, but that was to be expected. Clearly the current customer was having a rather large procedure done.

After a while, Didier the barber entered the waiting room. he was a tall Frenchman sporting a trendy hipster-moustache and beard. He hung up the bloodstained apron he was wearing over his classy red burgundy vest and started washing his hands by the sink.

"I will be with you in a moment, i just have to finish up my last customer. She had some rather dramatic requests." Melinda nodded understandingly, and sat down again, as Didier made his way into the back room once more.

Not bothered return her attention to the magazine, she took in her surroundings with interest. On the walls across the waiting room were mounted four disembodied human heads, two men and two women. She happened to recognize one of the woman's heads as belonging to Gianna, the beautiful but unpleasant diva she used to take singing lessons with. The head blinked vacantly at her, as disembodied heads are known to do, and Melinda remarked to herself how much Gianna's head becoming a silent piece of eye-candy was an improvement. She leisurely spent few minutes playing with Gianna's long red hair locks until the operation room opened once more.

Didier walked in, clumsily carrying an enormous stack of cardboard boxes. He put these on the counter with a sigh, and marked them with shipping addresses.
At last, he turned his attention to Melinda

"If madame  would come with me?" He beckoned as he gestured towards the backroom.

The back room was dimly lit, and often made a chaotic impression on its visitors. The room was clearly too small to accommodate Didier's ever-growing supply of unusual barber's tools. The first thing any visitor noticed was a large, 18th century guillotine, its blade and stocks permanently stained with the blood of hundreds of victims, willing and unwilling. Other devices, such as an ornate iron maiden, a torture rack, and various restraints of wood and metal haphazardly littered the room. The walls were lined with collections of cutting, bludgeoning and piercing implements in varying ranges of age, rustiness and sharpness.

Didier guided Melinda through this mess to the back of his special room, where the decor looked slightly more like a barber's workshop. Three large, well-lit mirrors were placed in front of a complicated, gothic-looking heavy metal contraption. it was currently arranged in the form of a seat, but could clearly be easily repurposed to restrain a person in a wide range of uncomfortable positions. Melinda casually sat down on the contraption, and tried not to look at her own messy unkempt face in the mirrors.

"So, Madame, what might I do for you this time? I assume you would wish me to take a little off the top?"

"Just the top please, yeah."

"Très bien." Didier took a small obsidian scalpel from his belt and gently held it next to her neck. "Same as last time?" He asked, moving to make a little cut around halfway her neck.

"Actually, I was thinking maybe we could try something a little bit more daring this time, Didier."

Didier smiled at her broadly through the mirror. "Excellent! Did you have anything in particular in mind already?"

"You know Macy, the stenographer at the municipal court?"

"I regret to say that name does not ring a bell. Can you describe her?"

"She wears her neck in a vertical taper, where the spinal center is raised up higher so she shows off the neck-part of her spine.

"Ah, bien. In the trade, we call that a 'pencil cut'. It was very fashionable in the time of my mother. Would you like me to arrange that, or..."

"Or?"

"Or I could entice you to try a slightly more daring cut still?"

"Do you think it will impress my colleagues?"

He gave her a meaningful nod. "I certainly expect so. I've been ruminating on a way to bring the pencil-cut back, but I have set my sights on giving it a little 'twist' of my own"

"Well, go ahead then. Surprise me!"

Didier brought his scalpel to her neck again and made a quick incision near the base of her neck, and another one further to the top. A small drop of blood ran down the scalpel, but Melinda did not seem to mind being cut in this way. She silently confirmed his intended sawing points with a smile and a nod.

"If we are going to do this, I will have to stabilize your neck. Do you mind?" He swiveled a tall adjustable metal collar contraption forward from the headrest of the chair.

"Not at all" Melinda replied as she sat upright and craned her neck to recieve the collar. Didier clasped it snugly around her neck, and adjusted a dial. Slowly, the collar raised itself up, making it cover the entirely of Melinda's neck.  In the end, the weight of her head rested entirely upon the top of the collar, The weight of her body stretching her neck out to an uncomfortable degree. Melinda didn't complain. This stretching of her neck was clearly Didier's intention, and Didier always knew best.

