In a moment of love, I braided my hair and asked my friend to cut straight across the top of it, wrapping the top and bottom with elastics to secure the hairs. When I gave it to my boyfriend at the time, he showed me a space in his closet where he had a platform with a variety of memorabilia on it: in the center he had a headless Aztec warrior statuette, which was framed with a photo of Barry Bonds, an engraved family ring, snake skin, a god’s eye, and a letter from his mom, among other rocks and crystals. On top of the hands that the statuette had raised, he placed the lock of my hair. “It’s for luck,” he said.