Haircuts with Heart: Vernon Jackson’s Mission as an Autism Friendly Barber
Vernon Jackson is an award-winning barber, author, and advocate known for transforming the haircut experience for neurodivergent children and their families. In this conversation, he shares his journey of founding The Gifted Event, a nationally recognized initiative providing free, sensory-friendly haircuts to children with special needs. His viral videos and heartfelt storytelling have inspired millions, spotlighting the power of patience, empathy, and inclusion. Vernon emphasizes the importance of community support, trust-building with families, and the emotional aspects of haircuts. In his work, he empowers kids to feel seen, valued, and confident, while challenging the world to embrace differences with compassion and creativity.
Haircuts with Heart: Vernon Jackson’s Mission as an Autism Friendly Barber
All Autism Talk
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Richie Ploesch
Hey Vernon, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for being here.
Vernon Jackson
man, thanks for having me, man.
Richie
I know we've got a few things that we want to cover today, but I'd like to start kind of with your story first and how you got into creating a sensory friendly haircut experience for children and adults.
Vernon
man, so I guess it all started in one part of where I come from, one part business and being barber slash cosmetologist and cutting hair, and one part of having a heart as a servant leader and volunteering at church and doing kids club or working with children one fashion or another. Because children have always gravitated to me and it's always been a warm interaction between us. But when it came to the business part where a lot of times it was challenging because when parents would book their kids haircut appointment, it's already challenging enough to do a kid's haircut, especially the first haircut, whether they're neurodivergent or not. But when you add on neurodivergency, it's a different level in their sensitivities. So when they will book, they'll never specify if their child had different needs.
And so it was only a 15 minute time block. And it may take about 15 minutes for me to get the child into the chair if we do that. And then it's the conversation. And then it's trying to find the right haircut. And then I'm trying to do the haircut from a creative standpoint. the results are all, so I'm frustrated. I'm late. I'm frustrated, flustered, and all the things. And so, you know, it came to it that they had a lot of parents that were also always telling me that they were getting kicked out of barber shops and salons or they couldn't find us the emotionally safe space to get the haircut experience. So after giving them a start, they settled my heart. I'm kind of personally aware if it gets to my heart and it doesn't leave, I feel as if I have to figure out how to solve it. And so I prayed about it for quite some time. I was like, listen, Dad, I'll do it because I know at least I can do it from a place of love, even though I don't want to do it. But I know the posture I can do it from will be from that place of love.
And so that's how it started. And so the only way I could have done it, because I already had my work schedule fixed, I didn't want to come in earlier on one of my work days. I didn't want to stay later on none of my work days. So I figured I would come in every third of Monday, which is my, well, I don't work on Mondays. So I come in every third of Monday, my day off and instead of blocking out 15 minutes, I'll block out 30 minutes and I'll still discharge them to my regular kids cutting rate at that time. And so when I did it, it worked out beautifully because now I solved the problem of me rushing behind and trying to catch up. And it gave me buffering time, the children to stem, regulate themselves, know what's going on, and for me to kind of figure out what angle to approach them. I don't have any formal training on how to approach a child with special needs and none of that. It was all just, okay, what's happening here? Hey, hey, I'm Vernon Jack. Hey, I'm your barber, what's up, man? Just trying to be present.
Richie
Just, yeah, just you being a caring guy that, yeah.
Vernon
You know, I learned along the way by observing how to, would be the best approach to create the safe space or to counteract their sensitivities with the clipper and how to introduce and that type of thing. And then-And know, my, so the whole career and space I'm in with the work I do has been a call to respond. You know, so it has been, this is my idea. I'm going to do this. Like, this is the problem. I have the capacity to solve it. Let me solve it. And so where, that's, so that's the haircut piece. Now the fundraising piece for it to be free for the families came in because people seeing the work that I was doing, which I started, and the reason I started recording the experiences was because I kept getting parents saying, listen, I know what it's about too, but every haircut up until this point, my child never sat still, never got through a whole haircut, no people never was patient enough to sit here, all those things. And so, you know, I'm...
