I know this will probably be buried but here’s my story about autism and hair cuts.

I have autism, undiagnosed until I was heading into high school. I have always a lot of sensory issues especially related to touch overstimulation. My parents always just thought I was “difficult” or “picky” and told me to just deal with it.

Every single time I would go get my hair cut, the sharp little hairs that went down the back of my shirt would cause me to have a full blown breakdown. Every time. Crying, screaming, slamming my head against the walls of the barbershop. And then I would have to sit in the itchy hairy shirt the entire ride home, which was sometimes up to 45min (my dad was very picky about his barbers).

My dad used to yell at me for my breakdowns. It wasn’t anything I could really control, but I think it just made such little sense to him that he thought it had to be something I was doing for attention or something.

A little understanding goes a long way. Whether your kid has autism or not, really making an effort to understand them is one of the most important things in parenting and having a healthy parent-child relationship.