Dublin's Gent’s Den introduces Sensory Barber Room

The Gent’s Den Barbershop in Inchicore in Dublin 8 has opened a Sensory Barber Room, which caters for young boys with autism and neurodivergent conditions.

Co-owned by Polish sisters Maggie Radecka and Monika Gramza, The Gent’s Den has been in operation for four years.

“We aim to help those children who struggle with haircuts, and suffer from sensory difficulties related to visiting the barbers,” said Radecka. “We want to give them a nice experience.”

The idea for the Sensory Barber Room came about after Radecka noticed the number of children who were struggling when their parents brought them in for a haircut.

“We had kids coming from local schools and crèches, with many of them afraid of getting a haircut,” she said. “They were  struggling to overcome their fears and their poor parents were stressing out about every trip to the barbers. That wasn’t what we wanted for our little customers. This is when we decided we needed to educate ourselves and do something to help children and parents enjoy their visit to our shop.”

After starting an autism awareness diploma course, Radecka came up with the plan to build the Sensory Barber Room, which features ocean-themed decor, lava lamps and autism-friendly toys.

“We welcome the kids into the room, play with them and, gradually, taking one step at the time, check if they are OK with us getting closer, and touching their hair.”

Staff have a strict policy of not forcing haircuts on the kids against their will, or holding them down.

“Instead we let them lead us by telling or showing us the way they want the service to proceed,” said Radecka. “We have also introduced our Desensitisation Programme, which helps children with deep struggles to get to the point where a haircut is actually possible to do, and no longer a scary experience.”

The Sensory Barber Room is getting an “amazing response”, she added, and there are further projects planned to raise awareness of autism and neurodivergent conditions.