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| Kingsley before... |
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Yesterday, my Shih Tzu Kingsley went to the groomers. One of the facts of life about having certain breeds is the standing date with the groomer, who will take in your pup looking like a Victorian street urchin and return him ready for the Westminster Kennel Club show.
Kingsley needs this service more often than Rocky, as the former seems determined to shed (no pun intended) the Shih Tzu's history of pampered imperial pet for something more akin to one of Jack London's wilderness dogs. Kingsley comes back from foraging around my three acres with a staggering amount of twigs, leaves, and most damnably, burrs embedded in his coat. This wouldn't be TOO awful if he, like Rocky, would sit obediently while I pick out everything (usually while cuddling on the sofa.) No, burr removal is an activity up with which Kingsley will not put!
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| ...and after. |
Therefore, he needs more frequent grooming, and has a different result than his more biddable pal. Rocky runs out shiny and fluffed, neatly trimmed and very photogenic. Kingsley comes out shaved, like fresh meat entering maximum security. (I could also use the metaphor of a new recruit at boot camp, but Kingsley's personality is much more "commit crimes" than "serve country."
All this has me thinking about my own grooming, i.e., visiting the salon. Dear readers, will you be shocked when I tell you I can't recall the last time I went? My regular gal left the state during Covid, and I just started to... let it grow. I've trimmed off the ends myself a few times, but since I've gone with my natural color and I wear it up in a bun or a twist, I don't see the need. I admit, I do miss the luxury of leaning back and having someone else shampoo my hair, and I occasionally look at others' shiny, keratin-treated locks, but, eh. Not enough to fine someone new.
How often do you go to the groomers?
Too bad hair salons don't give us theme bandanas.
I can't recall the last time I visited the hair salon . . . trimming the ends of my hair has never been an issue for me . . . I don't want my hair short, so we stay away from those lovely ladies with scissors and my hair just keeps growing . . . .
ReplyDeleteOnce you commit to putting it up, you can go as long as it will grow!
DeleteHA, when my hairdresser in Toronto moved to Vancouver over 14 years ago, I STOPPED going to get groomed. So I have been cutting & dyeing my own hair.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea you dyed your hair, Grace!
DeleteSame here. I had no idea you colored your hair either, Grace!
DeleteI started dyeing my hair in 2013 when I got a white streak at the back. I looked like a skunk!
DeleteNow it's about 95% white hair, so I dye it at home every 6 weeks. Store-bought natural hair dye called Herbaatint that costs $16 for 2 applications.
That's a real bargain, Grace. I stopped coloring my hair back in my 40siin part because, even buying the supplies at a beauty supply shop and doing it at home, it had become so expensive.
DeleteWell, these days I am pretty frugal about spending money on any cosmetic self-care. And most women would use the full bottle of Herbatint for 1 application. I am just doing the roots and have much less hair than when I was younger, thanks to menopausal thinning.
DeleteI love my hairdresser to pieces. He cuts my hair about once every 3 or 4 months. Sometimes I want it short so he'll give it layers. Sometimes, we let it grow out shoulder length.
ReplyDeleteIn my early 20's, my hair was very long, down to my tush. In my early thirties it was a bit past my shoulders and Irwin liked it long. I permed it for a couple of years in the 1980's. I began to dye it in my early early 60's. Then, the pandemic came and I found that my hair has an interesting bit of silver so I left it.
Also, I do my own nails and buff rather than polish. I don't entirely trust nail salons and I need my hands and feet.
I do my own nails as well, Judy, because I love it, and I love changing colors weekly. It's my 'while watching TV' habit.
DeleteBecause my hair is ear-length, I walk downtown to the salon every six or seven weeks and get a trim. I do love the shampoo part.
ReplyDeleteSo funny about how different your dogs are, Julia! Like people, I guess... Our short-hair Martin grooms himself and doesn't go outside, so he's easy. Long-haired Norwegian forest cat Preston used to get terrific dreadlocks in the summer and didn't like having them pulled out.
And it's the same hair, Edith! It reminds me a bit of my daughters - one would sit and let me comb and brush and comb and brush, while the other would screech as if she were being tortured. You can guess which had long hair and which got the chop...
