Haircut day - a trim and a meltdown

[Triggles]

Ah, finally DS2 is asleep. Today was haircut day, and he has spent the entire day slowly falling apart after having a meltdown during his haircut. The trimmer was a bit too much for him to cope with today and he fell apart.

Poor boy, this is why we put it off as long as possible. We never plan anything for the day of haircuts, as this is standard.

Now if I could just get DH to understand. He gets the meltdown at the time, but doesn't seem to get the falling apart thing that goes on throughout the afternoon and evening.

Is there a football equivalent, eg your team losing at home by 6 nil say? that would ruin most people's day. Or roadworks outside your office all day long, then similar once you get home, hoping for peace.

The roadworks one might work. He's not a huge football fan, so that would be a nonstarter.

As far as DS2 is concerned, there's really nothing we can do except wait it out, generally. Noise/sensory issues usually mean he wears ear defenders, but they make haircutting a tad more difficult. Hopefully as he gets older, he'll get used to it enough to cope better. Not counting on it, but hopeful anyway. lol

Triggles - how old is your DS? Sorry I'm not he often to remember.

Perhaps work out whether the haircut meltdown is due to tactile defensiveness or auditory issue? Ot can help with both but what changed DSs trip to the hairdressers is the ait, the sound of the machine was probably too much to handle but also the rr that are meant to be same as sensory integration and we may have improved his tactile defensiveness.

Trips to the hairdressers used to be dreadful, remember taking him to my father barber that he had for 20 years as it was too much elsewhere and this guy would take the time to play with DS, give him lolly and chocolate but then he will still scream the shop down and even passers by will peak through the window what's going on :(

In the last year or so he has had haircut every month and they are very pleasant for him. In fact when we first started making them regular I explained to the local barber he is not very keen and he was promised a lolly after the cut, so DS happily had the cut with ds2 having it also next to him on another chair and after the haircut DS said, what about my lollypop?

he is 5yo. He doesn't like :

• sitting still for that long
• the cape over his shoulders
• the trimmer
• the scissors
• the water spritzer
• anything that close to his head or ears
• his hair being combed over and over (while trimming)
• the bits of hair falling ANYWHERE (his face, his neck, his clothing, the cape, the floor)

So pretty much everything. We have distractions, toys, books, fiddly things, bribes, you name it. We've just reached the point where it's just a matter of getting through it and then riding out the rest of the day.

The woman that cuts his hair is the only one that has ever cut his hair. She is absolutely brilliant with him, very patient, engages as much as humanly possible with him. He just does not like anything about a haircut.

At the moment I do DS hair in his sleep and I don't do to bad job, it would be worse if he was awake because it's like wrestling a crocodile (5 too with ASD).

We are trying to get him use to haircuts by watching his dad have his cut.

Good luck. x

His dad does his own hair with a trimmer, so we can't really do that. Not even in his sleep. The toilet flushing downstairs wakes him upstairs (even with his door closed), so pretty sure the trimmer by his head would. LOL

We're pretty much resigned to our current status of "make no plans for the rest of day after haircut as you'll be too busy talking DS2 back down on a regular basis all day." We do tend to put it off as long as possible, but he reaches the point where he begins to look like a Beatle in their later years and then a trim is needed. (Plus I don't like it too long with the number of nits floating around school!)

Triggles is there anything he will watch on YouTube on the iPhone or iPad? Your son doesn't like list was exactly the same as my son, sitting being the hardest...

we don't have an iphone or ipad. the hairdresser has a few small electronic handheld toys that he sometimes can be distracted for short periods of time... which is at least better than nothing

Long hair now for ds. I've all but given up on hair cuts. He had his hair cut in about may . even combing isn't even happening . One agreed hair wash every week. Think incredible hulk hair and you can picture ds. :)

DS hates the hairdressers.

We found that cutting his hair wet makes his hair "bite him less"

I bath him to save them using the spray and a mobile hairdresser friend comes and does his.

I also have a large polo neck of mine that I put on him so it doesnt touch his neck.

He still grumbles but no where near as much. But then they use scissors on him as there is no way he would allow clippers anywhere near him.

The use of the clippers is barely tolerated, but it really makes a large part of it go much quicker. he's going to stress either way, so at least it makes the whole process a bit faster IMO. And while he's stressing over the clippers, he's not obsessing over where the hair falls. All in all, I'm just glad it's over for awhile before the next haircut.