Published March 25, 2026

Trouble with Scissors

Sky Ford

Cutting my own hair made me feel in control, for a while. Then it made me feel out of control.

The background of this page depicts four zoomed in strands of hair curving from the top to the bottom of the page. In the top left corner Sky clings onto one strand, their face peeking around from behind the hair. The text reads, “Oh no. I’ve been transformed into a height of 50 micrometers, twice the diameter of one of my hairs.” In the following panel, we see Sky slightly more zoomed out from behind clinging onto a hair, while the background of this panel is filled with hairs. The text reads, “I have no choice but to cling on for dear life.” The following row is four small closeup panels which are irregularly placed on the zoomed-in hair background. First is a closeup of Sky’s face with anxious looking eyes. Next is their hand gripping a hair cell. Next is their foot with the caption “slip,” and finally we see Sky’s whole body from behind again, arms wrapped around a strand of hair with the caption “phew.” The third row starts with a large panel depicting a more zoomed-out part of a hairy head with a tiny human silhouette hanging on in the middle. The text reads, “so close to the comparatively flat ground atop the scalp.” Beside the panel we see the tips of two scissor blades closing in on one of the large background hairs. Between the blades is the text, “Huh, what’s this?” Starting the final row is the text, “A giant piece of metal blocks my view.” A panel shows Sky clinging onto hairs that are now curved horizontally with the text “swoosh” and “whoooa.” In the next panel, beside the text “duck,” Sky blocks their head with their hands as a falling cut end of a hair is shown in the background. Next is a zoomed in panel of Sky’s eyes looking up with the large bold text “SNIP.” Finally, as part of the background image, we see Sky falling through empty space. They are in front of a zoomed in hair strand with a cut end, also shown as falling. Beside this is the text “Aaaaaaaaaaa,” written vertically and with a’s diminishing in size from top to bottom.

The title “The Trouble with Scissors” is written large over a background image of a pair of scissors with two zoomed in hair strands behind it. Sky lounges in one of the finger holes of the scissor’s handle. On the scissors’ handle is the text “By Sky” and on the blade is the text “A hair story.” Panel 1 reads, “I have a complicated relationship with scissors.” Sky kneels behind a pair of vertical Sky-height scissors. Panel 2 reads “though I am a kind of expert in their use…” With exaggeratedly buff arms Sky holds up the large scissors. In the background is a poster of scissor types. Panel 3 reads, “you’ll have trouble finding any in my vicinity.” The image shows a closed door labeled “Sky’s room” with a taped-on poster reading “Notice: please leave scissors at the door.” Panel 4 reads, “Zoe was my inspiration to start cutting my own hair.” Zoe is depicted with a torn tank-top that says “no borders,” patched jeans, gloves, and a guitar strapped on her back. Labels point out her “muscles from carpentry projects,” “gloves for dumpster diving,” “Punk DIY hairstyle,” “guitar for busking,” “well-worn boots,” and that she is “bilingual.” Panel 5 shows four people sitting around a fire at night surrounded by trees, with one person playing guitar. Zoe says, “Sky, it seems like your hair is bugging you, want me to cut it?” Sky says, “Huh? Uh, yes, actually.” Panel 6 shows the forest at day time. Sky sits on a stump and Zoe stands behind them cutting their hair. Sky says, “I feel like there are some parts about society that are good though.” Zoe says, “Can you be more specific on what you mean by society?” A small inset panel shows a close up of Zoe’s hand holding a clump of Sky’s hair with the text, “touch.” Another inset panel shows a close-up of hair clippings beside the stump with the text, “snip.” Panel 7 depicts Zoe and Sky, both smiling. Zoe’s tanktop has an anarchy “A” patch. She has one hand on Sky’s hair. Zoe asks, “How does it feel?” Sky says, “Amazing! I wish I could do my own like you.” Zoe says, “Well, what’s stopping you?”

The first panel is a long horizontal panel which first shows Sky’s face with a musing expression, then Sky upside down in a handstand, and finally Sky holding a pair of very large scissors while running across a tiny globe. The caption “Why did I need someone else to cut my hair? When I could design my own style, be free and, in control of my own life path” is interspersed around these three images, with “in control” written in bigger bolder text than the rest. The next line is a series of close-up panels. First is a sink with a pair of scissors, then a waste basket, then a book with a pair of scissors beside it, and finally a mug and spoon. All of these objects have hair clipping on and around them, and the final close-up panel just shows a blurry background of hair clippings. The caption, “somehow, though, I found myself cutting my hair all the time - every day - for minutes - or hours - leaving itchy traces - everywhere” is spread across these panels. The next line depicts five different people with varying heights, clothing, and skin colors. Their speech bubbles read, “You have a very unique hair style!”, “You cut your own hair? So cool!”, “Do you realize you have a bald spot?”, “It looks like you have ringworm!”, and “Of all your self-cuts, this one looks the least weird.” Sky stands on the far right of all these people with their hands clasped in front of them and speech bubble reading “....”. In the first panel of the final line we see Sky holding a book in bed. A caption indicates “an ex-girlfriend” who is not depicted is speaking: “You know you have an addiction to cutting your hair, right?” Sky says, “Huh?” The ex-girlfriend continues speaking over the next panel which shows a row of shoes and a lamp with some hair clippings around it. She says, “you’re thinking about it all the time, you can’t control yourself, and it gives you a kind of high too, right? It’s not good. You have to stop.” An inset panel shows a close-up of Sky’s face with the text “you have to stop” in the background. The final panel is a black background with the text “you have to stop” in large white block letters.

The panels on this page are irregular and overlaid on one another in a mosaic-like pattern. The first panel shows two synapses with the caption “It does feel a bit like a high, at first…. Disorder. Synapses stuck in a nonsense loop. But it feels -” The next panel depicts Sky from the back looking into a bathroom mirror and feeling their hair with one hand. A pair of scissors is on the sink beside them. The caption reads “If I could just fix -” The next panel is a close-up of Sky’s face with synapses coming out of their eyes and the caption “That one strand -” Next is a closeup of the side of Sky’s face and fingers feeling a strand of hair by their ear. Next is a closeup of the scissor on the sink. Following this is another panel with synapses in the background and the caption “That one little piece out of place -” The next panel is a closeup of a single hair with the caption “That one hair that’s wrong -” Next is a closeup of just the blade of the scissors and following this is a depiction of Sky’s reflection in the bathroom mirror. They are holding the opened scissors up to their head. Following this is a panel showing the back of Sky’s head and scissors closing on a strand of hair. The caption reads, “Then, *SNIP* order -” The final panel shows the scissors with a clipping of hair on the blade and the caption “Ahhhhhh… might be restored.”

This comic was edited by CK Gormally.

An earlier version of the comic was published by Gulf Coast Magazine.

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