DeleteI'm one of the screechers, Julia, and yes, always had short hair as a girl. I say I have sensitive hair roots!
DeleteI do get my haircut every 6-8 weeks. I have natural waves and layers. I don’t dye it. I don’t have them shampoo it because of Ankylosing Spondylitis in my neck. Going today as a matter of fact. The first person I went to after I moved here did a HORRIBLE job. I had to grow out all the crappy layering. So far this second person is doing fairly well although she got it a little shorter than I wanted last time. Before I moved I went to the same lady for over 30 years. Growing up my mother always cut our hair because she was a cosmetologist.
ReplyDeleteI have never had a mani or a pedi in a salon.
That's the thing, Brenda - starting with a new stylist can be SO traumatic! My mom also had the same woman do her hair for 35 years. Mom hated the way Debbie would blow dry it, but she said she could never find a better colorist, so she'd go home and re-wash and style after her appointments!
DeleteI’ve done that many times. A good colorist or someone who gives you a good cut is worth the embarrassment of how you look leaving the salon. Just go home and redo it! — Pat S
DeleteFunny Julia! Lottie and I both go about every 6 weeks. I get an inch cut off and she gets the works. Lottie says she would like to meet your furry friends:).
ReplyDeleteps we don't go to the same lady:)
DeleteLOL, Lucy!
DeleteBut wouldn’t that be convenient?
DeleteThis is an untapped business opportunity - imagine if you could get a spa treatment while your dog got bathed and clipped!
DeleteMy standard poodles and I go every eight weeks. They get haircuts at the groomer, and I get a trim at the salon.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a woman and her dog being on the same schedule, Margaret.
DeleteI get trimmed and shaped every 6-8 weeks. Fortunately no burrs to remove. Cats are so much easier - they basically take care of their own grooming, though they do leave it to us to clean up the hairballs they yarg up.
ReplyDeleteBut do you get the cute bandana, Hallie? :-)
DeleteSince my hair is short, I trim it myself.
ReplyDeleteDru Ann, I know a woman with a stunning short cut who does it herself with clippers!
DeleteThat Kingsley! He sounds like a charming little rogue.
ReplyDeleteMy hairdresser is Polish, and came to the US when she was 18, nearly no English. Her uncle lived here, so she came to this area to live. I asked someone whose hair I admired where she got it cut, and Alicja has been making mine look nice now for 30 years.
I go every 6-8 weeks, and now that she is "retired" to 3 days a week she schedules the whole year in advance. Which doesn't always work with my schedule. The other day I asked if we could move my appointment next week out a couple weeks, since we are going to Europe next month. And now my next appointment after that is more than two months out, because she is going to Mexico on vacation in November. I guess I'll adapt. I might look a bit like Kingsley by Thanksgiving.
Hands: rarely, because of gardening. Maybe around the holidays. Feet: once or twice in the summer. My daughter treated me to a pedicure when we visited them in Michigan a few weeks ago.
Yay for gardening hands! Short stubby nails that are grimy after handling soil, that's my jam.
DeleteProbably the last time I painted my nails was in my early 20s.
And I know that I am an anomaly: I have never had a pedicure. I had a manicure once about 25 years ago in Montreal.
I have short gardening nails, too. Occasionally I apply a coat of Nail Envy, which is clear and strengthens them.
DeleteI can't stand having my feet touched - never could, so I have a hard time even going to get my old-people-toe nail cuts. She uses scissors, but no buffing my feet. Gives me the willies just thinking about it. As for the gardening finger nails, well dirt black and scraggy is a lovely look if you ask me.
DeleteIt's a waste of money to get a manicure when I am just going straight out to the garden to ruin it. Pedicures are nice, though, Grace, especially these days. There is usually a lovely foot and lower leg massage along with it. And I can no longer see my toes to paint them! I need really strong light, and then my hands shake. Phooey, just forget it.
DeleteI also have never dyed my hair. I can't bear to spend that much time or money, and I am way too lazy to maintain it!
