Hairdo breakthrough
It's been a long time coming and we've done our best to be patient and understanding.
Let me start out by saying that most everyone has something that they are just not good about. In Aaron's case, he just did not like getting his hair cut, touched, blow dried, looked at, washed, etc. He was very sensitive about his head.
Neither Erica or I could pin down any stand out moment in time that may have caused this level of anxiety.
Perhaps Aaron had somehow seen the outcome of Emily's first haircut.
Thnx a lot mom.
Whatever it was, it has been four years of trickery, bribery and any other method we could conjure up to get Aaron to get his hair cut. In those nearly four years, Aaron has made four or five trips to various hair cutting shops. The last trip was to my barber's shop where all we managed to do was get Joe (the barber) to comb Aaron's hair a bit. After much cringing and backing away, Aaron got a lolly pop for his efforts and never forgot that.
The trip before that was a shear nightmare. The place is called Kid Klips or something like that. This shop has got everything a kid could want while getting his hair cut. Amongst the ammenities are Sony PS2 game consoles at each cutting station that can be used to play any suite of games or watch DVD's on a 15" flat screen panel. The chairs are actually little airplanes and cars that they can pretend to pilot. In addition to all this, the shop had rented out a moon bounce for the day, which we knew ahed of time. We intended to leverage every last ounce of this situation to meet our objectives. This episode took place before Kristin was born, thankfully. However, Emily got to pay witness to this horrific event that was about to unfold. We had told Aaron that he would get to go on the moon bounce and have ice cream at home after he got his hair cut. We sat Aaron down in an airplane chair and put Toy Story on the PS2 (which we brought in from home). He was very content until he felt the comb touch his hair. He quickly realized what was going on and the downward spiral began. We tried moving him over to another chair, then sitting him in Erica's lap, but the situation only continued to deteriorate. He reacted by throwing himself around more and more and struggling hard, screeching at the top of his lungs and drawing the attention of every last soul in the store. The woman who was to cut his hair just didn't feel that she was up to the task, and I was in full agreement. We collected our half dozen DVDs and two children, I paid the woman $5 for her effort (we had taken at least 15 minutes of her time which must have seemed like an eternity), and we walked out. On our way out we had to let Emily go in the moon bounce as we had promised that she could go in it. Aaron could not however go in it since he didn't hold up his end of the bargain. You can imagine how that went. Aaron and I went back to the car and he cried himself to sleep. He had just output 24 hours worth of effort in 20 minutes. It was quite pitiful and saddening.
This trip was the worst of any according to Erica, but the trips that preceded this one were of similar nature with less intensity. I hadn't believed her descriptions of those visits. I had now been converted into a believer.
The trip to Kids Klips was roughly in May of 2005 and the barber shop trip was a month or two thereafter.
So now that I've set the stage you can understand why we decided to just let Erica cut his hair for the rest of the year. Each time Erica was to cut his hair, we had to bribe Aaron with ice cream. The only person that was making out in a big way was Emily. She got to have ice cream once Aaron completed his task. What a deal. Notably each occasion thereafter Aaron did get better at letting his head and hair be touched.
Then completely out of the blue Aaron actually asked to go to the barber shop. That was one week ago. So, the whole of last week I kept asking Aaron if he was ready to go get his hair cut, what kind of lolly pop he would get, etc. He didn't show any signs of high anxiety and was actually looking forward to it.
So Saturday came and he and I headed out. We got to the shop and had to wait a while. Aaron and I played with the toys that Joe keeps in his shop and then finally it was time for Aaron to face the music. He hopped into the chair without hesitation and Joe did a wonderful job of keeping Aaron's confidence up. Aaron turned on the clippers (he used three different clippers, scissors, spray bottle and a comb) and talked to Joe throughout the time. I had been standing at the counter for a while and then Joe told Aaron to tell me to go sit down. So I went over to the waiting area where he could see me and he finished getting his haircut. He didn't cringe, fidget or fuss the whole time. I was so very proud of him. He had truly taken a big step forward. The result was the shortest and finest hair cut he's ever had.
