A Winnipeg mother says a local hairdresser is her “angel” for the way he has helped her son.
In response to a conversation about exceptional customer service on 680 CJOB’s The Start Wednesday morning, Rose Pagtakhan wrote to the hosts to highlight the special relationship.
“My son Jonah has autism. He has always hated haircuts,” she wrote.
“He has high sensory needs. He dislikes the buzzing and the clippers, anyone touching his head, and the noise and commotion of a hair salon. He’s non-verbal, so he doesn’t understand what’s happening. Through the years it’s always been a struggle.”
That is, until Jonah met Buck Garinger at Osborne Village-area the Hive Hair Company. Garinger, she said, temporarily closes the shop whenever Jonah comes in for a haircut, to allow for the ideal surroundings to help with his sensory issues.
“We wait until Jonah gets more comfortable and Buck will cut his hair anywhere in the shop — on the floor, in the hairwashing area, anywhere where Jonah settles,” Pagtakhan wrote.
“It’s not easy, but Buck’s patience has slowly helped Jonah… this is pure kindness that means more to us than Buck could ever know.”
Garinger told The Start on Thursday he’s flattered by his customer’s kind words.
“I didn’t obviously do it for any kind of recognition,” he said. “I feel a little shy about it.”
Jonah has been a customer of Garinger’s for about two years, he said, after a recommendation from a mutual friend.
“I know (Rose) through a really good friend of mine… he was the one who referred her over to me, and just said I might be the guy to do a job like that.
“It’s certainly not my area of expertise… but anybody who comes to the door and needs a haircut, we certainly to try to accommodate. I’ve been in the business a long time… I’ve had a little bit of everything, but maybe Rose and Jonah would be a bit of a special case, I suppose.”
Cutting hair professionally, he said, can be an emotional experience, as many customers are getting a trim or a style for a big life event — from a wedding to a funeral to a graduation — and he gets to hear about it all.
“I guess you could say I’m a people person… you wouldn’t get into this profession if you weren’t interested in people and their stories.”
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