Life with the Quinns: March 2008

Last weekend, Julianna insisted that her hair was too long and that she needed a haircut. Since she was 6 months old, her Nona (my mom) has been her designated hairdresser. To our surprise though, she refused to have Nona cut her hair, but instead insisted on going to Snip Its! (a hair salon for little kids). At first, we were very worried about the prospect of taking her to the hair salon, because we have heard too many stories about children with autism having tantrums and sensory issues when they get a haircut. On the other hand, we had always believed that the only way we can help Julianna is to expose her to different situations so that she will know what is expected of her. For example, a lot of parents with autistic children never take their kids out to eat, in fear of having to be humiliated in case their child has a breakdown. Sure, we have had hundreds of "eat and runs" at restaurants because Julianna was having a melt-down. But this never stopped us from taking her out to eat...or going to the zoo...or going to Disneyworld...or going to the mall. I assure you that whenever we leave our house with her, we are never sure how she will be while we are out. Nevertheless, we had always believed that we shouldn't deprive her of the chance to learn from that experience.

Nowadays, we have very little problems going out with Julianna at all. She loves to go out on the weekends. She loves to eat out on the weekends, in fact, she will gladly tell us which restaurant she wants to eat at for that day. Because of this, we figured we should give the hair salon a try...besides, if she threw a fit, we could just easily leave.

Lo and behold, it turned out to be a great experience for her (and for us as well!). She loved Snip Its!. It is a little pricey but it sure is a wonderful hair salon for kids. They really make the kids feel like they are pampered Prince and Princesses. They even had a "Hair Machine" which the kids get to feed with their snipped hair for a prize in return! I am very happy that we let Julianna have this experience. Now I know that the next time she needs a haircut, we don't have to be worried about her having a meltdown.

Hope you enjoy Julianna's pictures from her day at Snip Its!

Entrance to Snip Its!