"The news traveled fast on the Internet. The girl who always had the best hair at home won for Best Hair at Dulaney High in Cockeysville.

"We needed this. No, I needed this.

"My daughter is a member of the largest high school senior class in the history of the Republic. Colleges are turning away students — even the ones who were voted Most Likely to Marry a Millionaire — even the ones with the Best Hair. It’s been a season of rejection, so I was hoping my daughter would get some good news about her first choice. In the meantime, though, we'll take Best Hair.

"So, how to describe my daughter’s hair? It’s a wild child that belies a down-home girl. It’s no beehive, but rather a frizzled bandshell of dirty blond hair requiring its own zip code. Hair-wrangling attempts by Timonium-based stylists have been ineffective. 

"Dulaney High’s Best Hair can be trimmed, but it’s too powerful to be tamed. Samantha's hair has been a force for good, and the subject of one of her college essays. Best Hair does not, alas, carry weight with college admissions people.

"The tangled business of where my daughter will go to college will work itself out. I’m not worried about that. It’s just that when Sam does leave, she will take her Best Hair with her. And every other best thing about her."

Many parents out there are watching the cruel world size up their seniors -- and at the same time, they're preparing to send the kids they've lived with for so long into that world for college. How are you dealing with it?