One more milestone reached.
The final result
Let me start out by saying that most everyone has something that they are just not good about. In Aaron's case, he just did not like getting his hair cut, touched, blow dried, looked at, washed, etc. He was very sensitive about his head.
Neither Erica or I could pin down any stand out moment in time that may have caused this level of anxiety.
Perhaps Aaron had somehow seen the outcome of Emily's first haircut.
Thnx a lot mom.
Whatever it was, it has been four years of trickery, bribery and any other method we could conjure up to get Aaron to get his hair cut. In those nearly four years, Aaron has made four or five trips to various hair cutting shops. The last trip was to my barber's shop where all we managed to do was get Joe (the barber) to comb Aaron's hair a bit. After much cringing and backing away, Aaron got a lolly pop for his efforts and never forgot that.
The trip before that was a shear nightmare. The place is called Kid Klips or something like that. This shop has got everything a kid could want while getting his hair cut. Amongst the ammenities are Sony PS2 game consoles at each cutting station that can be used to play any suite of games or watch DVD's on a 15" flat screen panel. The chairs are actually little airplanes and cars that they can pretend to pilot. In addition to all this, the shop had rented out a moon bounce for the day, which we knew ahed of time. We intended to leverage every last ounce of this situation to meet our objectives. This episode took place before Kristin was born, thankfully. However, Emily got to pay witness to this horrific event that was about to unfold. We had told Aaron that he would get to go on the moon bounce and have ice cream at home after he got his hair cut. We sat Aaron down in an airplane chair and put Toy Story on the PS2 (which we brought in from home). He was very content until he felt the comb touch his hair. He quickly realized what was going on and the downward spiral began. We tried moving him over to another chair, then sitting him in Erica's lap, but the situation only continued to deteriorate. He reacted by throwing himself around more and more and struggling hard, screeching at the top of his lungs and drawing the attention of every last soul in the store. The woman who was to cut his hair just didn't feel that she was up to the task, and I was in full agreement. We collected our half dozen DVDs and two children, I paid the woman $5 for her effort (we had taken at least 15 minutes of her time which must have seemed like an eternity), and we walked out. On our way out we had to let Emily go in the moon bounce as we had promised that she could go in it. Aaron could not however go in it since he didn't hold up his end of the bargain. You can imagine how that went. Aaron and I went back to the car and he cried himself to sleep. He had just output 24 hours worth of effort in 20 minutes. It was quite pitiful and saddening.
This trip was the worst of any according to Erica, but the trips that preceded this one were of similar nature with less intensity. I hadn't believed her descriptions of those visits. I had now been converted into a believer.
The trip to Kids Klips was roughly in May of 2005 and the barber shop trip was a month or two thereafter.
So now that I've set the stage you can understand why we decided to just let Erica cut his hair for the rest of the year. Each time Erica was to cut his hair, we had to bribe Aaron with ice cream. The only person that was making out in a big way was Emily. She got to have ice cream once Aaron completed his task. What a deal. Notably each occasion thereafter Aaron did get better at letting his head and hair be touched.
Then completely out of the blue Aaron actually asked to go to the barber shop. That was one week ago. So, the whole of last week I kept asking Aaron if he was ready to go get his hair cut, what kind of lolly pop he would get, etc. He didn't show any signs of high anxiety and was actually looking forward to it.
So Saturday came and he and I headed out. We got to the shop and had to wait a while. Aaron and I played with the toys that Joe keeps in his shop and then finally it was time for Aaron to face the music. He hopped into the chair without hesitation and Joe did a wonderful job of keeping Aaron's confidence up. Aaron turned on the clippers (he used three different clippers, scissors, spray bottle and a comb) and talked to Joe throughout the time. I had been standing at the counter for a while and then Joe told Aaron to tell me to go sit down. So I went over to the waiting area where he could see me and he finished getting his haircut. He didn't cringe, fidget or fuss the whole time. I was so very proud of him. He had truly taken a big step forward. The result was the shortest and finest hair cut he's ever had.
One more milestone reached.
The final result
posted by Dapper | 2:40 PM
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