Didier slid open a slit on the right side of the collar, and found the scalpel marks on her neck again. He then produced a large, rather crude wooden saw from a shelf, which he presented to her.

"Could we use a finer blade this time? I know how much you like your "authentic cuts" but it gets really itchy when it's all jagged like that."

"As madame requests" Didier responded in a tone that betrayed disappointment. He brought out a small fine-toothed, stainless steel handsaw, of which Melinda approved. He set it against the base of her neck and, after hearing no disapproval, began the process of cutting through her flesh.

"So what was ...ugh... up with the previous client?" Melinda asked semi-casually, trying not to focus on the discomfort of the collar and the saw.

Didier grimaced. "Ah, she was one of those 'scavenger hunt' broads, pardon my language. They come here from time to time, get cut in as many pieces as possible, and then have someone hide the body parts in various places. They pay well, but it's a lot of work. Particularly boxing them up and making sure you send the correct body parts to the correct places."

Having sawn away a a slice of flesh from both the top and the bottom of her neck (except the spine), Didier took a sharp kitchen knife, and set it horizontally against the back of Melinda's neck.

"Oh, by the way, I noticed that you had Gianna's head hanging in your waiting room. I didn't know she visited this place." Melinda said conversationally.

Melinda noticed a slight grimace in Didier's face as she said this. "Ah, yes. It was her first time." He responded. "Is she a friend of yours?"

Didier made a vertical cut in the back of Melinda's neck, connecting the two horizontal slices.

"More like an.. acquaintance." she gave him a meaningful look. "Was it her idea to take her head off, or yours?"

Didier smiled through the mirror. "I may have... suggested the idea to her once she started conversing on the subject of her countless 'celebrity admirers' for twenty minutes straight. She will remain slightly 'more reserved' for a few months, until her head grows back again."

"The world owes you a debt of gratitude, Didier"

"Indeed!" he smiled. "Well, at least I got an agreeable salon piece out of it. Do mind, this may feel a little strange." He put his hand in the opened back of Melinda's neck and gently peeled the fleshy bits off, revealing the spinal column of Melinda's neck.

"Oh wow!" Melinda took some time to take in the sight of her bare spine, although looking was difficult with the contraption holding her head firmly up. "It's certainly a conversation piece like this!"

"Exactement! However, we are not finished just yet. We were going to do this with a little twist, remember?" He chuckled to himself as he produced a sort of enormous wooden clamping tool, which he set in place and fastened to the sides of her head. A large wooden handle protuded from the clamp, to provide leverage to the user.

Melinda sighed. "A twist huh? Hilarious as always, Didier. But sure, go ahead."

Didier grabbed the wooden handle, and twisted her head to the left 180 degrees. "As you can see, the turning motion will cause the spine to take on a more aesthetically pleasing spiral shape"

"I can't see, you're turning me away from the mirror!"

"Excusez-moi!" He turned her head another 180 degrees, allowing her to examine the difference. Her spinal column had taken on a somehow elegant spiral shape, like a strand of DNA.

"Oh wow, that's very exotic indeed! Macy is going to be jealous, I bet! Do continue"

As Didier turned another 180 degrees, the tension on Melinda's head increased. "Before I finish turning you, though, Would you like to keep this thing... "He patted her head" ...home with you afterward?"

"Ugh, no thank you! Good riddance to it and the world of sensory overload that it brings!"

"I assumed as much. Remember to file your neck and spinal collumn off at least once a week, okay? That way your head will not grow back as quickly."

"Yes doctor, I will. thank you! Now give me some of that sweet oblivion!"

Didier twisted her head another 360 degrees, until with a gentle snap the connection between Melinda's head and body was completely severed. He lifted her severed head off her shoulders, which was now looking at him with a vacant expression, slowly blinking.

Melinda's body got up, gratefully shook his hand, dropped a fifty dollar note on the counter, and confidently walked onto the street, ready to not-quite-face the world again.

Didier cleaned up the back room, Carelessly tossed Melinda's head in a large burlap sack labeled "spare women's heads" and made his way back to the waiting room, where his next customer would be waiting for their special metamorphosis.