Go to the hair salon
Getting a haircut is less about the hairstyle than about a stranger touching your head, scissors sounding close to the ear and loose hairs finding their way inside the collar. The visual support below walks through the steps before anyone sits in the chair.
♂Go to the hair salon
A boy walks toward a hair salon with a scissors sign, holding a hairdryer.
About this visual support
A haircut is a question of bodily privacy before it is a question of style. Someone the child barely knows takes hold of the head, the scissors cut audibly near the ear, the cape closes around the neck and loose hairs slip inside the collar where they itch for the rest of the day. For children with tactile sensitivity, including many autistic children, the cutting itself is rarely the problem; the sensations around it are.
Pictures help because they remove the element of surprise. A sequence showing waiting, cape on, water in the hair, cutting, mirror and going home lets a child know what comes next instead of interpreting sound and touch in real time. Ring the salon in advance and ask for an early slot when the room is quiet, and bring a clean top to change into afterwards so the itching is short lived. Show the pictures at home a few times, not for the first time in the waiting area.
In Routined you can set the visit up as its own small routine with pictures and timings before you leave. The pictures here download free, and the app can be tried for 14 days at no cost.
Use this image in a schedule
Build your own visual schedule with this image and download it as a print-ready PDF. Completely free.
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Take the visual supports with you
In Routined you build schedules from these pictures, add timers and voice instructions, and your child follows the day on their own.
* 14-day free trial included for new users.