My beautiful 20-year-old daughter was a “colicky”baby. A hyper-sensitive child who was bothered by seemingly everything. When I took her for her first haircut, an experience that was sure to be stressful for everyone involved turned into a nightmare when we were put into the hands of a brand new hairstylist straight out of beauty school. It was excruciating 1.5 hours. I left that day wondering if the young woman was questioning her career choice.
But imagine an autistic child who can’t stand to be touched. Imagine how traumatic a simple experience like a haircut can be for him — and his parents. And the barber.
James “Jim the Trim” Williams, a barber from Port Talbot in the U.K., takes his job seriously. He spends time trying to find ways to work with his little customers in a way that doesn’t traumatize them. When Mason — a little boy who was recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder — became his customer, Williams had a special challenge. And he delivered.
Images below are from his Facebook.
For about a month, Williams worked tirelessly to try to find different ways to cut Mason’s hair. Mason wouldn’t allow him to go near one of his ears and would “run away … if he wasn’t up to it.”
Then magic happened. From BuzzFeed:
“But today,” he said, “I finally achieved it.” He and Mason lay on the floor “in silence”, he wrote, and Mason allowed him to “cut away” and give him his first “proper haircut”. “I love making both parents happy … by giving extra attention to Mason,” he wrote.
And when the haircut was finished? Williams asked mason for a high five and got a hug instead. Wow.
And Mason’s not the only happy little customer.
Williams told BuzzFeed this:
“A lot of families have these problems – it’s good to raise awareness,” he said.
