Some hairs simply appear.  Clean shaving means precisely that.  Within a day, dots appear as the ends of the follicles breach through the surface of my epidermis.  Another day and it's sandpaper on my chin.  Give it a few more days and short fuzz abounds, like a nail brush (not that I know what those are).  That's the natural sequence.  What I don't understand is how I wake up this morning with a hair nearly a half-inch long protruding from my cheek.  Dark, thick, black, like cheap licorice.  Did my wife implant it overnight?  Is this part of a conspiracy with a hook-rug corporation?  If so, can I select the pattern?  So long as it's painless enough to let me sleep through the process, I'm not complaining.  That much said, this morning's straggler has been yanked and trashed.  Maybe I'm ruining the surprise?