By Ginny Cooper McCarley / For the Reporter

ALABASTER-When seven-year-old Gracie Parker told her mom she wanted to cut of all of her hair for children who didn’t have any, her mother, Kay Parker, couldn’t believe what she heard.

“I told her, ‘well, it’s your hair,'” Kay Parker said. “She was the one that made that decision. It was her idea.”

Gracie Parker, whose long blonde hair reached down to her hips, had never had a significant haircut in her life, just small trims, her mom said.

“She’ll be 8 on her birthday, and she had never really had a haircut. She just decided she was ready,” Kay Parker said.

Gracie and Kay Parker went to Salon 119 in Alabaster, where hairstylist Angela Smith cut Gracie Parker’s long locks.

“A blonde little angel walked in and said she wanted to donate her hair for children who didn’t have any,” Smith said in an email.

Gracie Parker was able to donate approximately 14 inches of hair to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths, an organization that provides free, real-hair wigs for women with cancer. Kay Parker chose the organization after doing research to ensure that the hair went to make a wig that would be free to someone with cancer.

“Somebody is going to get a beautiful wig,” Kay Parker said.

For Gracie Parker, the idea for cutting off her hair came from thinking about all of the little girls who did not have any hair, due to cancer treatment.

“I felt guilty having all of that hair, and some girls not having any hair,” Gracie Parker said. “I wanted to give it to a cancer person.”

As for her new short ‘do, Gracie Parker said it feels “great.”

“I’m just feeling good,” Gracie Parker said. “I feel not guilty.”

For Gracie Parker, this is just one of many such haircuts she plans to get in the future.

“I want to grow it out again, and I will cut it again,” Gracie Parker said.