NHA Barbershop

Many children with special needs, learning difficulties, or sensory issues, experience difficulties coping with important daily life activities such as getting a haircut. Some children get very upset and refuse to go to a barber shop/hair stylist. Others are only able to tolerate a very brief visit to the hair stylist. This seemingly simple activity can be a challenging and frustrating experience for everyone.

For years, we have dreamed of setting up a life skills hair salon lab. Enter our angel with barber shears, Page Green! Paige recently approached Marty, asking if he was aware of any places she could volunteer her time cutting hair. As a matter of fact, we did! 

The purpose of this real life, life skills lab is to reduce the child’s anxiety about this important activity and help reinforce the desired and appropriate behavior from the student when getting their hair cut in a positive, upbeat way.

This week we had our first student sessions to test out our new lab and it was a huge success. Parents will be able to sign their children up for the program and provide input and suggestions on how they would like their hair cut and styled.

Now we just have two things lacking: a name and salon decor. We are having a contest with our classrooms to decide the name for our new salon and asking students to create artwork that we can use to decorate it.

We would like to thank Ivan Hite and John Loar for donating the salon equipment needed to make this lab a reality!

If you are experiencing challenges with your child when it is time to get a haircut, please let us know. We are more than happy to provide you with some tips and strategies that may help make the experience less stressful!