When I was young, I did home manicures religiously. Having it done professionally was a treat. I had dozens of colors of nail polish. Because I type a lot, the edges were always chipped. My nails were always very strong, too. After a fresh manicure, people would think they were acrylics.
DeleteNow, I don't have time. Natural and I keep them shorter, too. Less stress when they break. I do like the occasional pedicure if only for the massage.
Karen, young me was also obsessed about dying her hair and keeping away the grays. But I got tired of spending the money at the salon and spending two hours there every six weeks. I decided to try growing it out. Then Covid happened and I decided, "This is me, now. A healthy mix of salt and pepper."
It's been interesting to see all the friends who stopped dyeing their hair, and how it does or does not change their appearance.
DeleteThe other day a high school friend complimented my hair, and I said how lucky I felt about the color it was turning into. She said it looked like a professional dye job (if anyone was to pay to get their hair silver-ish). I said I guessed God qualifies as a professional!
Liz, I envy people like you who can do their nails so well. My sister also always has beautifully painted nails.
Regarding pedicures, I can't reach my toes adequately even if I could see them! I do go a couple of times in the summer, and I bring my bottle of Nail Envy because I find colored polishes harm the nail.
DeleteI don't have gardening nails (I'm grossly neglecting my outdoor duties this summer) but, like Liz, my typing means I keep them fairly short. I still love to color them, though, and I alternate Sally Hansen Hard as Nails and a ceramide conditioner to hopefully strengthen them.
DeleteEach dog has its unique personality. The two Goldens I've had couldn't have been more different. I never took either to the groomers, but I did take Marley (my second, sweet girl) to Beauty for the Beast, where they had a DIY area, big tubs and all the equipment to wash your own dog. Way better than trying to get a 70-lb, anxious dog into the bathtub and then clogging up the pipes with her hair!
ReplyDeleteOne time she helped me out between visits to the dogwash by rolling in something other than the usual dead animal or poo; something that smelled like shaving cream. She smelled very sweet for weeks.
I go see the wonderful Lucie every 6 weeks for a trim. My hair is almost long enough for a ponytail now. Yay.
I didn't take any of my big boys to the groomer, either, Gillian, but when we had Jake, a Newfoundland/hairball mix, I definitely would have patronized those DIY washing stations if they'd had them back in the 90s!
DeleteNewfoundland/hairball mix! Love it!
DeleteOh Julia, Kingsley looks adorable in both photos! I go to the salon about every six weeks. (Going this morning in fact. I find it very relaxing. I also have manicures and, in the summer, pedicures. I am a disaster with scissors near my hair and nail polish.
ReplyDeleteHe is adorable, Suzette, and much like naughty little kids, it keeps me from giving him away to the traveling circus when he tries my patience!
DeleteSince I started menopause my hair seems to take longer to grow. I went to a hair salon for a haircut about 10 months ago and it was chin length. Now it is barely shoulder length. Getting shampooed is a bonus. My hair always looks great after a visit to the salon.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how your dogs have different personalities. Last night I was reading the new country club mystery by Julie Mulhern. The family has two dogs - an Airedale dog and a different breed that starts with W.
Maye a Wheaton terrier, Diane? I believe they and Airedales fall into the 'hypoallergenic' class of dogs, so it would make sense for a family with an allergy issue. Could wind up being a future clue!
DeleteWas Kingsley named after the actor?
ReplyDeleteAnon, he's a rescue and arrived with that name, but my oldest daughter calls him "Sir Ben."
DeleteFor many years going to the salon was not something I enjoyed. I always felt intimidated and could not be honest. No matter what they did to my hair I always told them 'it looks wonderful' and then never went back. But several years ago I decided I wanted my hair short, very short. Think Ann Cleeves or Jamie Leigh Curtis. It was never quite short enough to suit me. Until last year, in December, finally it was way too short because my head was constantly cold. So now I am growing it out a bit, but it requires way too much fussing. I'll soon be at the point where I tell her to cut it all off. I know it will always look good and I do own plenty of warm hats and hoodies, that I'll even wear inside.
ReplyDeleteJudi, my once-thick hair has gotten very thin since menopause, and now I find myself sometimes wearing hats and hoods inside in the winter, too!
