#autistic!jacob barber

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

Good News Story of the Day

ROUYN NORANDA, Que. — The photo shows a bearded, tattooed barber lying on his side on the floor, using a pair of clippers to trim the hair of the young boy lying facedown beside him.

Francis “Franz” Jacob says it’s just part of a day’s work, but the barber from Rouyn-Noranda, Que. has become an unlikely celebrity after the boy’s mother posted the photo online to thank him for going out of his way to accommodate her son Wyatt, who has autism.

Jacob owns an old-fashioned barber shop that specializes in 1920 to 1950’s-style punk and rockabilly haircuts, but he says he’s also developed a connection with special needs clients like Wyatt.

“Each time I’m doing Wyatt’s hair, he’s always going on the ground, moving around, sitting on his mom’s lap, standing beside the chair,” said Jacob, 45.

“That’s why I have a wireless clipper now, because at first I had to follow Wyatt around and plug my clipper into (different outlets).”

Jacob opened his salon two years ago in the mining city some 600 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

Wyatt was his first client with autism, but since meeting him he’s taken on others.

“Each one has different needs and reactions, so each time it’s about adjusting to the client,” he said.

He also occasionally cuts hair for clients who are terminally ill.

The boy’s mother, Fauve Lafreniere, told CBC News that haircuts are a challenge for Wyatt because he moves a lot and can be hypersensitive to touch.

She said she posted the picture online in the hopes others would follow Jacob’s example in finding “other ways to approach differences.”

Jacob says he’s received countless messages and phone calls since the photo began to make its way around the Internet.

Since most of the photos taken at his shop are of slick rock-style haircuts, he’s glad people are getting to see another side of what he does.

“In this case you can see the extra mile that the barber is doing,” he said.

“I don’t mind going on the floor, I don’t see any difference between musicians or an autistic kid, it’s the same extra mile.”

– with files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal.

http://calgaryherald.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/quebec-barber-praised-for-getting-on-floor-to-cut-hair-of-young-client-with-autism/wcm/9af3da86-14a5-4771-b08d-72e99ff662a6

[shy-magpie]

After a young client showed him how hard it is for kids with autism to get a hair cut and how easy it is to change approach, Francis Franz Jacob went viral (and increased his client list) mainly by letting his clients get comfortable in the space. People in the industry are learning and sharing how to adapt to their clients rather than forcing autistic children to adapt to them. In the words of  Autism Barbers Assemble founder James Williams “…I’ll cut a child’s hair anywhere — lying on the floor, sitting on the sofa, sitting on the reception desk, on the windowsill, even in a car,”

[samirgianni]

Now What?

So now that all your most childish adolescent fantasies are coming true, and it's up to YOU to save Civilization As We Know It... well, uh, how exactly? I expect to be wrestling with this question for some time to come myself, but the ideas I'm coming up with so far seem to fall under three general headings. I'm also giving another plug for Bob Altemeyer's The authoritarians, and Jane Jacob's Systems of Survival. Long reading, but those two books have really clarified and directed my views of society for at least the last decade, and are both highly pertinent to the situation we find ourselves in. Like, seriously, written for it. If you do nothing else, please read those two books. Continue to Educate Yourself: No Time to be Nice  Naomi Shulman On Being Good The Belle Jar These times require a new language... William J. Barber II (NOTE: contains religious language) Intolerant Liberals Tucker FitzGerald Fight Fascists with Mockery not Violence David Neiwert All of the above and the first 2 links in particular are important, it seems to me, to understanding the reality of being a resister. The point that every-day fascist followers are frequently nice people (as opposed to the political leaders who clearly aren't) is vital to understand. The mere fact of being a nice person may, in fact, lead you to behave in ways that support fascism. It is really hard to stop being a nice person when you have been trained to be one for your whole life. This is particularly true, I think, for women.Making the decision to stop being nice and start being a fascist resister requires working some mental muscles that most of us have not exercised too well. In my experiences as a landlord, I found pretty much everybody, without exception, was absolutely frightened of any conflict and would go out of their way to avoid any interaction with others that could be interpreted as even mildly critical or confrontational. People would come to me, of course; full of complaints and wanting me to deal with it, whatever it was. So I've had a certain amount of training in telling people things they don't necessarily want to hear. Admittedly I was approaching people from a position of power, but it's notable that nobody ever responded to me with violence, and rarely with threats or insults. It can happen, of course, especially in these times when the nasty are emboldened. But people are generally much less prone to such responses than seems to be the general idea. Stand up for yourself; stand up for others. The more you do it the easier it will become, and it is a genuine contribution to a better world. Take Actions: Does going to demonstrations and public meetings actually do any good? YES, IT DOES. Go to demonstrations and public meetings:   Rise Up: This is not complicated It may take only 3.5% of the population to topple a dictator... We Can't Let Trump Go Down Putin's Path Contact your government and engage in public discourse. As Canadians, we don't have much input into the American situation, but there is plenty going on here that is wrong and dangerous; now is the time to keep on top of that stuff and contact your MPs and MPPs as appropriate. Give 'em an inch; they'll take a mile. Fight back now. This one is for Americans, but Canadians should read it too, and consider the equivalent possibilities: Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda Next up, don't buy products made or sold by companies that are damaging the world, as much as that is possible. In a way, that's always the central message of this blog. And as with local food, I try to be in it for the long haul and don't worry about being perfect or complete in my avoidance of products made by suspect companies. A million people eliminating 80% of their purchases of products produced by companies of ill-will would likely be a lot more effective than 10,000 who achieve perfect avoidance - if such a thing is even possible, and I'm not sure it is in the modern world. We are so much more than consumers, but there are an awful lot of powerful people who regard us as nothing but that... the least we can do is be mindful and careful consumers. Grab Your Wallet Boycott Tool In particular the above focuses on companies dealing with the Trumps and so many of them aren't here in Canada. But I do note some that Canadians may have dealings with: Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond, Hudson's Bay, Walmart, and a fair few others as well. Check it out. Cultivate Connections: Don't Be a Bystander  BCRW Videos Here is a short little video about responding to the public bullying that happens more often when fascists are emboldened. People are often paralyzed by the fact that they have no mental preparation for dealing with shocking breaches of usual public behaviour. Having an idea about how you might act in advance really helps you deal with it if you are there when it happens. (If you prefer, there is a transcript here at Shakesville where I first saw it.) Other possibilities; look for your local interfaith group and check out what they are doing. Volunteer for something, somewhere. It's not enough to fight back against what is wrong; it's important to be building what is right as well. It doesn't have to be "political". When Mr Ferdzy got horribly distressed and depressed about the state of the world a few years back, I told him to stop complaining and do something. To my surprise, the thing he chose to do was to go volunteer at a programme that helped autistic and other developmentally delayed children get ready for school, and so once a week he would go off and wrangle 3 and 4 year olds for an afternoon. It was not just a socially useful thing to do, it also really helped cut his feelings of powerlessness and isolation, even though in the greater scheme of things it was a very small action and had nothing to do with the things that originally were distressing him so much. 

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This doesn't seem very well organized or well written to me, but it's what I have at the moment. I have some more ideas that are still percolating; we'll see if I manage to do anything with them. from Seasonal Ontario Food http://seasonalontariofood.blogspot.com/2017/02/now-what.html