The chestnut-colored braid snaked down Gladyss Antillon’s back, shining in the light as she hesitantly perched on a stool.

The 10-year-old Berwyn girl nervously waited for her fifth-grade teacher, Jami Parochelli, to pull out the large pair of scissors. Surrounded by her classmates at Havlicek School, Gladyss was about to place an enormous amount of trust in her teacher.

Then Parochelli cut, and cut some more.

One boy burst out, “Holy Cow.” Gladyss was left holding her braid in front of her.

“I want the cancer people to have hair,” Gladyss said before allowing her teacher to cut her long, dark locks. “I want the cancer people to have a ponytail, too.”

Gladyss wanted her hair chopped, losing 12 inches, to donate to Locks of Love. The nonprofit organization provides wigs to financially disadvantaged children suffering from various long-term illnesses that result in hair loss.

She took the idea from a teenage friend, who herself had donated a lengthy ponytail to the group.  But then Gladyss mentioned it in class to Parochelli.

“I had just kind of said to her, ‘Wouldn’t it be neat to do it in class?’” Parochelli said. “Maybe it would motivate more girls to do it. We have so many girls with long hair. She is such a good girl and is always trying to help others. She just thought it would be nice to donate to people who are needy.”

Already an honor roll student, Gladyss also is secretary of the student council, Parochelli added.

Gladyss said she asked her mom if she could donate her hair, and if Parochelli could cut it in school.

“She was actually happy,” Gladyss said of her mom’s reaction. “She said I’m the first person in her family to donate it.”

Gladyss had been growing out her hair for two or three years, receiving minor trims, but never before had she hacked off her hair.

“Since it’s heavy I want to cut it,” she said. “Sometimes I get headaches.”

Dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans, Gladyss held up her braid as tears slid down her cheeks. Friends surrounded her, some wiping away her tears, all consoling her. She slipped her braid into a large envelope, ready to send it to Locks of Love.

“She’s being really helpful,” classmate Brian Luna said.

Gladyss, who turns 11 Monday, Nov. 18, said her aunt is a beautician and will even out her new, shorter style.