DeleteHair is the one and only part of me where I guess I'm high maintenance. I wear a pixie cut (thnk Jamie Lee Curtis) and it requires precision to look good. So I go religiously every six weeks. If I have to vary from that schedule, I will slip to five weeks rather than seven. (I do that occasionally if I am timing out in advance for some big event, like before our trip to Japan.) I have gone to the same stylist for the last 30 years, and he knows the quirks of my hair perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI occasionally indulge in a pedicure -- honestly, less than once a year since covid. Manicures make me uncomfortable so I just keep the nails trimmed very short and natural.
Paula B here: Hi Susan, you give me much courage. In two days I’m going to my salon of many years and going from shoulder length to a pixie. I think. If I don’t chicken out. I’m tired of “fixing” this long stuff every day with clips and pins and hair bands. always in my eyes. Anyway, here goes. Forward McDuff. As for my black and white Pomeranian, she is an old girl like me. goes to the groomer every 7 or so weeks. He takes such good care of her. Now, because of her age and throat issue, it takes two - one to hold her and him to groom her. Can’t say she likes it. He says she just stares out the window and pretends she’s on a beach somewhere watching the Gulls.
DeleteSusan, I love your hair in your picture, so I think you found something that really suits you! Paula, fingers crossed you'll like your pixie as well.
DeleteMy previous Shih Tzu, Louis, got so anxious about being groomed we had to find a place that only took one dog at a time. The Fairy Dogmother in Portland, ME - if you're around there, I can highly recommend her. She always worked with an assistant and practiced 'gentle grooming.' Like your Pom, I don't think he ever LIKED it, but it was easy for him to endure.
"up with which Kingsley will not put! " Love this!!
ReplyDeleteKingsley seems like the type to insist on proper prepositional order, Anon. :-)
DeleteSounds like we have all figured out our individual processes! So much fun to read this .. I am pretty good about getting my hair trimmed regularly… It makes such a difference.
ReplyDeleteI can see that, Hank - your style is one that requires real precision, kind of like Susan's Jamie Lee Curtis cut.
DeleteI love getting my hair done. If my natural color was a gorgeous gray like yours, Julia, I'd let it go in a heartbeat, but my hairdresser told me years ago that my youthful red hair wasn't going gray, it was just going to get darker and darker. She was right. My skin, on the other hand, has gone more fair, so if I let my dark hair grow out, I'd look like a failed attempt at Goth. Besides, getting my highlights touched up gives me joy. And don't we all deserve joy wherever we can find it these days.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, Annette! And Ross's natural red was the same way - copper penny when he was a kid, and it got darker and darker as he aged.
DeleteI go to my hairdresser every 5-6 weeks for a shampoo and cut.
ReplyDeleteDianne Mahoney
That's the classic way, Dianne!
DeleteAlf is a Wheaton terrier/lab cross. He is really cute, and nice (he only bites people who don’t live in our house, and especially if they talk baby-talk to him – good!). He needs a hair-cut 3 times a year – he gets 2. At $100 a cut, we don’t like him that much! He doesn’t seem to get big mats, but more just twisty bits that tighten on the skin. The sighting of a pair of scissors in our hands is terror – not happening. Hence, he gets a haircut in May (after the winter) and the last of November (for the winter). He loves the groomer – just like he loves the vet. They both are magic.
ReplyDeleteWhen he comes back, he jumps out of the van, has a pee, drags his leash around for a bit (too happy to be home to let us take it off), and then gazes around. Several of the cats will surround the vehicle to welcome us back – we were gone for 2 hrs! Oops – what is this? Poof-up, huge-now, scare it! S’not my dog!!!!!!! Poor little Prue (the deaf one) comes toward the car and OH MY GAWD, WHAT!!!!!!! (she lost several years off her life…) It was three weeks until she could look at him. She would not come in the house if she saw him. She slept on the rolly rack rather than be in the living room. She slept on my bed for protection until she discovered that Alf slept on the floor at the bottom.