Richie
Wait, I'm going to interrupt you for just a second. Sorry. So people were coming to you. They were getting more time. So their children were feeling more comfortable with you. I imagine wildly successful in terms of the, the, the clients and the customers getting what they need in terms of a better haircut, in terms of feeling comfortable in that space. And then, and then you started to video. Is that right? Okay. Okay.
Vernon
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw the video come like, because I was getting too many of the same responses of like, you know, man, this is, we never had this before and they never sat this still. And I'm like, man, y'all keep telling me this, I'm hitting this way too many times. like, I know I'm good, but y'all, this is too much. It sounds like.
Richie
Yeah.
Vernon
It sounds like y'all blowing, you know what saying, air on me. what I mean? is, like, ain't get, like, give me three straight, you know what I'm saying? Like, because if you tell me that your child for the past two years couldn't get a haircut, and all of sudden you come to me and you're getting a haircut, or they calm, they're laughing, and then that's, I'm like, that's, I never, I didn't experience their story beforehand, so I can't really validate it and verify it, right? So, you know.
Richie
Yeah.
Vernon
So that's why I started sharing it. But one of my friends had saw me promoting and doing the work. He said, hey man, can I sponsor a haircut? And I was like, all right, sure, can sponsor a haircut, why not? And then another one of my clients had hit me up who saw the work that I was doing and asked if she'd sponsor a haircut. And then I made a post, I was like, yo, it's so cool to see how the community is rallying behind the families to do, you know, to sponsor these haircuts. And next thing you know, people start trying to send money in and I was like, at first I was nervous about it. I'm like, yo, like, I want the rules behind this, I want what's going on for real.
Richie
Yeah. People are sending me money. What do I do? Yeah.
Vernon
You know what I'm saying? And then one of my friends said, yo, Bernie, the reality is people want to help you out, and you got to give them a way to help out and to be a part of the process. And a lot of times, money is the easiest way.
Richie
Yeah.
Vernon
for people who have in their heart to give and to be a part of the process. And that's what it was, you know? And there were periods of times where, there probably two or three times where I was really running out of the money that I came in, but I made the point to say, listen, dad, I don't care what happens, I'm never gonna charge for another haircut. I'm just not gonna do it.
And so the families don't get it. If I fundraise enough for doing work cases, that's what I'm doing. And every time the money got low or X, Y, things always, you know what I'm saying? So I've always been taken care of. so there's a gift that the families receive. There's a gift that the viewers receive by watching the videos. And then there's a gift that I receive by doing the work that I get to do.
Richie
Wow. It's so amazing. You know, I'm thinking about, during my time as a behavior analyst and whenever we would find somebody that could provide what you're providing Vernon, like a sensory friendly experience, whether that was a movie theater, a haircut, a dentist, a doctor. I mean, it was like, it was like, all right, we have to tell everybody we know so that they can get a great experience because there are so many people. I can't share with you how many people I've spoken to that say, I wait till my son falls asleep and while he's asleep, I sneak into his room and I take my scissors and I give him a haircut and I hope that I don't get any hair in his face and it wakes him up and I hope that he gets it through. And then I hope at the end that it looks okay. But a lot of times I can only do one side that day and then I have to wait until he's asleep on the other side. You're shaking your head because you've heard this story before, right? Um, and that's not the experience that people have when they come to you, right? I saw, I've seen your videos. They're fantastic. They're-
Vernon
Yes.
Richie
Children laughing as they're getting haircuts. I mean, there are probably a lot of clients who are afraid of the clippers, the sound, the vibration, all those things, but they feel comfortable when they come to get your haircuts.
Vernon
Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you said that. Like, I want to talk to another behavioral analyst, what is it? And that's one those, what is it, AVA? Is it AVA therapy? Like I said, I don't know the term. I just know I don't know what I do, right? Everybody's be popping, like, hey my God, we love what do. I'm like, oh great. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, and.
Richie
Yeah. Behaviour, yeah, behaviour analyst, yeah.
