The Sensory Safe Solution

The Mission and Motivation Behind The Sensory Safe Solution
Kate Owens-Heins Founder/CEO
About Us
SINCE 2018

We, at The Sensory Safe Solution, are committed to making impactful industry changes to better serve the autism community and those with sensory differences by educating and certifying industry professionals through our elevated curriculum platform. The knowledge and experience used in creating our curriculum is research-based principles designed by educators, behavior specialists, and stylists trialing this practice for over 5 years.

Not only are we striving to help individuals with disabilities receive a haircut/salon service with dignity, but we also plan to educate industry professionals, Globally, on our trademarked methodology. Our goal is to provide the knowledge and a curriculum for all industry professionals with this mutually benefiting certification and business practice.

As of now, there is no education for industry professionals on how to serve this very important community’s needs appropriately. We have created it and are excited to share it with you! After years of honing our skills, we need your help to spread our vision across the United States and the world. We are thinking big!

“The Sensory Safe Solution envisions a world where individuals of all abilities can enjoy haircuts with comfort and confidence, fostering self-expression and empowerment while promoting acceptance and understanding in the community. Everyone knows someone touched by autism. Let’s join together to make this part of their life a little easier”, says Andrew Tuttle, Board member.

If you didn’t know, receiving haircuts or salon services is a HARD process, typically resulting in a traumatic experience for both parties. The Sensory Safe Solution is here to change all of that, and with your help, change the industry!
Our Mission
To create a Sensory-Safe Salon environment for anyone and everyone, especially guests with special needs and sensory processing sensitivities. We strive to provide individuals with dignity while also producing a salon experience that leads to a life-long benefit of inclusion. Through our elevated educational platform, we are providing communities with sensory safe salons, training well-prepared cosmetologists with a heart, and constantly improving the salon experience to be more inclusive and diverse. It is our belief that it doesn’t take an expert to be kind.

Our Vision
We envision a world where individuals of all abilities can enjoy haircuts with comfort and confidence, fostering self-expression and empowerment while promoting acceptance and understanding in the community.
The Sensory Safe Solution Certified Experience
A Sensory Safe Provider serves the individual AND the family. Parent(s) or guardians often feel discouraged and disconnected from the community when it comes to a haircut.

Our goal is to provide an all-inclusive experience for the individual getting the haircut and their loved ones. The Sensory Safe Solution can show you how!

“We first visited Kate when my son was 5, back in 2018. As the mother of a child with sensory processing disorder and suspected autism I was desperately trying to accomplish simple things with my son, haircuts being one of them.

Before Kate it took 3-4 people to give my sweet boy a simple haircut. It was exhausting for everyone involved. Sweat, tears, screaming, kicking, and a whole ton of guilt having to restrain my own child and torture him were all a part of a haircut. I had followed Kate on social media because her oldest son graduated from the school where I teach and I happened to come across a post she had shared from her salon advertising sensory cuts. A wave of relief washed over me in that instant and I called for an appointment.

She scheduled us early on a Saturday before any other clients would arrive. My little guy hid behind me as we went in but he very quickly became comfortable with the salon. Kate asked me what his favorite song was and she immediately put it on, my son beamed with excitement. At that moment, I had hope that everything was going to be okay. Kate made everything a game and before you knew it, my son was laughing hysterically and getting his haircut. His laughter brought tears to my eyes. We left that day with much more than a great haircut and a cupcake.

Kate trains many of the new stylists who walk through her salon door to do these sensory cuts. My son has had his hair cut by many of them through the years. Since we started going to Kate’s, a sensory room was put together catering to kids with needs similar to those of my child and even with more severe sensitivities. She has truly been a blessing to our family.

With every haircut came a small victory and now, five years later, my 10-year-old can sit in a chair and get a haircut just like most boys his age, no more tears, no more kicking, and no more screaming.
I would recommend Kate and her team to anyone with a child who is on the autism spectrum or has sensory disorders. She changes lives!”

-Gina Fishtorn

“How long does an average haircut take for a child with special needs or on the spectrum? Ours was two hours.

Two hours of screaming, running around, and fighting the stylist to not touch them. Finding someone who was willing to see him or even trained to work a child on the spectrum felt impossible.

Thank GOD we found Kate’s Kuts and The Sensory Safe Salon. Kate and her team are passionate about their clients, especially the little ones. She takes her time to educate herself about the client and helps to maintain a fun and interactive environment for each child. In the five years we’ve been seeing Kate we can effectively say that a haircut now takes about 20 minutes, but the experience for our son is everlasting.

Now he looks forward to his hair cuts, spraying Kate with a water bottle, and walking out with a great style and the occasional lollipop. Thank you Kate and The Sensory Safe Salon for giving him a great experience!”

– Lisa and Frank Sulen

“The Sensory Safe Salon experience is more than a “haircut”. The staff involved with this organization treat clients like family. They provide children or adults who experience sensitivity to the touch, sounds, smell of a salon when getting their haircut, a feeling of comfort, safety and welcomeness.

The staff are all trained to handle whatever is thrown at them and are calm, laid back and ready to be as flexible as needed to ensure the overall encounter is a positive one. This is the place where families can feel at ease and not judged.

There’s no question, as a parent advocate for children with special needs, I will absolutely recommend this salon to all of my clients and friends.”

-Jamie Kirschner, M.Ed. Founder, Education Advocates of America