Cutting with care

BAYOU CHICOT – Addison Drummond’s passion for helping others is far larger than her pint-size stature.
The seven-year-old, who is currently in the second grade at Bayou Chicot Elementary, has often tried to help others from donating change for a cancer fund to learning sign language to communicate better with a classmate.
“I have always been so proud of her for not being selfish,” Addison’s mother Heather Drummond said. “She has always wanted to help others. Ever since she has been little, if she has any money she will put it in those jars at the store or gas stations that help kids that have terrible diseases. She has just such a big heart.”
Addison’s heart was filled with excitement last fall when she tagged along with her mother and brother to the beauty shop Tangles Hair Salon in Bayou Chicot.
“In October we had gone to the beauty shop to get her brother a haircut,” Heather remembered. “There was a pony tail braided and cut off on the counter. She asked me what that was for and Ms. Tonya explained to her that it was for little kids that have cancer. When you hair gets so long you can cut it and send it to them. She immediately said, ‘I want to do it.’”
“When we went to Ms. Tonya’s shop that day and I saw a braided ponytail cut off on the counter,” Addison said. “I asked her “What do you have that for?” She told me it was for kids who have cancer, to make a wig for them.”
If it were up to Addison, she would have had Tonya (Brassette) cut her hair that very day.
“I told her that it wasn’t quite long enough,” Heather said. “So maybe we can let it grow and it can be your Christmas gift to someone.”
Addison’s mom though had to help her daughter with being patient with the process.
“I knew that she was adamant about it,” Heather said. “She was so anxious to get to the point where we could cut it. I had explained to her that if you cut it now that there wouldn’t be enough to send.”
“I couldn’t wait to cut my hair for the kids who were sick,” Addison said.
Then roughly a few weeks before Christmas, Addison’s hair was long enough to be cut and then shipped off to the no-for-profit Locks For Love. So Heather took her daughter back to Tangles and owner-stylist Tonya loosely braided her hair into two braids and then cut off each braid.
“She was so excited and got so big eyed,” Heather said. “I let her package her own hair. We put it in the mail together. I printed her the certificate online that day.”
“She was glowing,” Tonya said. “She couldn’t wait to get into that chair and have her hair cut. It just made her day.”
Heather admits that her daughter is ready for her hair to grow back but that she will jump at the chance to help out again in the future, whether that is with cutting her locks or performing another act of kindness.
“The little things mean a lot in this life,” Heather said. “A child’s heart is so pure. Like the Bible says, ‘love like children do’. Children are so innocent that they just love. I think we all could learn from that.”
“It makes me happy because they might be sad because they lost all their hair and I don’t want them to be picked on,” Addison said. “I just love helping people.”