Vernon
I don't mind being that ignorant to it because as a side note is the fact that to me I'm just a guy who decided to show up, who allowed myself to show up. And I didn't show up perfect and knowing everything, I show up as who I am and allowed the work that I do to do what I can do. so, I said, yeah, yeah, man.
Richie
I'm writing that quote down, right? Because I love that. I'm just the guy that decided to show up and allowed myself to show up. I think that's great.
Vernon
Thank you. Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's a two-foot. You know, even when I felt that the aba therapist or no her name was erin and it was the first time that like from the professional aspect I had got the the behind the scenes like we're like haircuts are a hover between number one and number two of the most anxious experiences that families endure and experience with children that like on a spectrum or Down syndrome or, you know what saying, that have sensitivities. Like it's up there with the doctor. And that gave me a different depth and gravity of the value of what it is that I do, you know? so, yeah, so again, when comes down to like, everybody gets a gift and, you know, that views of videos and even the gift of giving, like, you know, I don't tell people, I've gotten some grants, but grants are grants. You know, I don't focus on it. I really enjoy.
I really enjoy the gifts of seeing gifts come in. every time I see one, I always say thank you. I always say thank you and enjoy telling the families that, like people are intentionally watching the video. I don't want them watch it. Going to my bio, clicking the link, going there, putting in their information, and then putting in whatever amount they're trying to donate. You know what I'm saying?
Richie
Yeah.
Vernon
Like you can't take like, like it's the most, the work that I do was very intentional from every angle. You know?
Richie
Yeah, it's it's amazing. I mean, it's amazing what you've built. I appreciate it. And having seen so many families go through a troubled time with this haircutting in particular, I appreciate what you've done. So I want to talk about you've got Noble Barber Barber and Beauty, right? That's that's your barber shop, right? And then you and salon, thank you. And then you've got the gifted events. Right, tell us, tell us more is the gifted event the time that you're that you're doing the haircuts just for children with special needs and who are neurodiverse? Great. And is that still happening every third Monday?
Vernon
Correct. Yeah, no, no, no, no. I took off on Monday because I have to travel on the weekends and it's in peace upon my time. And so I did was I moved it to doing it every Wednesday and do it every Wednesday so that I have I can do more haircuts. I have more time dedicated to it. And if I travel more likely, I should be back by Wednesday. Yeah.
Richie
Great. Like you're building your whole life around this. That's great.
Vernon
Oh yeah, no seriously. do, and I'm outside of the Wednesdays, so do about like, now I do, I said we do like, six haircuts on every third Monday and probably four haircuts, five haircuts on a Wednesday when I was doing it. And I was like, do too much, once I consolidate it, I do on an average about eight to nine haircuts on a Wednesday and another like six to maybe nine haircuts throughout the week. I do my regular schedule. I have families that have kids that come in that were like very sensitive to the hair care process. I want to get them in on a more regular basis, a more regular regimen to acclimate them and go from there. Then I have them come in. Or if I have kids that have graduated that are not lacking, I can now cut their hair.
Richie
Wow.
Vernon
-in the 15 minute time block and they're not so emotional, they're not so sensitive and emotional, then I have them book a regular kids cut, my regular schedule.
Richie
15 minutes. I mean, I think what you just brought up is a great point, right? So many families have a negative experience in one location and then they have this feeling of, can never go back to that place again. Like I, you know, they just feel bad. It was, they impeded on the community or whatever, however they may be feeling. Um, so then they go somewhere different the next time, but then their child never feels comfortable because they haven't had that repeat experience to get to know one person to then have that sense of safety that you were talking about.
What are some tips that you would give to families to help them build that sense of safety and trust with their local hairstylist?
Vernon
Give them a heads up. I would say give them a heads That's good question. Give people a heads up. There's a reason why, you know I'm saying? you know, the title and description of the demographic is special needs. Because they need special, no matter how regularly you want your child to be treated and be seen, they still require special needs, special times and special type of attention and intention. So, you know, you can't...
Richie
Yeah.
