Haircuts done with love

For two years, Lisa McKenzie tried to give 10-year-old Jordie Rowlands a haircut. He's autistic, so she sat on the floor with him in the barber shop, met him there after hours, and even tried to give him a trim at his home, but no luck. He was scared and could not stay still. After she was disciplined by her boss for giving a haircut after the shop closed, she resigned and opened her own shop. Failure to cut Jordie's hair did not discourage her.

"It made me want to connect with him so I could take away his fear," she said, and then one day it happened. She starting singing "The People on the Bus" and he grew completely calm. She said she did not know he was into nursery rhymes. She was finally able to give him a full haircut. "Amazingly, he now interacts with me and I even get a hug at the end," she says. Since posting this news on Facebook, she now has 100 special needs customers and has trained four other barbers how to deal with them. At her shop, one Sunday each month is set aside for autism-friendly appointments only.