LI Couple's New Business Gives Haircuts For Special Needs Kids

KINGS PARK, NY - A Kings Park couple started a new business for families with children with special needs.

Angela and Chris Blanchet, both Long Island natives and parents of a child with autism, started Sensory Haircut solutions, which provides at-home haircuts for special needs children.

The business hires hairdressers educated on special needs, autism spectrum disorders and sensory processing disorders. They use a Sensory Toolkit with sensory items to help relax the children during the haircut.

Check out Patch's interview with Angela about the business:

Patch: Tell us about your business

Angela: My husband Chris Blanchet and myself started this business to help support families of children with special needs when getting their haircut. We have lived the extreme challenge and exhaustion that parents endure when trying to get a haircut for a child with sensory issues. For 7 years we cut our sons’s hair at home and the struggle was exhausting and heart breaking (you can tell the child actually feels pain) This inspired us to create a sensory haircut tool kit containing items to help calm the senses for children who are in sensory overload during a haircut. We supply this tool kit as well as training to our hairdressers on Autism, special needs and sensory processing disorder so they can give as calm a cut as possible!

P: How did you get your first start in this business?

A: We posted a survey on social media about haircuts and special needs and that survey went viral, followed by the attention of the news and we then realized the demand for support for these families was bigger than we knew !

P: Is this your first business venture? What other projects have you worked on?

A: I have also created a product called “Eye See You” to help promote improved eye contact on children with autism.

P: What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?

A: Follow your heart.

P: How long have you lived or done business here?

A: My husband and I have both grown up in Kings Park . I have lived on Long Island all my life

P: What’s your favorite part about being a business in Kings Park? What makes the area special?

A: The Autism and special needs community in our area is growing and it’s nice to have support of other families and support them as well. We are all in this together!

P: Did anyone influence you as a business owner? How?

A: My influence for this business has been my son and all of these special children

P: Did you ever make a business mistake and later on were glad you made it?

A: I don’t see things as mistakes just lessons to grow from

P: Tell us something about yourself that people may not know.

A: I homeschool my children.

P: What advice would you give to a business owner just starting out?

A: Don’t ask the opinion of others around you , that often creates confusion ... you have the answers within yourself.

Photos courtesy of Angela Blanchet