Vernon
It's not fair for the other person to not know what to anticipate. And they're not even strong in that wheelhouse. At least you have a chance to kind of like, yo, hands up, I'm bringing my son. Do you all have the capacity to work with him like that? Or is there anyone in your shop that has the patience to do so? That way, everybody's a part of the conversation. No one's been removed from what's happening, what's going on.
And then you also don't experience the potential of embarrassment of or whatever. You know what saying? So I definitely say give a call first. You know what saying? Give a call first and give a hands up. Because everybody runs their shop. This is a shop. Every barber, every stylist run their chair totally different. That's what they got into business, to be self-employed, to be owners within their own right and being controlled. you know, just, cause then once you do that, you're not even feeling away. And then the child's not feeling away. And then, you know, if you can't find somebody, I'll tell parents part of the time, just buzz their hair off. Let's buzz it. Fight through it. You gotta fight through it. You gotta, I'm fighting sometimes too. I just have to pay to sit through it. But, but, but you're, the thing is, but your reality is your reality. And you, if you keep focusing on your idea-
Richie
Yeah.
Vernon
you know, idea what you think your reality should be from a fix of entitlement, you're gonna always be behind that eight ball. You know what saying? So just, if you can't find somebody in your area, you know, go to the kitchen, everybody get ready to, you know, put their football helmets and suits on and go to work. You know what I'm saying? Like, you just gotta, you gotta, but then afterwards, I love you, give me a hug, I'm so sorry, I know.
Richie
Yeah.
Vernon
You know, X, Y, and Z. Or you watch my videos and get techniques to see what I do and try to bring it a part of your life. But again, that's why I have no problem with my videos showing the other side of what it that I do, because it's not gonna always be pretty. know, it's not always like, you know, there are people that do what I do and you see the aspect of it that's like gentle and not so traumatic. Like, no! It gets messy.
Richie
One of your videos, I think it was it showed the kind of the first five minutes of the haircut and then it fast forwarded fast forwarded a half an hour or something. And by the end, you know, the little guy was sitting there. You were buzzing his hair. He was he was visibly like still not loving it, but he was going through it and you were making progress. And it was like, all right, this is what we got to do. So it was just it was good to see that progression. I think.
One thing I want to ask you is I noticed that your space is set up. It looks pretty quiet. It looks like it's, it looks like the walls are dark in this, in one of the videos that I saw, is that all by design? Like, did you design a space that was, less, I don't know the right words, that was less stimulating. Yeah. You've been, you've ever want a little more comfortable.
Vernon
Yeah, uh, no, actually, like, so when I first started doing the walls were dark in the shot, me and my old partner, but when we split ways, I ended up brightening up the space. I'll focus it on the lighting aspect of it. The lights that I use, I want to make sure that the lights were balancing off the walls enough so you can see the details of my haircuts.
They have the backspace for the Get The Event, the Get The Event space. know, the neutral gray paint color coupled with, you know, the toys and whatnot and other light colors and then the plants. And then it's the energy, you know what saying? That's in the space. The energy that's in there, you know? And so I was really very, you I was attention about, I was more attention about the energy in the space than I was about the colors and everything else. But all the plants in my house, in the shop, everything was real. But the space being quiet, I'm sure it helps out a lot. And then my shop, the barbershop side, it's like a shotgun. It's nice size. So when kids come in, they see the spaces, they see the lights. And some kids love ceiling fans and that type of thing. So when they come in, they just - like this and they want to run around because it's so spacious.
And so if their parents say, no, I said, no, no, no, it's their first time. Let them regulate. Let them move through. You know, I'm still setting up anyway. That way you can chill out from the drive here. You don't have to worry about nothing. And then we just go into the back and we get it going. Yeah. So as I've done this, there's been, I've developed a system in how I introduce the parents and the kids.
Richie
You remember? Yeah.
Vernon
and giving the parents the space to just sit back, be quiet, leave me alone. If I need you, I know where you're at. You know what I'm saying? And to have, and to start them both to be tuned into my voice over their voices in their head and their insecurities. You know I'm saying? It's like dating and relationships. Like, you know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, it's like.
