When we met, Andy was a lifeguard for the university pools. He was tanned, with shoulder-length curly hair, bleached lightly from the sun and pool chemicals. I confess, his beautiful hair was one of the things that attracted me to him; I had long, straight, mousy brown hair that hung straight, and while that was the fashion at the time, mine was not all that pretty.
When he went to work for the prison system, all that beautiful hair fell to the barber's floor - a safety precaution so I was told. I cried, but in time got used to it.
Over the years, the curls fell straight, and the thickness just fell. Little by little, the color changed darker, and then began to be interspersed with a little gray here and there.
These days, the length is about 1/4 of an inch all over, with the top mostly gone. When the sun shines on his head, it reflects off the gray, and it almost appears he has a halo.
It makes me smile.