"Once it's cut, it turns brown and loses its power."
That's what Rapunzel knew about her hair. The golden hair used to be special. The lone lock of hair was a constant remainder of what would happen if anyone cut her hair. She hated it. She was almost disgusted by it. She spent hours looking at it in the mirror, studying it. Studying it like an explorer studies a new strange insect. She would ask herself why it was there, what was its purpose. She knew it didn't glow when she sang, so it was powerless. It was pointless. She hated it. Disgusted by its ugly reminder of its existence, she tried to get rid of it. She would cut it so close to her scalp, trying to hide it. But, no matter how close she cut it, it always grew back. No matter what she did with it, she knew it was always there, like an itch you can't scratch.
"Mother" made her believe it was a nuisance. A burden. But now, Gothel was gone, nothing but dust in the grass at the tower's base. Along with Gothel was Rapunzel's golden hair, curling and piling around the tower floor like a very long brown snake. The remaining hair she had on her head was joined with the hated brown lock, powerless and useless. She felt to helpless as she held Eugene in her arms, dying. As she held the lifeless body, she sang her song, but for him, this time. Not for healing, for his death. She thought she'd had to go on with her life without her new dream. She wept for losing her love.
Then, a miracle happened. She noticed a glow in her closed watery eyes and opened them, to see a glow filling the room. She saw the glow heal Eugene. She brushed back her hair, noticing for only a second that this brown hair was soft and silky thin, not thick and smooth like her formal hair. She saw the magic that was in her tear had brought back Eugene. She forgot her hair and was happy to have her dream back. The magic was not in her hair, it was in her. She came to accept and now love her new hair, for two reasons, Eugene and her real family.
Queen Primrose, happy that her daughter came home, had told Rapunzel everything. How the flower healed her and gave Rapunzel the sun's powers, how Gothel cut her hair, not anyone else, and the fateful night Gothel took the princess from her bassinet. Primrose kept the other half of the brown lock, kept hidden in an old jewelry box. Rapunzel saw her mother kept it tied in a bow with a beautiful scarlet ribbon, encrusted with tiny rubies. Primrose would often take it out when she missed Rapunzel terribly. The queen still kept the lock, even though she didn't need it anymore. Rapunzel realized her hair made her special now matter the color. It made her look like her mother. That's how Rapunzel came to accept it. And, she decided to let her hair grow, forgetting her golden hair, only in memory. She embraced her hair, and watched as it grew with each passing year.
The End