In North Texas, Trimmy’s is changing the game for haircuts catered to children who are neurodivergent.
Henry “Tribes” Amoloja is a barber for neurodivergent children in Dallas and Richardson. Unlike his other shop in Deep Ellum, Trimmy’s specializes in serving children with autism.
The shop is full of different fidget toys like needho’s and other sensory friendly toys on the walls, which are textured for children to be distracted and comforted with during their haircut.
“It's a lot of reassurance, it's a lot of just like having the right energy because a lot of these kids can breathe energy,” he said.
Amoloja also makes sure parents feel comfortable because of previous experiences they may have had at other barbers.
“Sometimes the parents come in and they're full of anxiety,” Amoloja said. “You also have to make sure the parents are comfortable because if the parents are anxious, then the child can feel that the parents are anxious and the child might get overwhelmed.”
Creating content on TikTok helped Amoloja reach families and share the experiences of his clients. Through social media, he’s created a wait list of over 230 people who want to bring their child to Trimmy’s.
Rochelle Kent brings two of her sons to Trimmy’s, which she discovered on TikTok. Isaiah and Ethan both have autism.
“Mr. Henry was able to not only do Ethan's haircut, my other son's, but convince Isaiah, let me get you a haircut too. And he did both of them in the same day,” Kent said. “I was like, okay, that was perfect because previously, I mean, we would be at the barber for maybe two hours trying to get just everybody's haircut done.”
Before a parent brings their child in, Amoloja does a preliminary phone consolation with them so the team can accommodate clients like Isaiah.
“Our first session, the kid has had a few visits to the hospital recently, so he came in very apprehensive, very sensitive,” Amoloja said. “So, we didn't even cut his hair. We just call it a parent session. Just pretty much just hung out with him for like 30-40 minutes, and we try a different day. We try not to force anything.”
The first time Amoloja did cut 10-year-old Isaiah’s hair, “he said, ‘You’re not going to cut my hair,’” Amoloja said.
But, said Isaiah, “it was fine. It was fine.”
Now, Isaiah loves going to get his haircut with Amoloja, knowing he fully trust him and be able to play with his stuffed animal Pikachu and other toys.
Amoloja started cutting hair while he was in college in Duluth, Minnesota, after he wasn’t able to find a barber who could cut his hair because of a lack of diversity at his school. He didn’t feel comfortable with letting barbers in the city cut his hair.
“I pretty much just went to Walmart, picked up some clippers, started cutting my own hair, and that's how it began,” Amoloja said.
When Amoloja’s friends had a hard time finding a barber, he began cutting their hair too. This led to cutting hair for players on the football and basketball team. Once he completed school, he enrolled in a barber school.
He got into sensory friendly haircuts after a “light bulb moment” when he bought his wife a weighted cape and decided to incorporate it into his work.
“I brought it to a local seamstress who then created the shape of a traditional hair cutting cape out of the weighted blankets and I tried it on my clients,” Amoloja said. “They hated it.”
He went back to the drawing board to see how he could make this cape work.
“That's how we came up with the design of having the weights go into a zippered pouch on the interior of the cape,” Amoloja said. “The cape kind of cover the weights, so the weights don't come in contact with the clients.”
Creating the cape helped Amoloja realize the need for safe spaces for children who struggle with haircuts.
“I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself you're gonna be the one to fill that void, and you're going to be the one to change the industry,” Amoloja said.
"I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself you're gonna be the one to fill that void, and you're going to be the one to change the industry."
He took a sensory safe solution course, which provided him with a certification to provide autism-affirming services. He also reached out to other sensory friendly barbers and spoke to moms of children with autism to learn more.
They inspired the sensory rooms at Trimmy’s, like the Apollo room — a low-stimulation, darker room that has resources like a swing seat and a tent for kids to feel calmer during the cut.
“Most importantly, I learned by doing,” Amoloja said. “Once I took my first few clients and I realized that I wasn't as flustered or overwhelmed as I thought I would be, especially not having any experience doing this or not even having any personal connection with anyone who’s on the spectrum, it went really well.”
Besides providing haircuts, Amoloja helps his community with his philanthropy. Back in 2021, Amoloja donated over 120 clippers to barbers in his hometown in Nigeria. He encouraged the barbers he knew in the U.S. to donate their extra clippers and personally delivered them to the barbers in Nigeria.
He’s also making sure to give back to the parents who bring their children to his shop. Amoloja started a GoFundMe Me after many people reached out wanting to help after watching his content on TikTok.
“The support we've gotten has been incredible, so much so that ... every sensory haircut we're doing in 2026 is completely free and already paid for,” Amoloja said.
He hopes more barbers will begin offering sensory friendly cuts.
“It's extremely important for our industry to have a paradigm shift and start creating safe spaces for these, not just kids, but individuals because you shouldn't have to feel like you have to dread haircut days,” Amoloja said.
Avery Escamilla-Wendell is KERA’s news intern. Got a tip? Email Avery at aescamillawendell@kera.org. You can follow heron Instagram @by_avery_escamilla.
