Haircut Success!
With the weather getting hotter, and the kids hair getting longer…. today it was time for a visit to the hairdresser…
Haircuts have never been an easy experience for Jack….. okay, to be honest, for a very long time they were a complete nightmare. Our haircut preparation used to be incredibly focused and there was no room for error - the sanity of the hairdresser and anyone else within distance of hearing ear piercing screams was always at risk.
Often, all it would take was simply a mention of the hairdresser and Jack would start with his intense head rubbing and sobbing. Bribery would be our only way to coax him into the chair, and someone would have to hold his head whilst simultaneously feeding him an ongoing supply of chocolate frogs - all this whilst the hairdresser worked as fast as she could, trying to keep the sensory irritation to an absolute minimum.
We could never work out the reason as to why Jack hated haircuts so much… of course, post ASD diagnosis and it makes sense, but back then we had no idea as to why we were being thrown into a world of chaos over a haircut.
However, over the past 12 months, our haircut experiences have become somewhat more ‘mellow’. We can’t work out why this is so, the only thing being is that he now has a family friend (who is a hairdresser) cut his hair… perhaps he feels a little safer, or perhaps he has simply grown through a difficult patch.
But regardless of why, he will now sit for a period of time in order to have his hair cut - yes he still gets a little agitated every now and again… he still jiggles his head or legs at times… but we no longer have the screaming, and we no longer have the fighting to get out of the chair… (we still have to provide him with an ongoing source of food to keep him from whining, but hey - this is totally manageable!!!).
So our trip to the hairdresser today was a success… well, for Jack anyway… and Annie you ask?… well that’s a different story (I’ll tell you about it when I get my hearing back!).
Oh, and if anyone has tips for surviving a haircut, please share!! 
January 18th, 2008 at 5:46 am
What an adorable picture! Haircuts! Ugh! The stories we probably all have in this area. I used to take m to a hairdresser who allowed us ot move the stool outside so she did not get angry about the smells. Now, she is willing to actually enter the salon! Yes! Glad it went well.
January 18th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Haircuts used to be a nightmare here too (read: Bribe City!). Now SB is fine as long as the same person cuts his hair each time. He reads car and plane magazines (it’s a barber shop) the whole time, and the stylist lets him pick one magazine to take home.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:06 am
We had major drama’s with haircuts until I discovered “Hair 4 Kids” in Watsonia. On one side of the salon they have little cars or rocking horses (that don’t rock) for the children to sit on. While the haircut is in progress they pop on a DVD for the kids to watch. The other side has TVs and playstation/Xbox type game systems.
Works brilliant for distracting Heidi whilst she has her hair cut. Before going to “Hair 4 Kids” we couldn’t even get past the first snip before Heidi was drawing blood in her efforts to escape.
Funnily it is now our ‘typical’ kid who causes more issues at the hairdresser.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
That is so wonderful and what a great picture! “Manageable” is so much better than the alternative!
We recently cut my one year old son’s hair. I had to hold his head with both my hands while my husband cut his hair. He screamed and clawed at me and bit my arms. We might just let him look like a rock star the rest of his natural life.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
We’ve always had screaming fits with Katy. I cut her hair last year (just a trim) and ended up doing it while she was in the bathtub. She did pretty well. Her hair wasnt the straightest, but it was better than before
A couple of days ago, she found some of my sewing scissors and cut herself some bangs. So our hairdresser friend is coming over to the house today to see if she can fix it. We figured a home environment would be easiest. And lots of chocolate and little presents to keep her still 
January 18th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Great picture. I’ve seen a LOT of kids that don’t like getting their hair cut. Our Asbergers boy has been one of them, but only because I think he feels a real, personal attachment to each and every one of those curly dark hairs stuck on his head. He REALLY likes his hair. He actually LIKES looking like Einstein. The problem is that his hair is so thick he can shampoo and not get to his scalp. He is beginning, at age almost 17, to LIKE being a little ‘different’, and he likes looking a little ‘different’, too.
January 18th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
That is one handsome little man you have there. The look on his face reminds me of one J gets. We call it his “I’m anxious but I can get through this” look. The haircut experience is something we struggled with too. For several years J wouldn’t let anybody but me cut his hair. Then we went through about three stylists before we found the place we go to now. I have no idea what it was that calmed him down but he liked the salon, and the woman who cuts his hair, immediately. Now, no one but her can do it. He also jiggles his head and legs and every couple of minutes he has to spin around in the chair. His stylist lets him and he loves it. It’s been four years now and while things have gone well I’m still trying to figure out exactly what it is about this salon that he likes it so much. Maybe I’m not supposed to know. Our kids know when something is right and works for them.
January 18th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
My son used to need three of us to hold him down and it was his grandpa who was cutting the hair. He started doing better at age four when his receptive speech matured a llittle more. Further, Grandpa, a part-time barber for more than 30 years, started giving him “Fireman haircuts.” He’d always finish the cut by applying “fire man’s lotion.” Of course that is not recommended if the child is sensitive to certain smells. My kid aways requests it though if granpa forgets.
It also helps that grandpa is a sweetheart who doesn’t tense up. He also keeps a bowl of lolipops or tootsie rolls to give to kids (with parent approval) after hair cuts. Another barber I know does that too.
January 18th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
And what a great haircut! Jaysen’s always looks like he has a bowl on his head.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:47 am
He is such a cutie!
(I came by through A Blog on the Spectrum)
January 19th, 2008 at 2:10 am
I still have to cut The Kiddos hair myself. Yep, if you were wondering who does the whack job…
The Elder is getting more patient with me but he cannot STAND for the hair to touch him. He has to lay down to get his hair cut so that the hairs fall directly on the floor and not on himself. His main preference is laying down in chairs with his head hanging off the edge. That way he isn’t laying his head in loose hairs.
Same for The Younger but I usually use clippers with a vaccuum on him so the number of flying hairs falling on him is greatly minimized. So he actually sits up but we probably go through 3 outfits and 5 blankets for his haircut. Last time though he really hated the noise.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Great photo!
On C we use clippers as its faster and safer than having sissors near his head. So gone are the days i used to snip his hair whilst he slept!
January 20th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
P.S. Great Photo (as usual)! Jack is such a cutie.
January 20th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I always have cut Adrian’s hair myself for the fact that #1 I cut Glen’s anyway and even Sanura’s so why not him and #2 I’m terrified of how he would act if we tried to get it done by someone else. I’ve also been known to find stray hairs and sneak in his room with a flashlight and scissors and snip while he was sleeping. There were times when Glen practically had to headlock Adrian to get the hair done but more recently he will be a big boy and just sit there, especially if he sees Glen go first. This last time, the whole time I was cutting Adrian’s hair…Nevaeh cried. I guess she thought we were hurting him!
January 21st, 2008 at 12:33 am
If it makes you feel any better, haircuts are always high drama around here too. I’ve never figured out exactly why…
Anyway - Jack’s new cut looks great and it’s great he’s made so much progress!
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
We stopped taking TC for haircuts because he was a MANIAC. Now either I cut it or hubs does. It doesn’t look the best, but it saves us the hassle of hearing WAILING.