Hairline splinter

There is always something new to learn.

I have thick black hair, thanks to my father. It is strong and straight.

If you cut it, it gets sharp ends. If you cut it twice, the clipping has two sharp ends.

One of the clippings fell into my sock. It probably stayed there through several washings, because I don’t turn my socks inside out when I wash them. So it was up near the front of my foot, and one of the sharp edges entered my foot between the grooves of my foot print (the thing that looks like a fingerprint on the bottom of the foot). I probably didn’t notice. With every step I drove this tiny hair further and further into my foot until it was completely embedded.

That’s when I noticed the occasional pain when I walked. So I looked at it: a black splinter. How odd. I pressed on it and noticed it was flexible, and immediately deduced that it was hair. On its own, it didn’t hurt at all. But pressing on it caused the sharp ends to stick me, and that stung.

A hair splinter. Imagine that.

It was embedded at varying depths; very shallow at the point of entry, then deeper on both sides. So I took a needle and attacked it from the middle. By ripping the outer layer of skin slightly, i was able to get the needle under the hair. From there, all I had to do was pull, and both ends of the hair came out. It was very hairlike and very unsplinterlike as I removed it. And when it was completely out, I checked it, and it was just a harmless piece of hair.

Judging by my age, I am going to guess that something like this probably happens one in a lifetime for someone with hair as thick and straight as mine. At least, I hope so. Because if the next time it happens is 31 years from now, I’ll be 62 and I don’t know if I will be flexible enough to remove it on my own.