Richie
Yeah. Yeah.
Vernon
As a man, like, look, if I'm gonna be the leader, and you want the benefits of my leadership and what I provide, you gotta be able to hear my voice over your fears and everything else. If you don't do that, I can't protect you, for one. Two, I can't get to you, you know what saying? And three, the results of, now don't be wrong, your voice matters, and I wanna hear what you have going on. But understand, ultimately, it's gonna fall on my shoulders. You know what I'm saying?
So, you know, and, but to me, if I have a track record of success, you're here because I'm successful. You're here because the work is successful. So be quiet more than you are talking when it's coming around here. Unless it's a detail that I need to know that I may not be able to see. You know what saying? And so that's the kind of thing where when I'm working with the families and whatnot, that I even have to let myself like relax and let go of.
Richie
Right?
Vernon
that y'all like, I'm not like, like, you know what I mean, you know what we're here for, you know what's up.
Richie
Yeah, right. We're here. We got to get to work. We got some things we got to take care of. It's going to be hard, but we're also we got to do it. And I imagine tell me tell me a little bit. I imagine as you're seeing clients and they're repeating clients, I imagine there's a moment where you feel like the trajectory changes where you're like this is getting hard and it's already hard and I'm sweaty and they're sweaty. And then there's a moment that things shift.
Vernon
We got it.
Richie
Is there one like that that you can tell us about?
Vernon
Yeah. man. Like, I'm trying to think of a particular kid, but I focus on the moment. It's like this feeling of like when having a child that's like that has been dependent on sitting on the parent's lap or whatever, and they didn't want to be independent. Then they walk into the space, and then they're like, they're a little more relaxed and the parents tried to get geared up to kind of sit in the I no, no, no, not today, not today, have a seat. And I reached for the kid and then the kid is like, oh, here we go, right? And I pick him up, I'm like, how you doing? Good to see you. And I sit him in, like, you know I'm saying? To the chair. And then the kid may start kind of crying, because he reached for the parent, and I'm like, the parents are always the same. I said, no, no, no, you got this, you cool, you're fine.
Richie
Here we go.
Vernon
Okay, so I put my chair up, put the cape on, they let me put the cape on, and then I take the clippers, I start cutting. You know what saying? I start trying to cut, they start trying to whine, because they're whiners. I'm like, okay, as long as you're sitting still, you're gonna whine. You know I'm saying? But we're here, and actually, you know, we're moving along. I had one of my most recent challenging haircuts. A family drove in from Chicago, and they had a family here, but they drove, but but-
Richie
Yeah. I'm still gonna do it.
Vernon
they want the haircut, but their bigger picture was to get the haircut. And I was like, okay, for sure. So the first day, I mean, it was a fight. And when the video comes out, you will see it was a fight. And we had him his hair on the floor, he was screaming, and even when he said, was we was tired of being on the ground. And he was like, when I sit in the chair, he said, no, right here, right here. It's like this, right? He's like about 11 years old, hear me? I'm like, all right, man, for sure. So we going through, he's screaming, we get done, he gets up, he runs out the shop, right? He runs, right? And I got my point of view camera on, so you see me running after him outside the catch machine, he doing that crazy. And he goes to the car, you see his face traumatized, and he shams the door, right?
Richie
Okay.
Vernon
So that was that day, but that was on that Wednesday. I came on my off day that Saturday, they cut his hair. And when I tell you, it was night and day.
Richie
Really?
Vernon
He was apprehensive about coming in at first, but then I had a toy in there that caught his attention. like, mm. I'm like, well, you want this? Yeah, I come and sit here. He's like, I don't want to sit in floor. I don't want sit in chair. I want to sit right there, where he was the last time. So I cut his hair on the floor. Cut his hair on the floor, and we got through it, finished the haircut, smoothed it out, and by the end of it, he gave me a high five, he gave me a hug, he was calm, and we was all good to go.
Richie
just hear this like genuine human empathy from you and this like curiosity of like great this what do you need to be successful in this space and how can I provide it and if it means we're going to sit on the floor it means we're going to sit on the floor and that's okay.
