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Parents have recently been asking me some hair-raising questions about how to handle their child’s fears about getting their hair cut. You can imagine that going to the barber shop or hair salon can be potentially frightening as young children enter a strange-smelling environment, get cooed over by customers and staff, climb into a large chair, get wrapped in plastic and approached with sharp scissors. Therefore, you need to plan ahead, and try the tips below.

Refer to the experience as a “trim” rather than a haircut since “cut” may make your child feel there will be pain involved.

Call ahead and make sure the hair salon you choose is child friendly. For example, do they use a spray bottle rather than drop your child’s head back into a sink?

Consider taking your child in to watch you or someone else get their hair cut first so you can explain about the sights and sounds, such as the hair getting wet, the sound of the shears, or the use of the scissors.

Show that it doesn’t hurt by cutting a little of your own hair at home in front of your child. You may also have to explain that the hair grows back so they don’t think it is gone forever.

Offer to have your child sit in your lap the first time in the chair rather than on a booster seat and keep their face away from the mirror so they cannot watch what is happening unless they ask to.

Bring your child’s favorite stuffed animal along for the ride and have their hair or fur trimmed. If they don’t want to be covered in the plastic apron, put one on yourself and that may change their mind.

If your child does well, praise them and share the news with other family and friends and don’t forget to save a lock of that first haircut for the baby book.

Hopefully tips like these will allow your child’s worries to be hair today and gone tomorrow when it comes to enjoying those first haircuts.

Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children's Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also catch "First with Kids" weekly on WOKO 98.9FM.

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