Our dog loves the hair dryer. She\u2019ll come bounding from the opposite side of the house at the sound and rub up against me like a cat (despite the fact she\u2019s the size of a small deer) until I blow it down her back. It\u2019s like a warm caress, I suppose. Too bad I blow my hair dry about once a month\u2026 date nights and big holidays (we\u2019re talking Christmas, not President\u2019s Day). The twins like it too. They lift up their shirts so I can blow it on their bellies and then they hug themselves, like they can\u2019t believe their warm luck.<\/p>\n
It’s not lucky for Charlie. He doesn’t like the hair dryer or the vacuum. If he could go running in the opposite direction, he would. It\u2019s not a mild aversion either. He starts by covering his ears and proceeds to cry a huge silent wail that eventually turns into loud sobs and big fat tears that only a cartoon character should be able to muster. Something about that sound scratches at a part of him that needs quiet and hugs. It rips at him like a Band-aid.<\/p>\n
So when I went to take him for a haircut last week, I planned as best I could. I checked in online. I aimed for a slow time with little to no other patrons (for their sakes). I brought music toys to drown out the noise. I had my phone charged. He\u2019d been sick recently so I waited it out until I thought he was back to normal status mentally, physically and emotionally. This is how we have to prepare. I\u2019ve written about why he always needs a haircut before<\/a>. But this was the perfect storm.<\/p>\n My phone flashed me the spinning wheel of death like a not so subtle profanity, before we’d even begun. Charlie grabbed at it,\u00a0 excited at first and then mad and then really really sad. He looked at me like I\u2019d teased him on purpose. Like I’d promised the world and handed him chump change. And then somewhere behind us, someone flipped on a dryer, like a bomb. Charlie exploded in silent sobs. He grabbed his head and ducked. His tiny body heaved in his stroller like he was trying to burrow into it\u2026anywhere to get away from the noise.<\/p>\n And then something miraculous happened. Our hairdresser, our “old familiar” who already knew Charlie, stood up without batting an eye and asked, \u201cdo you want to move this gig outside?\u201d I might have fallen in love with her a little just then.<\/p>\n She grabbed her scissors and spray bottle and comb and I grabbed Charlie and we sat on a little bench outside as she cut his hair while I sang Old MacDonald with every single animal, vegetable or mineral I could think of. It was a crazy cool farm by the end. And an older gentleman in a nice suit stopped on his way into the restaurant next door to help me with a few animal noises. We were a spectacle. We were a motley crew of street performers on that weird, warm February day. And Charlie smiled through a haircut for the first time in his life.<\/p>\n