Vernon
Exactly. How do we get to the yes? Okay, there's a no. All right, but how do we get to the yes? What do you mean? I get it. You're inviting us into doing something you really don't want to have done. We made that clear. What's the price? If it's negotiable, what is it? Okay, well, you want this? Well, it's gonna cost you 10 seconds of clippers. You know what saying? Okay, now, then when you start crying, I'm gonna take that away from you, like, all right, to get this back, 10 more seconds. And then there's, so I'm micromanaging and microintroducing the moments into it and doing a barring and, know, but that works for some kids. Some kids it doesn't.
Richie
Yeah, 10 more seconds.
Vernon
Like I said, I'm a better listener than I'm a talker, right? So I'm gonna listen to what's happening, I'm paying attention and how can I deliver, how can I get us all what we're looking for, which is results.
Richie
Vernon, the behavior analyst did me and I'm sure any of the behavior analysts who are listening to this are hearing like, there are some things that you're doing. You may not know it and you may not be aware of it, but like you've got a lot of like really good behavior analytics in your practices. And so good for you for paying attention and good for you for listening and learning along the way. And, I just appreciate what you're doing. Where can we find more about you? Where can we find more about your gifted events and about your barber shop and salon?
Vernon
Hmm. So the go-to site is the giftedevent.com. That's the place that you can go and where you can see where to donate at, to get a t-shirt at, where to book at, and all those things, right? My videos are on YouTube. You look up the gifted event official. We just hit 283,000 subscribers on there, which is wild. I remember I had like 500 subscribers, you know what I'm saying? 500. And man, and side note to that, one of my most proudest moments with YouTube was there was a kid that did his own TED Talk-
Richie
Congratulations.
Vernon
- they had a TED talk at his school, was an elementary school, it was a seventh grade maybe, Virginia High School. And he came out the positives of YouTube, and he said, he opened up by saying his first video that he experienced of YouTube was someone getting a bucket dropped on his head. He said, there's positive sides, and he listed off, I know what I was watching Because the person who had inboxed was saying that one of our students said that you inspired him and here's his speech. And so he's going through it, his speech, and he started listing off accounts that he follows, that he respects and that he looks up to. The first was MrBeast. The second one was, know, we got 300-something million subscribers. And there was another guy that was like, know, like, these are all white guys. But you know, another white guy who's like, had like 15 million, 20 million. And then third was me. At that point, one had like 13,000 subscribers. And I was like, am I tell you dude, I cried for three days.
Richie
Yeah.
Vernon
I cried for three days just seeing that it was like, like, wow, like, you know what saying? Like, I have moments that I get to come up for that require me, that pushes me up for air and to really like look up and see where, how far I've been swimming or how far I've come along and witness the impact that has been made by the work that I do. Even now, my eyes well up thinking about it.
Richie
I was going to say, hear the emotion in your voice. And I imagine that that's probably incredibly validating to say like I've shown up. I've allowed myself to show it up. I've allowed myself to make mistakes and have all the successes that I could possibly dream of and to have it be validated by a middle school or a junior high, junior high school. And nonetheless, right. That's got to feel empowering.
Vernon
Man, yeah, so that's the YouTube story. So that's that. And then on Instagram, the best, the number one, the work period, that page is me still sharing the work, but also it's still like my digital journal footprint that I keep it to. So I still may post some selfies, post some stuff about my old, about my books that I've written, or it's more of a personal thing, one of anything else. And then TikTok is also the get to the event official.
Richie
Great.
Vernon
where a lot of my videos are. So all the video platforms are there, but you could get a link in your bios, they're seeing anything I got going on.
Richie
We'll make sure that all that is in our show notes for people to find. but Vernon just appreciate you being here. Appreciate the work you're doing. Thanks for bringing a gift to the community that doesn't always have one. Um, I just, again, thinking about all the people that I've worked with in the past, I could have benefited from the work that you're doing now. I can't wait for them to hear about it. Thanks man. I appreciate it. Yeah.
Vernon
Thank you.
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