His Hair - Kind of a Peyton Story

I know, I know, a whole post about Peyton’s hair?!?! What can I say, it was special hair.

As an infant: - In the video that was taken at the hospital as they were cleaning him up, all you hear people talking about was the red hair. Everyone “accusing/questioning” where it came from. Actually both Tom’s & my grandparents had red headed brothers and/or sisters, but no one in the immediate family had red hair. I have to say, when Peyton was little and I would watch the video of that day, I listened to it with the sound muted. This is my best friend Melissa, holding him in the hospital. She would be in the hospital 3 days later giving birth to her daughter.

As a toddler - little old ladies LOVED his hair. He got so much attention when we went out in public.

As a small boy – here is a picture of a haircut he gave himself, kind of a reverse mohawk. I was not happy when I came home from shopping and found tufts of red hair in the floor, scissors in my son’s hand and TOM ASLEEP ON THE COUCH.

As a 3^nd-6^th grader - Even though I loved Peyton’s hair, the color of it was not a battle I chose to fight. I let him bleach it on several occasions. Usually after it had grown long enough to pull through the highlight cap, we would do the highlights then it would have to be cut. The finished product made him look like a spotted fawn. I also have pictures of him with blue hair, but this was just a gel, nothing permanent. Peyton puzzled me. He would not put himself in a box when it came to hairstyles or his clothes. He was a very good athlete and I was happy with the “jock” look. He liked different. Sometimes he would wear a big dogchain necklace and spike his hair, don’t worry he didn’t look too dangerous and this phase didn’t last long. The last year of middle school, we started shopping at American Eagle. I just learned the other day that when he started wearing these clothes, he told the girls, “this is my new look.” I know I said this was about hair, but it all goes together don’t ya think?

The "highlighting" process. He made me laugh!!

Here is the necklace and a mild case of spiked hair, nothing compared to the whole top of his hair twisted and sticking straight up. Sorry, no picture of that style

As a 7^th-9^th grader – He liked to wear it long. Well not long, but almost in his eyes and down his neck. Then he would cut it short, just whatever his mood was. He wanted to bleach his whole head, not pull it through the cap. I told him it would burn, but he wanted it anyway. It did burn, he said he would never do that again.

10^th grade – Cowboys have short hair. I remember an instance during Christmas break 2007. His hair was in need of a cut. Peyton had just gotten out of the shower and his hair was still damp. He was standing in front of the wood burning stove and leaned over to me and said. “Mom feel how soft my hair is.” I reached up and ran my fingers through the top of his hair and said “yes it is.” I am so glad I did. I can still feel it, slipping through my fingers like silk, (red silk).

I miss this boy so much.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my son with you. Even though I sometimes cry while writing these posts, I love telling about him.