FoggyRock General Forum

We recently cut quite a few inches off our daughter's hair... I am not above bribery lol.  Her TSS and I took an arsenal of books and some mini marshmallows as random reinforcers for sitting still.  She really surprised me and did great!

When my son had to have his first dentist appt his therapist did a social story about 'going to the dentist" and then play acted it using some teletubbie dolls she had. She also brought in a tooth mirror, floss, tooth brush and paste and let him play with those things too. He made it totally fun and goofy - and he loooved it. It helped that there was a train table in the office and elevator in the building. I had to hold him still on my lap, but he wasn't scared  - he just didn't like the feeling.

My daughter went through the whole social story thing at the same time (watching, etc.) and she was so sad she didn't get to be checked. She is very excited for her chance.

Hair - he doesn't enjoy his haircuts - but he doesn't fight going. We do something else fun after, we go to a kid haircut place that has T.V.s and has seen it all. Again, I have to hold him still, and he is not happy at the time of the cutting - but he is not scared and he's OVER it the minute his feet hit the ground again.

Or if you find a good place that doesn't have TV, bring your own DVD player.

I have tried so many things and nothing works. Getting my ds son trimmed is worse than drawing blood. It is a nightmare as is washing it. Our OT is trying to come up with some things we can do. I only wash his the bare minimum, thankfully it doesn't get greasy. I am contiplating letting his hair grow but he is so pretty he looks like a girl plus it is sooo thick and he already has an overheating problem. I take him to a barber so there are no smells, no hair dryers, he only does apts. so no waiting and no one else is there when we go, he has a vaccum on his clippers so no cape needed (thats another issue) it is an older building so natural lighting. He does good with the vibrating brush the OT uses which makes similar noise to clippers. He resist the scissors as well. I can't cut it as he will not be still and I can't cut hair worth a darn. You can't sneak in and do it while he sleeps because he is a light sleeper, I swear he can smell you walk in the room, LOL. The only thing the OT did say was Not to call it a hair cut because our kids think literally and therefore a cut hurts which makes sense to call it a trim. It is a dreadful day for all indeed.

Sonya

I really empathize with all of you and I have had a really hard time in the past.  But,  Tom finally "outgrew" his terror of haricuts.  He is 20, now.  He llike his haircut a la marine corps.  I wish he would let it grow alittle as he is so handsome but...dad and some friends all have the military cut.  Any way...I just want to say there is HOPE.  He changed.

Hi! My son didn't have this problem when he was little but of course had other ones! I'm going to give you some ideas that may help-maybe there is one you haven't tried! Try writing a social story about haircuts/fingernail cutting.  Make a simple video showing people getting haircuts and have a party while getting cut- really emphasize how much fun it is and how much cooler. Have family members get cut and put it on the video. Experiment with all kinds of brushes and see if the OT can find one he likes enough to desensitize his head a little. Let him cut his own hair- with lots of supervision and blunt scissors! Length does not matter at this point. He may just do one strand. Is there any sensation of stuff he likes that could be smeared on a hank of hair so he could play with it and also get a little desensitized? Get a doll (Cheap one) that he could wash the hair on and even cut. And yeah- sometimes they do adapt and a fear goes away.

My son is 5 and gets really anxious when it's time for hair cuts.  I used to cut his hair when he was in the tub, but lately he has been getting "big-boy" haircuts.  We watch an Elmo's world dvd: Flowers, Bananas, and Hair.  It show a little boy getting his hair cut at the barber shop.  It showed him what to expect.  Plus I think a lot of praising by me, and saying "almost done" helped him too. Good Luck

One technique not mentioned in all the suggestions above is to prepare your child beforehand.  We've dealt with haircut (or should I say ANTI-haircut) sentiment here by using a combination of a social story and PECS.  We have a "First/Then" laminated card and a small 6-frame laminated blank schedule that I take with us.  The "First/Then" card has a picture of someone getting a haircut on the "First" side, and a reward on the "Then" (in our house, it's either something from Thomas the Train or McDonalds!)  The schedule card contains pictures of the chair, cape, comb, brush, and scissors, and a lollipop.  As the stylist works on his hair, we point out which is being used, and he knows when we get to the lollipop, we're done.  I have also put together a social story about getting a haircut using photos of him, etc. in a laminated book that we read through a few times before going, and take with us to read while we wait for the stylist.

