Help Please!! Haircuts!!

this might sound shocking . .  sorry

having hair cut can feel incredibly personally invasive

almost abusive

for me it can feel like sexual assault

you wouldnt take your children for a 'brazilian' in a room where there are other people witnessing it and it being given by a professional just because you think their pubic hair looks untidy., while they scream and struggle to escape.( if they had any . . let's pretend here ?)

Also for me, the sitting in front of a mirror, which the hairdresser looks into at times and I cant escape from without keeping my eyes closed throughout is heartbreaking . . .sheer hell!

i genuinely find it surprising that anyone is surprised that haircuts or nailcutting and  toothbrushing . . .all of these things are a big problem for people/children with sensory issues. We dont see , hear or feel the same as the majority so why treat us the same and expect us to react the same.

tantamount to abuse . . . sad to say.

Suggestions . . if nails really have to be trimmed . . and I know toe nails do if shoes are to be worn, we used to do it whilst he slept when he was young,

my son now has long dreads, a little unkempt , a tub of Ben and jerry's and  good dvd distract and provide alternative sensory stimuli which will just about make tidying bearable if he's feeling brave . . .pick your moment and pick your battles.

My son is also 3 and does not like his hair being cut.  I have found the biggest issue is if he sees the hair falling or when it falls onto his skin. 

I shave his hair at home.  I start by having the bath ready to dunk him straight in afterwards and then wrap him in a towel to try and limited the amount of hair that touches his skin.  I have cordless dubbers which make it a little easier to move around him.  When I had previously cut his hair I made a short video of him on my phone with his "new" haircut and I have found that letting him watch it while I cut reassures him that at the end he is fine and that nothing "bad" happens

Hiya

My son James is 3, and the only thing that worked was by me lining up chocolate buttons on the table which he could resist, and I cut his hair while he is stood there!  hes still really not keen but gets more worked up before I start the clippersd, once they are going hes not as bad.  I think with him its the anticipation of the noise.

Thankfully he is very food-led which helps with situations like this!

hi i have a little boy thats just 2 and he want let me cut his hair to he has been reasantly diagnosd with autisam , i have had to get sum silent clipers and do it my self i have to let him sit in his chair n put cartoons on , put the clipper on and lay them on my arm at the side of him for a bit then swich them off because this freeks him out  then put them on on his chair and realy slowly do things like that till i get to his head  and i can only do little bits be for i have to stop and start al over agen he still screem a lot i dred cutting his hair but he want let any one els near him                       hope this helps u , emma  

Hi,

I have had similar problems, and it took a while to realise that the real issue was not the clippers, sissors or worry about the cut at all, but the small pieces of cut hair that actually seem to hurt.

I have resolved this by using battery operated clippers and cutting my childs hair in the bath, as soon as any cut hair starts to itch, my child can easily lie back in the water and get rid of it.

So I'd suggest trying a few different things, is it the noise, feel of sissors or clippers, a rough towel your using around Harvey's neck or something else that is uncomfortable?

I like Dan's comment, if you an cope with this then it's a really good idea.

Jaffa Cakes

Hi MumToHarvey

Some great ideas here already. We do our own haircuts at home. We've found some talcum powder on the neck helps ease the feel of the cut hair - lots of other sensory issues might be involved too though.

Here's a link to some useful NAS info:

http://www.autism.org.uk/en-gb/living-with-autism/out-and-about/hairdressers-preparing-for-a-visit.aspx

And also for an NAS booklet on the subject:

http://www.autism.org.uk/products/core-nas-publications/going-to-the-hairdressers.aspx

You might even get an understanding hairdresser to have a read of it.

Good luck.

Sandra

don't cut his hair. simple. i am an adult with autism and while everyone calls me a freak i refuse to cut my hair because i need it. he needs his too. don't cut it, please. consider a ponytail as a compromise.

autistic people like things natural... how many people cut much of their hair 20 thousand years ago? not a single person i bet. why does modern society demand it? i don't know and don't care, it's their problem, i just keep my hair

social stories work well and also taking thm to watch someone else someone else get it done

predictabilty is paramount and a good explanation of the what is involved from getting there,sitting in chair etc

Our daughter is now 29 and we have always had a problem with haircuts. When she was younger we had a family friend who happened to be a hairdresser and she would come to the house and we found by sitting our daughter in front of the tv while watching a dvd this helped as she would concentrate on watching her programme and not worry too much about what was going on with her hair.

We use a mobile hairdresser who specialises in children on the spectrum. We got her details from our local autism charity/support group (don't suppose you live in Nottingham??)

We started using her when our son was about 4 as social stories weren't really suitable for his level of understanding at the time.

It is still a battle but we no longer have to strap him in the highchair!! It doesn't matter how loudly he screams or if he goes off to get a toy in the middle as she just carries on!!

How about having a mobile hairdresser that comes to your home and cuts hair rather than actually taking Harvey to the hairdresser.  This would reduce the additional stress for him of going to a strange place with all the senory overload problems that that brings with it.

Good luck

xx

We had the same problem with our little girl, what really helped was PECS picture sequence. We would go over it with her several times a day for about a week before going to the hairdresser and also take it with us on the day.  

1st pic=Hairdresser shop, 2nd pic=Hairdresser, 3rd pic=Hairdresser cutting childs hair, 4th pic=child smiling.

Good Luck.

I found I could only cut my son's hair on his terms . He would suddenly say that it was too long (usually as his fringe was in his eyes and annoying him) and I would whip out a pair of scissors , sit him on the chair and cut it. I had to be calm and fast- a quick trim around the neck and across the forehead was the best I could do for a long time. Now he tolerates the barbers- but still on his terms. We go straight in - has to be the barber with the tv to watch- and he copes really well.

I decided that long hair was the least of my worries. He went ove 3 years without washing it too- no one noticed.

Have you tried a social story about a haircut?

We have the same problem. We shave Matthew's head and as part of his autism, he absolutely hates loud noises. We are looking into buying a pair of silent clippers to make it easier to shave his hair.