In the morning, she pulled the plug. The water swirled—gray, fibrous, anonymous. And then it was gone.
Acids , she learned. Sulfuric acid—the kind in drain cleaners that came in a gel. It would char hair into a black, carbonized crisp before dissolving it. Bases were more thorough. Lye was the queen. But there were enzymes too—the biological drain cleaners that worked slowly, like pacifist assassins. Bleach would dissolve hair if you left it long enough, but it left a ghost—a bleached, fragile memory of the strand, rather than true oblivion. what will dissolve hair
Finally, she went back to the lye. The white pellets. She dropped a single, long black strand of Paul’s hair into the mason jar. Added a teaspoon of pellets. Poured cold water over it. Then she just watched. In the morning, she pulled the plug
What will dissolve hair? The next morning, she bought a mason jar. She found the box of Paul’s things she’d shoved under the sink—his old razor, a toothbrush, a shirt he’d left that still smelled of cedar and indifference. She snipped a single thread from the shirt. She pulled a long black strand from the tub drain (the lye had left a few survivors). She placed them both in the jar. Acids , she learned
She tried them all, like a medieval alchemist in her small kitchen.