Since he wears a "skater-boy" cut, we don't use the clippers, but he has been exposed to them and their sound when I'm grooming the dogs or the horses.  The blow-dryer we've played with at home while I've been blowing my own hair dry, so little by little, we've desensitized him without him really realizing it.  At this point, though, we cut his hair dry, as I've discovered on previous trips that spritzing his hair with water is a trigger to send him spiraling into overload. 

We just has a haircut done this past Saturday, and although he was at his "most autistic" that morning, he behaved beautifully once in the car and at the stylist's.  I was prepared for him to just completely meltdown in spite of all our preparation because of his morning, but nope - he did beautifully.  And yes, he made sure the next stop afterwards was for a new train!

Last edited by Anamcara (2008-05-22 01:47:54)

Haircuts aren't so much the problem, we only need a haircut once every month or two.

My granddaughter has a meltdown every time we tell her it's time to wash her hair or brush it. She has been outgrowing a lot of things lately, including the meltdowns that last for hours, but she still has them whenever it's time to do anything with her hair.

We had been talking to her about getting her hair cut for about 2 weeks and she was very resistant, and finally one day I just took the scissors and the comb and we went out on the porch and she did amazingly well for me, even when the comb caught a snag at one point. Maybe she's reaching a new plateau?

I am so glad to see I am not alone on this.  Hair washing and cutting has been a nightmare the past 2 months.  To the point if my little guy hears the water turn on in the bathroom it sends him running for his bed screaming all done, night.  Gives me a little hope that maybe he will be able to get past this

A few weeks ago we took our 5 year old son for a haircut (I had to get on too).  In the past his mom would always sit in the chair next to me and we would get out haircuts together.  This worked pretty well, but he did squirm a lot.  But the last time we tried this it was complete failure and he is getting bigger and stronger, so a few time he kicked my wife pretty hard while she was trying to him so we had to seek an alternative.  Well, we spent two days telling him he is going to get a haircut this weekend and he seemed almost anxious to go by the time the weekend got there.  Well, once we got there and were called back and I st down and got mine started, he wanted nothing to do with it.  He melted down so bad, my wife took him to the car and waited out there while I got mine done.   We tried the bribery method of telling him, if he got his haircut we would take him for his favorite lunch, Chinese Rice.  Still did not work so we were headed home, over half way there he quietly whispered, "get my haircut like daddy's".  We asked him to repeat what he said and sure enough we got the same thing, "get my haircut like daddy's".  Well, we did not want to turn around and go all the way back, so we headed to a place closer to the house, which also happened to be close to his favorite Chinese Rice.  He got up chair, and got his haircut.  But it would have broken your heart to watch it.  This was one of those times where youcould tell it was taking every bit of courage the little guy had.  When the cliippers would come out, he hated the noise and would cover his ears and bury his chin down in his chest and haunch his shoulders so the stylist could not trim around his ears.  He would stay like this for a few minutes and we would be encourage him to lift his head cause he was almost done.  He would slowly raise his head, lower his shoulders, and uncover his ears.  We would offer to let us hold him so we could comfort him, but he would just say in a whispeer "get my haircut like daddy's" and push us away.  After a minute or less of clipping the whole process would start over again.  Eventually after several cycles of this his haircut was complete.  God Bless the patience of that hairstylist (she has earned all of our business from now on).  We did take him for his favorite Chinese rice afterwards.  It made us so proud to see him want to do it on his own even though it had to be very hard for him.