Barber gives cuts to kids with disabilities and his process is mesmerizing

A New Jersey barber is giving kids and adults with sensory issues something many people take for granted — a haircut.

“We need this service. I didn’t realize how much we needed it until I was involved in it,” Billy Dinnerstein, 53, owner of Your Kind Of Cuts, tells TODAY.com. “It’s a little overwhelming, to me, to find out that I have people coming from multiple states away or rebooking flights to stay here because they don’t have anybody comparable in their own state who can do this.”

Recently, Your Kind Of Cuts’ TikTok account posted a video that went viral of Dinnerstein cutting the hair of a 4-year-old named Justice at his Nutley, New Jersey salon.

Despite Justice crying, trying to move out of the way, attempting to stand up and even grab the clippers from Dinnerstein’s hands, the barber maintains his cool, stays upbeat, counts down with the child before each cut and joyfully high-fives Justice when he’s finished.

The video has been viewed more than 9.5 million times and has amassed more than 930,000 likes.

Justice’s dad, 32-year-old Jahod Carson, says the video shows his son’s first haircut — one of many more to come.

“Me pulling up and seeing Billy outside — we just went straight for it,” Carson tells TODAY.com. “There were no rules, (Billy) didn’t tell me what to do specifically — we just focused on making my son comfortable first.”

Carson says “Billy did a great job,” adding that they worked together to help his son through the hair cut.

“We both were trying to make each other comfortable,” Carson says. “I was trying to make Billy comfortable, because I know my son like the back of my hand, and vice versa — he was trying to let me know that it was OK. He wanted me to trust him ... we both were helping each other out.”

Dinnerstein says he doesn’t follow a “blueprint” when giving hair cuts to adults and children with sensory disorders or learning disabilities. Instead, he caters his approach to every client.

“I don’t know what I’m dealing with until they walk through the door,” he says. “Sometimes it’s the parents squeezing the kid’s hands, sometimes it’s the kid squeezing the parents’.

“A lot of the time, the tension is being resonated from the parents and rightfully so,” Dinnerstein adds. “Here they are, walking into another barber shop with a promise of somebody helping their (child), and in the past that didn’t work out, so the stress level is very high.”

Nicole Capuano, 42, found Dinnerstein after desperately searching for a barber shop to give her now 7-year-old son, Giovanni, a proper trim.

"I couldn't even tell him he was getting a haircut until the day of because he would start panicking about it and getting anxiety," Capuano, who lives in New Jersey, tells TODAY.com.

"He was getting upset, crying, and I would pretty much have to hold him down for the haircut," the mom says. "The last time we went (for a haircut) was the last straw. I was like: 'There has to be a better place out there.'"

Capuano says rather than trying to distract her son from his haircut, Dinnerstein made her son feel part of the process, allowing him to hold combs and kid-friendly clippers.

"Giovanni thought he was helping (Billy) cut his hair," she says. "It was such a different environment ... We left there and he didn't even cry."

When Dinnerstein has a child come into his shop crying and nervous only to leave happy and excited about their new haircut, he says, it's the "icing on the cake with the extra cherries on top."

"It's nice when the kids come in crying, then at the end of it the mom leaves crying of happiness," he says. "A complete 180 — a great feeling."

Carson says he's grateful to Dinnerstein and he hopes people who see the now-viral video of his son getting a haircut know it’s just a snippet of what reality is like for many parents.

“It’s not easy for the parents who have to go through this every day with their kid,” he says. “We need more resources, we need more help — so does every other kid and parent of a kid with autism.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com