[Her comment did get the smile to get a little more genuine and less sad.]
Nah, it's fine.
[He hadn't told a lot of people about it before, but... this felt okay.]
See, I'm an orphan, so I spent some time living at a church where the priest and nun on site took care of me. She wanted to cut my hair, but I didn't want her to, and the priest told her to let me keep it. She did, but she wanted it to at least be neat, so she taught me to braid it.
[It was close memory, clearly something important to him. He didn't share it with just anyone, after all. And there was a lot more underneath that. What he had shared was just specific to his hairstyle choice.
But, there was one other thing that went with it.]
They let me keep it, so I did. And it's important, 'cuz now it's for their memory.