Boy with autism donates hair to
charity
October
21, 2006
BY
BONNIE DELANEY
STAFF WRITER
Holding
onto his older brother's arm, Jared Brandt walked into Raio's
Salon and Spa on Route 35 in Ocean Township in the middle of a
rainstorm.
The 11-year-old's dark brown
hair fell over his face as his put his head down. He carefully
eyed the pink balloons decorating the salon's windows for Breast
Cancer Awareness Month and looked to his mother for reassurance.
"He's afraid of balloons,"
Carmen Brandt told salon owner Joanne Raio. Both women are
residents of Ocean Township.
The Brandt family — parents
Carmen and Robert and their sons, Jared and Corey, 14 — were at
the salon Oct. 11 so that Jared, who has autism, could get his
hair cut.
His grandmother, Crimilda
Villegas of Neptune and aunt, Bonnie Torres of Ocean Township
also came to lend their support.
Torres brought a bag of
Skittles candy with her — just in case Carmen Brandt needed to
use them to get Jared to sit still for the haircut.
Carmen Brandt said her son's
long, thick hair will be donated to Locks of Love, a nonprofit
organization based in Florida, which provides hairpieces for
disadvantaged children younger than 18 suffering from medical
hair loss.
"I thought the haircut would be
a way that my child could make a difference in another child's
life," she said.
Torres's
daughter, Alyssa, 7, donated 12 inches of her hair to Locks of
Love earlier this year, Torres said.
Raio asked all of Jared's
family, except for his mother, to stand out of his view so that
he would be able to relax and there would be less stimulation.
She asked his mother to brush
his hair first and put it into a ponytail, and then Raio
carefully and slowly cut through the thick locks of hair so that
she didn't alarm Jared.
"He doesn't like it when people
touch him," Carmen Brandt said.
Jared stopped speaking and
refused to make eye contact at the age of 15 months, his mother
said. Around the same time he began to have explosive tantrums
that would last from two to four hours, and he began hitting,
biting and scratching her, she added.
Jared, who takes medication,
attends Search Day Program in Ocean Township, Carmen Brandt
said.
He received his last haircut
about two years ago when his aunt cut it, she said.
"Before that it would take me
days to cut it. I had to wait until he went to sleep and then
snip it a little at a time," Carmen Brandt said.
Raio gently touched Jared and
used a soft brush to brush the hair off his face and neck. Jared
held onto the brush when Raio wasn't using it.
"He's letting me touch him.
That's good," Raio said. "This is the most special thing I've
ever done."
As Raio cut Jared's hair a
little at a time, shorter and shorter, his mother and
grandmother praised him for being so good.
"Oh, he looks so handsome,"
Villegas said.
"He looks like Prince Valiant,"
Carmen Brandt said at one point during his haircut.
"I'm wondering who this kid
sitting here is he's being so good," she said.
The haircut was finished after
Jared began to bite on his arm, which shows he is becoming
agitated, his mother said.
Jared gave Raio a hug and a
high-five when she was done. Raio said she would package the
10-inch ponytail she cut and send it to Locks of Love.
Bonnie Delaney: (732)
643-4218 or bdelaney@app.com