As for my hair – every 2 months although it needs it every 5 weeks. Samson, who I live with cries like a baby when he gets a haircut. It is dragged down over his face (right now), and he wears a cap all the time to keep it out of his eyes, but will he get a haircut – no. Hair-phobia or cheap – I don’t know. I now make the appointment, and tell him as we walk by the salon at Walmart, that I will go first, you can come in second, otherwise he has a 2-year old tantrum at home and won’t get in the car. I pay for both, so he doesn’t have that painful part. I also tell her to shear him! I start at mine with the scissors in the morning after about 3 weeks – “did you cut your hair”, she says. Well, what do you think!
Margo our previous Wheaton had the same personality as yours! He was the absolute sweetest if you were “in the club”, but he would literally bite (nip?) people he didn’t like (or know) in the butt! I but he loved little kids, small animals, and an occasional larger dog. We loved him so much, but he was a lot more work than our other, friendlier dogs… the most famous Murphy story was when my sister-in-law brought a new boyfriend to our house to introduce him to us. To be honest, we didn’t like the guy for various reasons. Murphy sat by my side the entire evening and when they walked out the door, Murphy casually waked to the door as the guy was closing it, and he nipped him on the butt! Thankfully the guy laughed it off. Thankfully they didn’t last as a couple. That dog really was a handful though. Thankfully he gave as much love as he did bad behavior!
DeleteStacia, my bestie had a dog like that. When our kids were young, we went on a two-family camping trip. We were playing some kind of tossing game when Sheba nipped my husband on the butt. He's my ex for a reason. Thirty years later, Jennifer (she knew him well) and I still giggle about that incident.
DeleteDogs always know the good guys from the bad guys!
DeleteJulia your house and land in Maine sounds wonderful. How big is your house and when was it built?
ReplyDeleteIt's a classic New England big house, little house, back house, barn, Anon, and was built around 1820 with add-ons in the 1860s or 70s. The kitchen was fitted out in the 1930s. It's a little under 3,000 square feet and sits on a little under 3 acres. So it can be a lot to manage!
DeleteMy little dog only needs a grooming appointment every 6 months or so, which is nice because my 2 previous dogs went every 2-3 months. I love indulging in having my hair done at a stylist. It’s the only personal grooming appointment I go to (no manis as I play an instrument and garden so I need to keep my nails short. I take care of my own feet too! It felt weird having someone give me a pedi years ago…). But having my hair done professionally is something I have loved doing since high school. I keep it simple and am working with my natural gray that is slowly taking over. I tried coloring my hair myself years ago but it never came out the way I wanted it to. I wish I wasn’t so attached to my hair though. I guess I am just vain about it to be honest. Not my best quality I’m sure! I often admire people who join monasteries and shave their heads. I am not sure I am brave enough to do that (and I also have a rather unusually shaped head). I’ll be self analyzing this topic all day today!
ReplyDeleteStacia, there's nothing wrong with being a little vain about your hair! We all have qualities and attributes we're pleased with; the older you get, the more you should cherish them!
DeleteI went earlier this month. Before that, I think I'd gone in February or March. I also let the silver grow in, kind of a mix of dark and silver; how "sparkly" I am depends on the light. I do usually like some long layers in the front, but she didn't do it this time for whatever reason. Basically, I let it grow until it seems shaggy then go for a cut.
ReplyDeleteKoda goes to the groomer more frequently than I do. Every other month (he's a wash-and-wear dog - come to think of it, I might be in that category myself).
Koda doesn't need a haircut, though, does he? Just washing up?
DeleteYes, just a wash and a nail trim. And ear cleaning.
DeleteNo pets to have groomed. I have my hair cut every 5 to 6 weeks by the same person. I look for and have found “good cutters” rather than stylists. Washed, cut, blown dry and out the door in 1/2 an hour, 40 minutes if Sue and I chat a bit. Don’t like my head fussed over. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like my mother's long-time cutter, who was good with scissors and brilliant as a colorist. My mom hated the way the woman would style her hair, though - when she got home she'd wash and re-do it to her liking!
