This one's for you Aunt Cindy

Haircuts. Yep. Another thing you likely take for granted if you have typical children. When I was still working, Sophia had seen an advertisement at Nana and Nono's house (her surrogate grandparents who watched the kids while I worked) for a place to get a haircut. They had a little jingle that she used to sing it all the time. I remember thinking that my kids were getting exposed to the advertising on TV which since we were diehard PBSers and DVD/VHSers - hasn't managed to make it's way into our house to tell us how inadequate we were at just about everything in life. Like I need reminding, ya know? But you know, not all advertising is about sucking every penny and ounce of selfworth out of you. Sometimes it is just that - letting you know they exist and could be a service to you.

So finally, as a reward for something, I told Sophia we could go to this place called Snip-Its "where a haircut is just fun". And a haricut likely costs a pretty penny too. Here we are a couple of years later, and guess what. We are still going to Snip Its.

Kids on the spectrum (depending on symptoms) frequently have trouble in a couple of places in particular - the dentist and the hairdresser. We managed to hit both of these troublesome places within a week. Hurray for me.

This past Christmas, with time being the biggest constraint, I decided to try Super Cuts for convenience's sake. Aunt Cindy joined us - and likely had no idea how agonizing this venture was for me. I won't go into too many details - here are a few recollections that made this event particularly memorable:

- I walked into the storefront and asked for the bravest hairdresser in the joint. A girl actually volunteered.
- At some point, other children there were making comments like: "Mommy - is she hurting him?"
- Her tip was as big as the cost of the cut itself.

So back to Snip Its we went. And even though it is considerably more expensive, it was worth every dime. Oh yeah - and for April being Autism Awareness Month they actually knocked off $5.'

The reason this placed worked better? I have a few ideas. First off, he's been there before and understand the expectations. Secondly, there are a lot of distractions, fun decorations, a train table, television screens playing animated movies. But a good chunk of it was having a professional who took the time to learn a bit about our kids, accepts them, and has come up with a few tricks to ease some of the issues. One trick was that she let Zach hold the sheers and feel the vibration. The other thing is that she is firm. All in all, I always appreciate these people who go out of their way for all the right reasons.

Isn't he cute?