Autism Congress 2026

Dignity Cuts is an autism-inclusive barbering initiative developed by Mohamed Abridan, a professional barber from Libya and founder of Dignity Cuts. Inspired by his experience as the brother of an autistic person and his professional experience in barbering, the project was developed to address practical barriers that autistic individuals and their families may experience during haircuts.

Dignity Cuts combines two connected components: a structured theory-to-practice training curriculum for barbers and barbering students, and a mobile barbering service designed to provide flexible and sensory-aware haircutting experiences.

The training curriculum introduces practical knowledge about autism, individual differences, sensory considerations, communication, client choice and consent, environmental adaptations, barbering tools, haircutting techniques, and appropriate responses to anxiety or distress. The practical component focuses on applying these principles to real barbering situations, including adapting the environment, communication style, tools, pace, and haircutting approach according to individual needs.

The mobile barbering component is designed to create an opportunity to apply these principles in a flexible setting, illustrating how autism-inclusive practices can be integrated into everyday professional barbering.

The central principle of Dignity Cuts is to shift the question from "How can we make the client tolerate the haircut?" to "What can we change about the service to make the haircut more accessible, predictable, comfortable, and dignified?"

Dignity Cuts is an early-stage, practitioner-developed model designed to be adapted by individual barbers, barbering schools, and community organizations in different settings.

Mohamed Abridan is a professional barber based in Benghazi, Libya, with over a decade of barbering experience and more than two decades of lived experience as the family caregiver of an autistic sibling. He is the founder of the Dignity Cuts Initiative, an autism-inclusive barbering model, and has delivered free barber training workshops in Tripoli. His reflective essay “Dignity in the Chair” was published in Autism in Adulthood, and his work has been recognized by the Zero Project Conference and the NiB Awards.