DeleteLike Elisabeth, I have no pets th need grooming. I used to have my hair trimmed every 6 weeks or so by the same stylist for years. The pandemic messed that up. He was getting close to retirement and then cancelled our last appointment due to contracting Covid. Now I go to a chain store get my thinning strings of flat brown, slowly adding grey, hair cut. In fact, I'm over due for a cut. Maybe I'll popped in this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteGlad we could help remind you to add it to your schedule, Deana!
DeleteHave never taken dogs to the groomers as we have always had short-coated ones.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, I would get my hair cut the 4 times a years we visited Grams, who was a cosmetologist. Bowl cuts that I hated.
When my sister and I hit about 6th grade we grew our hair long - no layers, no perms that were fashionable at the time, just long. So we trimmed each other’s ends. College-roommate took over that task.
A few years into working I finally went to a stylist who did a male co-worker’s hair. I stayed with her for 25 years, following her around to different salons and finally to her home. I decided I was too old to kneel beside the tub while she washed my hair.
I’ve gone to a new stylist a few times, mainly to clean up my hair after I’ve cut it off to donate. I’m now doing all of my own trimming - I wear it up 90% of the time, so it doesn’t really matter. And since I read an article today about how using heat on your hair combined with hair products produces nanoparticles that get in your lungs to the level similar to standing next to a freeway? I think I will continue to keep my hair care routine simple.
But in the days when I had a fancy hairstyle to go with my executive, suited work life? I often thought if I had unlimited money, I would pay my stylist to do my hair every day. My favorite part was the initial blow-dry — sitting there like Cousin It, no one asking me any questions, nice and warm. Mmmm.
I had no idea about the nanoparticles, Lisa, and it makes me glad I always let my hair air-dry now! But yes, I loved getting a blowdry in the salon - such a pleasing sensory experience, plus that first look at the finished 'do, knowing it would never be quite that perfect again!
DeleteSix weeks for me, and it's very expensive. Years ago I got my hair cut at a Toni and Guy salon in London and I loved it so much that I've searched out T&G trained hairdressers ever since. I don't know what it is they do but it makes a big difference for me. I stopped going for a year during the pandemic and then had to find a new person--very nerve wracking! But she's great. Also I let my color grow out during the pandemic and so am at least saving money on that! I also get nails done once a month and have to have fingernails done with dip powder because I have a chronically splitting right thumbnail. During lockdown I tried everything! Dips, gels, you name it, but the home ones never worked and Rick ended up putting fiberglass layers on it, like guitar players use to make their nails harder. It worked but it was really ugly!
ReplyDeleteAs for the super-shedder dog, we bathe her ourselves. We have a dog-washing station on our deck, then we dry her with a big shop vac. Afterwards out entire yard will be covered with blond German shepherd hair--nice for the birds when she gets her first bath of the spring!
I love the idea of the dog washing station at home, Debs!
DeleteWhen I was going to school in London, I would get my hair cut at the Vidal Sasson school. I don't think I've ever had better haircuts in my life.
My hair grows so slowly - it's 3 months in between trims. As for my schnauzer Otto - every six weeks or he goes to disgusting. LOL!
ReplyDeleteI can imagine, Jenn - those schnauzer moustaches!
DeleteI’m at about 4-6 weeks between cuts. During lockdown I went something like 12 weeks which was really pushing it, but then again, we all looked unkempt. And we weren’t out socializing so what did it matter, right? I stopped highlighting my hair in Fall of ‘19 so I had a head start on the people who went gray during Covid. (Whenever I complain about my hair, my folliclely-challenged husband always says, “It’s just hair. It’ll grow back. Some of us aren’t so lucky!”)
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I now go for pedicures together. He used to make a big production of cutting his own toenails and this is just so much easier. We go every two months.
As for dog grooming, we washed our previous dogs in the backyard. Our most recent dog we started taking to the groomer. He had some kind of bad experience in his life before us where he would not go into a groomer’s willingly. I dtarted making my husband take him in because, sweet as he could be (talking about the dog here), he was 80 pounds of “no” when he didn’t want to go somewhere. He hated it but the shedding was under control for awhile afterwards. — Pat S
Pat, there are some things I could probably do myself, but don't want to enough that I'm willing to pay for someone else to do it. One of those things is washing my dogs!
Delete