Handling Hairbrushing and Haircuts

So, amongst his hypersensitivities, J has a real aversion to the touching, cutting and brushing of his hair.  We long ago realised that the 'cheery chappy' ruffling of a youngster's hair by an adult was something that would send J into a flat spin.  He loathes even the slightest touch of his hair.  In fact, the lighter the touch, the more he tends to dislike it.

Hairbrushing, when it is undertaken, is a much screamed about and avoided chore.  J will not brush his own hair (usually) and is very anti 'someone else doing it'...  So, on most days, we tend to keep it to a minimum.  However, sometime, the bedhair and ruffle look is not going to be OK for heading out so we do some serious negotiations around how to get a brush through the hair.  Usually, this will entail a 'distraction' agreement such as J uses the iPad to minecraft whilst I speedily attempt to tame his locks.  The other month, things changed a bit and a step towards a solution was taken.  A friend's daughter uses a Tangle Teezer and she suggested we try one out.  I mentioned this to J (as we've tried different brush types in the past and don't want another gathering dust in the bathroom cupboard) and he said "well, if it's yellow I will give it a go".... So, my task was to source a yellow Tangle Teezer.  First stop was the Tangle Teezer website where, to my dismay, I discovered they don't do yellow brushes.  All was not lost, however, as I emailed them through their contact form and an impressively swift reply arrrived by email.  Not only did they have a special salon edition yellow brush that they had found in their warehouse, but they were offering to send it out for J!!  The parcel was swiftly delivered and the lovely Sara had exceeded our expectations by not only sending the yellow brush, but it was packed in a box with yellow tissue paper... this was met with great delight. 

The brush was inspected and set to one side and then, a few days later, J actually brushed his hair with the Tangle Teezer and said 'it's not that bad' which is high praise indeed.



Thank you Tangle Teezer for going that extra mile and finding a brush that J is willing to use.  We really do appreciate it.





Haircuts are something that we have come to carry out in a regimented way to allow J to know what to expect.  He goes to a local barber, has the same chap cut his hair and sometimes does now actually talk whilst he's there.  The whole thing is a trial to be tolerated but only on a quiet day, when he's feeling well and we've talked about it for a couple of weeks beforehand.  There is now a trigger length when he will mention he may need a haircut - when his hair whips his eyes when trampolining.  We know it's then time to start the preparation and that, soon-ish, the problem hair will hit the floor having been cut.  The barber knows all about J and has been cutting his hair for well over 7 years.  He commented the last time that J's tremors were less noticeable which is good.  In the past, at a previous barber's, the 'awful man' shouted across to me "has he got Parkinson's or something? He's twitching like mad here"... so I said "actually he DOES have a neurological disorder - thanks for sharing that with the whole shop".  Needless to say we never returned to that particular place.  For J, having his haircut is all about knowing what to expect and how long he has to manage dealing with getting it done...  We aim to go early in the day and, after a haircut, we don't plan anything else as J just wants to return home to his Lego and swingseat.

Is this sort of thing familiar to you?  How do you deal with such senstivities?  Share your ideas and solutions in the comments below...