The haircut can wait!

This weekend I was meant to be taking C for his haircut, sounds simple, but it is one of those trips out that I dread the most. From since I can remember, getting his haircut has left him, and us, traumatised. It is a sensory issue that is related to his autism..unlike most of us, he says it "hurts" and " feels horrible" and " why can't you just let it grow, I don't mind"
Until the age of about 10, we used to have to cut it at home, one of us holding him while the other one cut..but as he got older this became more difficult and after a lot of discussion and some bribery , we made his first visit to a hairdresser's. The visit went well , I heaved a sigh of relief and thought "sorted". The next few years went well, going back to the same shop and the same person and even though he still complained about going , there were no meltdowns or tears...till one day , the shop was closed and I tried to get him into another one. " the shop is too red", "the person looks weird", "the shop smells funny" and that day we ended up back home , hair still intact.
We have found another shop that he will tolerate but the days of just making an appointment and going are gone...he will argue constantly about what day we should go, give reasons why that day is a bad day etc etc and by the time we get there and back we are both mentally drained.
Well yesterday was meant to be one of those days and I am now sitting feeling guilty for chickening out. We had already had a stressful week, as he was at the opticians for his yearly eye test and had to choose some new glasses...you guessed it, not straightforward. He is fine with the test but is terrible at choosing ( not just glasses, he takes a very long time to choose between anything). After looking at all the frames he could have, he finally made his mind up after about 45 mins ...the frames were "too brown", "too black", "too thin", "too wide", "too weird" etc etc.
So now I have the hairdressers to look forward to next week...and now wish we had gone yesterday!