Nicholas is the sweetest little boy. But do not touch his hair or his ears. Taking him to get a hair cut is nothing short of a major ordeal. It wears him out. It wears me out. It wears the hairdresser out. And it wears out whoever I have talked into helping me hold Nicholas down to the chair while the event takes place.
Funny thing is, when Nicholas has to get blood drawn or go to the dentist, he is more than fine. He actually seems to like that kind of thing. He is not afraid of needles, shots, finger pricks, or having weird instruments in his mouth to clean his teeth. But having his hair shampooed, brushed, combed or cut, or having his ears touched, seems to be like the worst thing in the world to him.
We have known about this issue for a long time. It is why I like Nicholas' hair more on the shaggy long side because he has a lot of trouble sitting still for one of those short hair cuts. I mean, whatever the beautician can do for him, must be accomplished in five minutes or less. We must be forgiving of stray hairs and if one side is longer or shorter than the other. (though our beautician is quite amazing and you would be amazed what a good job she does, considering what she must go through!)
Luckily, my friend, Tonya is the one who cuts his hair and she has it all down to a science. We may scare other customers in her beauty shop, and they may run out and call the police on us for what they might view as abusing a child, but Tonya is not scared. That woman is on a mission when we come in.
Tonya takes a deep breath and she twirls her scissors and her clippers and that woman goes to town! I hold Nicholas in a vice grip, Fischer dances around trying to offer his Game Boy, Sydney does her autism whisper magic, and Tonya holds his head in as lovingly as possible a way against her chest and she snips away one side and then we all switch and she does the other.
All the while, Nicholas is crying, SCREAMING, kicking, trying to get down, and spitting. He shakes his head violently between snips and spit is flung out all over the beauty parlor. His wisps of blond hair go flying in all directions. It gets in my nose and in my eyes and all over Tonya. He actually looks like a wild animal. It is hard to describe what it looks like when every muscle in Nicholas' little body is rigid and he is hollering like we are about to kill him.
Then, it is over. And Nicholas gets a lollipop from Tonya and a big hug. He instantly changes and is happy. He looks in the mirror and smiles. He loves his new hair cut and I am sure he is grateful to get it out of his eyes. Sydney and Fischer take him to the playground and he gets to swing and slide. He loves it. He cries when we have to leave.
I am so grateful for all the early intervention stuff Nicholas gets. Everyone loves a preschooler with special needs. Autistic kids are so interesting and cute. But it is really people like Tonya, just my sweet friend, who make such a difference in our every day lives. I know I couldn't take Nicholas to get his hair cut anywhere else, nor would I want to. Tonya told me that she googled Autism just so she could learn more about it and could help Nicholas and his hair cutting events. I love that about her. She is so special. (photo of the cute hair cut coming soon)
