One hair

My youngest son and I were talking this morning as he got ready for school. I was combing his hair and he said to me "How do you get your hair so poofy? I wish mine would be poofy like that!"

He has verly slightly wavy medium brown fine hair to my extremely wavy kinky curly thick dark brown. As I told him that his hair was probably never going to be as poofy as mine, I spotted, growing from his head, one extremely wavy kinky curly thick hair. Dark brown.

"Do you want me to pull it out and show you?" I asked him. Yes, he said, so I did.

We looked at it laying on my palm. A hair absolutely identical to mine (sans dye) next to one of his medium brown, slightly wavy, and fine strands of hair. If I hadn't pulled it from his head, I wouldn't believe it came from him.

It was a wonderful moment for both of us. We just smiled at each other with the excitement of the discovery, the proof that our bodies work in mysterious ways and that yes, indeed, there was a bit of me in him.

I grew up not looking like my parents (especially my mother), and that could be hard at times. I feels important to me sometimes, to be able to see myself in my children.