When my daughter Lily, just five years old, refused to cut her hair, my wife Sara and I thought it was just a quirky phase. But everything changed the night she got gum stuck in her hair and burst into tears when we tried to cut it out. “No!” she cried. “I want my real daddy to recognize me when he comes back!”

My heart sank. I knelt beside her, confused and shaken. “Sweetheart, I am your daddy. What makes you think I’m not?” Through tearful eyes, she whispered, “Grandma said you’re not. She said my real daddy will come back one day, and if I cut my hair, he won’t recognize me.”