School Haircuts

When we lived in California, Jacob's mom and her husband Angel introduced us to a fascinating woman who specializes in cutting hair for autistic children (Ammon is not autistic, but like some autistic children, he had real issues with letting anybody touch his head... for haircuts, anyways). This woman was quite the expert at winning kids' confidence and then distracting them with so much visual and auditory stimulation, that kids hardly even realized that they were getting their hair cut. This is where we had to take Ammon. We had to drive all the way to Ventura, make a special 1-hour long appointment and visit "the specialist." Even then, Ammon HATED haircuts with a passion. Somehow, we managed to keep the mane fairly tame, but it was always a struggle. When Abraham started needing haircuts, the nightmare multiplied. He was just as resistant.

We tried everything: cuts by friends, cutting while asleep, major bribery (oops... positive reinforcement), sitting in my lap while I wrestled them still, etc., etc. To avoid the pain (and embarrassment) of salons, Jacob and I tried to cut their hair ourselves a couple of times. Not a good idea. (I'm still 100% willing to learn... just haven't found a teacher patient enough to teach me yet!)

Fast forward a couple of years... Yesterday I looked at my boys and realized that they were in dire need of haircuts - especially since Ammon will be starting school next week. Ammon and Abraham rode their bikes and I pushed Ziya in her stroller to the barber shop. Meet Dave. Yes, he has a mullet. Yes, he has bows, swords, homemande banjos and moose heads hanging in his shop. And yes, somehow, he has won my boys' confidence. Oh, and yes, he has a big lollipop jar!

The boys make no fret about hopping up on his chair and letting him do his thing. He has a cool set of clippers with a vacuum attachment so that as he's clipping away, no hair is falling onto the boys (after many a tear, we discovered that this was Ammon's biggest hangup about haircuts... he's just like his dad - can't stand the itchy hair on his skin!).

We're now one step closer to being ready for school next week!

I wouldn't say this is Ammon's idea of a fun time, but he does volunteer to go first!
My handsome soon-to-be-first-grader!

Before Dave started cutting, Abraham reminded me to tell him about the tree sap in his hair! It's been there for several weeks now, but Abraham never let me touch it. We just had to comb around it every day! He finally let Dave cut it out with scissors so it wouldn't get caught in the clippers.

These are still "cutters" after all!

This is so worth a lollipop!

No haircut for Ziya, but she still loves to smile for the camera!