Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair...

Tonight I draw your hair.
A hair of simplicity,
With a mysterious beauty,
That no one can ever resist,
A hair that blooms with the sun,
That always shines every sunrise,
And turns into deep black at sunset,
A hair of smooth silk,
That touches my face like a baby,
And comforts my soul into a sleeping baby,
Like the lullaby that can put me into sleep,
Your hair blooms unlike any other.

-GanNi

Samuel had beautiful hair. He had curly hair that was a beautiful blonde/gold colour. Actually, it wasn't just one or two colours, it was many different shades, highlights. The type of colour that (mostly) women would pay hundreds of dollars for. And the curls! So beautiful!

He got his curls from me. The blonde I'm not so sure. Anthony had blonde hair when he was younger but it got darker. Oliver started out blonde, but his hair's pretty dark now. But Samuel kept the blonde hair all along.

There were many times that he hated his hair (don't we all though). We kept it longer when he was little, mainly because we loved the beautiful blonde curls. He did get mistaken for a girl once or twice, but people just mostly commented on how gorgeous he was.

When he was about 3 he decided he wanted it short. I think some of that might have been related to a terrible battle we had with head lice around that time. The little buggers were completely resistant to the first 3 or 4 treatments we tried, so we spent many months (and about $100) trying to get rid of them. So he joined Anthony in the razor brigade and for a long time was a 'number 2'.

When Sam got to about year 5 he started keeping it a bit longer. His nanna would take him to get his hair cut and he kept it like that for a while.

It was about then that he discovered his unruly cowlicks were never going to allow him to have the spiky,
straight hair styles that were du jour for kids his age. So he started keeping it a bit longer.

Everybody loved it long. It just really suited him. He still had his moments of being uncomfortable about it all (Samuel never really liked being the centre of attention - unlike Oliver!), but I think he secretly liked the compliments he received.

It wasn't always pretty though - every morning we all laughed at his unruly mop as he emerged from the bedroom, and he wasn't always pro-active about brushing it. But it always seemed to look OK anyway.

He also still had the occasional bout of head lice. The most recent was in about September last year. It sounds weird, but spending an hour with him, brushing gunk through his hair, listening to music and chatting, was pretty nice. By last year he was spending much more time with his friends than with us, so I quite enjoyed that little moment. (Enjoy them while you can parents, they move on pretty quick!)

There was also a time early last year where the girls at his school 'attacked' Sam with the hair straightener. I didn't hear much about it until I went to the parent/teacher night and a couple of the teachers told me about it. It's funny he never mentioned it until then, I think he might have been a little embarrassed about the attention, especially from girls (he wasn't as confident around them as his friends, but I think the girls did like him).

And then there was his last hair cut. Money's always a little tight for us, and I had a bit of trouble coming up with money for him to get his hair cut. So I cut it. Let me preface this story by telling you that as a hairdresser, I make a fantastic teacher. So I was actually very surprised when he allowed my to cut it. We had agreed that if it didn't look any good we'd get out the clippers and shave it all off. But he said it was OK. I thought it looked dreadful, and many people told me to never go near his head again, but he wore it proudly. I like that.

When I went to see Samuel at the viewing, I didn't really want to touch him. I didn't want to feel how cold he was. But I did touch his hair. I loved his beautiful hair. A few days later my parents turned up with a lock of hair that the funeral director had cut off for us. I was so happy to have it. I put a little bit of it in my locket, behind a photo of him. It's nice to have that close to my heart.