Hair cut trouble

[Downhillrider]

My 5 year old son has never liked having his hair cut but the older he getting the harder it's become! Today hair cut didn't end well and in sure I'd be waking up with a black eye tomorrow after he head butted me!!

Any tips to make hair cutting not so stressful? Or just safer

We have this too, my son gets very anxious about getting his hair cut and always has a meltdown. I've bought some clippers to use at home but never do a great job (and he still lashes out at home) so tend to alternate a haircut at home with one at the hairdressers so they can try and sort out the dodgy haircut I've given him!

We try and prepare him by showing pictures of the hairdressers beforehand, and talk through what will happen, and lots of reminders that he can do something nice afterwards. Also, take him with siblings so he can watch them getting their hair cut.

Other ideas I've been given to make it easier are giving him the option of scissors or clippers, do role play etc with combing and playing with his hair, look at stories or tv shows about hair dressers to make him understand more what's going to happen.

We've tried several different hairdressers and have recently found one with a better understanding of children with special needs, which also made it less stressful so could you ask for local recommendations from people to see if you have a SN hairdresser nearby?

I do it myself with clippers and just get it done as quick as possible. I run a bubble bath first, clipper as quick as I can whilst he has a lolly in his mouth (normally not allowed) and let him play on his Nintendo DS. It is dodgy but the best we can manage.

Thank you we do haircut at home I normally hold him down and someone will go over with the clippers We have tried the barbers but he's the same there!

This is not uncommon. My son was petrified for years. He would scream, shout, sweat and would literally sound like he’s being tortured if we got his hair cut. Even if I did. For a couple years he had really long hair or bad diy cuts from me. It would take my partner holding him and me holding his legs and it would be terrible. I decided to stop this as it really wasn’t helping his dear if we have to almost restrain him. It was terrifying for us so I cannot imagine what DS felt like.

He is 8 now and he is overcoming his fear slowly but surely.

Basically we found a barber that was willing to work with him. In the past we had no choice but to just go straight infor a cut. But we decided if we found a barber who we could explain the situation. We could visit a few times so could become more comfortable and as his understanding got better we could explain why he needed it cut (he was non verbal and lacked any understanding until 4) so he wouldn’t of understood when he was much younger.

We visited s few times. DS could look around touch everything, asks questions etc. We gradually built up to a full hair cut over a few weeks. It started off with a tiny amount until he could tolerate more.

He’s still not fully over his fear now but he will have it cut but only buy one barber, not any others.

I don’t think anyone that hasn’t been through it will understand. I used to get told ‘bribe him’ ‘reward him’ ‘use the ipad’ etc Etc. But none of those things worked for DS.

But I just wanted to say it is possible to
Overcome this

Good luck!