For the (Puppy) Love of Hair!

Meet Shannon Bolt, natural animal trainer, hair art appreciator, and general life wizard. This past Friday, it was our pleasure at Manifesta to see her familiar, radiant face walk in the door, framed by the tousled tresses of one in need of a haircut! A person who knows exactly what she wants when it comes to her hair, she confidently separated and pinned a section of the front  into a tiny bun protruding from her forehead and proclaimed "I want to keep THIS, but as for everything else, cut it off! Cut it all off!"

How did Shannon shift from someone who, historically, didn't know what to do with her hair, to having strong direction and language for communicating about her hair? Her journey starts with a dog and a blowdryer. Once upon a time, Shannon, a lifelong animal lover who decided to pursue a career in animal welfare, set her mind to learning the fine art of dog grooming. One day in particular, she met a rather thick-coated canine, whose genetic predisposition was of the Coton de Tulear persuasion:

Cotons have a natural hair texture that resembles a crimping iron victim from the '80s. However, many human companions of Cotons prefer their furry friends' hair to be styled more like a round-brush blowout. Now I don't know about you, but even the most veteran of we hairstylists work up a pretty good sweat blowing out a human head of long thick hair. Yet, although upper body workouts of this nature are business as usual for us, boy does just the thought of blowing out a whole dog make my arms tired! In Shannon's words, "After blow drying ONE coton de tulear, I realized I could not justify spending so much time grooming a dog's hair if I spend so little on my own." Needless to say, Shannon has since realized that starting her own business as an in-home animal companion caregiver and "household consultant" is her true passion...and she's doing it oh so well! If you or someone you know could use a little support around feeding, walking, or managing the behavior of a furry loved one, check out her website: www.thedomesticanimal.com, and Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/DomesticAnimal.

In a parallel narrative from Shannon's life, over the last 5 years we have worked collaboratively to explore the nature of her hair and the styles that would most suit her in the area where her busy lifestyle and her (non)desire to spend time styling it overlap. The results have been a series of creative, playful looks that are both fashion-forward and low-maintenance. A big part of our relationship has been the cultivation of a language to describe her hair, so Shannon can explain clearly to me what she wants. She describes this journey as having "made friends" with her hair's "personality." And as all things hair often do, her journey with her hair has had a deeper impact on her life in general.  She explains:  " I still don't dedicate much time to my hair, but you've helped me understand hair in a way that I could see myself doing some dog grooming in the future. Just never a Coton de Tulear!!"



The moral of the story is if you are spending more time on your dog's hair than your own, odds are you may benefit from having a friendly stylist on your Life Team to help you craft your unique self-expression through hair!