That Hair

© shoutingforha

My husband and I were born with plain old, ordinary, run-of-the mill, brown hair. Our son, on the other hand, came into this world on St. Patrick's Day with a swatch of reddish fuzz on his head. Imagine our surprise. We had to go back 3 generations to find where this recessive gene was hiding.

As his hair began to grow, it became noticeably redder and started to curl. I'm not talking about reddish, auburn or strawberry blond. Our son has the red hair that people only dream of. It is so red that small children frequently refer to it as "orange." When the sun hits it just right, it looks almost like flames. His hair is truly amazing.

When I was a child, red hair was something to be despised. It always earned the owner the dreaded title of "carrot top." Thankfully, times have changed. Having red hair has become something special.

My son seems to agree. He wears his red hair with pride.