Cat & Dog Hair Handbags

There is a lot of unwanted dog and cat hair in the world from brushing or grooming longer haired animals. Much of the discarded hair ends up in landfills. Danelle German, an animal groomer in Simpsonville, South Carolina, has come up with an innovative way to deal with the unwanted animal companion hair – she makes attractive handbags using the waste from her grooming business – the Catty Shack. We caught up with Danelle to ask her a few questions about her hirsute handbags.

Please tell us a bit about the Catty Shack Creations?

We only make handbags at Catty Shack Creations. We have all sorts of requests for other items but have decided to make the handbags our signature item, at least for the time being.

How is the animal hair extracted?

The hair fibers are collected in two different ways. The quickest way is to have your pet groomed and clipped or shaved and save all of the hair. The other method requires saving whatever hair you collect during a normal brushing. Obviously some pets are going to produce more loose hair during a brush-out than others do. You won't get all that much from a medium-haired cat, for instance, in comparison to what you would get from a Chow. Either way, the hair must be clean and free of mats, debris, and oil that would prevent us from being able to work with it.

What is the best type of hair to use?

Either dog or cat hair works well. Some hair is easier for us to spin than other types and some felts faster or makes a better overall handbag in the end. The really straight long hair from dogs like Maltese or Yorkies is easy to card and spin but we find that it doesn't felt up quite as nicely as something like Poodle or Bichon hair. With cats, most types felt about the same but it is easier to spin hair from cats that have a downy undercoat.

Does any particular breed have the softest hair?

My favorite hair to work with is Ragdoll hair. It is most like Angora - very soft and silky and the colors are beautiful.

Are animals harmed in the process?

No. I would never have thought up such a venture if it did require harming animals. Many dog and cat breeds need grooming on a regular basis. In fact, as a cat groomer, I can tell you that it is much more harmful for a cat to NOT be groomed than it is to have their skin and coat cleaned and their loose hair combed out. If they aren't groomed properly and on a regular basis they tend to mat. Then it becomes harmful to them, as there is no completely painless way for the mats to be removed. So keeping them groomed regularly is best for them all around.

During the normal grooming process we can collect hair if it is not already matted. Many dog owners opt for breed clips that require scissoring or shaving their hair off. Many cat owners opt for the famous lion cut that requires shaving off their beautiful locks. Instead of throwing that hair in the trash can as is normally done, we can use it to make yarn and turn it into something both beautiful and useful.

How is the hair then transformed into handbags?

Once the hair fibers are collected, whether all at once by shaving or over time by brushing, we card the clean hair and spin it into yarn. This is a long process that is all done by hand. The yarn is then knitted into a handbag, which we offer in a variety of sizes. The handbag is then felted, a process that requires running it through the washing machine cycle several times until all of the fibers are twisted together to form a tight, strong "fabric" of sorts. We then decorate and line each handbag according to the customer's request and in keeping with the pet hair used. This whole process takes about 3 weeks to complete.

How did you come up with this idea?

I've been working with cat hair for over a decade. For years I jokingly thought up funny ideas for using up all of that cat hair. It seemed a waste to just throw away this never-ending supply of hair - some of it is so long and silky and it comes in such great colors. A few years ago a friend of mine encouraged me to take up spinning. I really didn't have time for yet another craft so I kept putting her off. Then one day she called to ask me if I could help her with collecting hair from her Angora bunny for spinning. While we were talking I was sweeping up a huge pile of cat hair and stuffing it in the trashcan. It just hit me that if she could spin Angora hair then surely I could spin cat hair. My friend was kind enough to lend me her wheel for a few days so I gave it a try. It took some trial and error, but in the end it worked and I had an odd-looking ball of yarn. I kept at it until I got a smoother result and then made a handbag out of it just to see what would happen.

How much hair were you 'throwing out' from your grooming business before you started reconfiguring the hair into handbags?

That's hard to say. It varies by season. Being in the hot south, we do a lot of lion cuts in the spring and summer months. It is not uncommon for us to be wading through a pile of cat hair a foot deep on a normal Saturday.

Have the bags been popular?

They have been more popular than I might have imagined, but I'm still waiting for the celebrity with a little dog to have one made and start a mega-craze of some sort. I am fully aware that my handbags are a bit unusual and completely hilarious if you want to get right down to it. I love it that way. It gets attention.

I like to say we have the "eeewww" people and the "aaahhhhh" people. The "eeewww" people think the handbags are creepy and are grossed out by the whole idea. That's fine with me; I don't expect everyone to love my handbags. But I also like to remind these people that they wear things with wool in them all the time and they don't think that is creepy. At least the dogs and cats that this hair comes from are groomed and cleaned on a regular basis and not out rolling in the manure like a sheep does. The "aaahhhhh" people think they are totally cool and love either the sentimentality of the handbags or the attractiveness of them, or both. Fortunately for me, there are many more "aaahhhhh" people than there are "eeewww" people.

How much do they sell for?

The handbags range in price from $65 all the way up to $300. Each one is unique, a one-of-a-kind handbag made from their own pet's hair just for them. Although some people buy my demo handbags just because they love them, other people don't care whose pet the hair came from.

Where can people find out more information about the Catty Shack Creations?

They can visit our website at www.cattyshackcreations.com

We are currently revamping it to make it a better shopping experience and to include some stock handbags on there for purchase. We've had a lot of requests for that lately. We hope to have those featured and available for purchase very soon.

Any plans to expand the line?

Perhaps. For right now we are busy enough making the handbags that we offer. Even though we only offer two basic styles, each handbag differs from the next depending upon the pet hair used and the final trimmings that are added. We get a lot of requests for things like blankets and such. But one thing people need to understand is that it takes a good bit of hair just to make a little handbag. The amount that would be needed to create a blanket would take forever to collect if you were just brushing out your kitty once a week. It's just not practical from a business standpoint.

One thing I would like to address because it is the most often-asked question we get is whether or not people who are allergic to cats (or dogs) would be allergic to our handbags. The answer is no. First of all what people are allergic to is dander, which comes from saliva. Since we bathe the cat prior to collecting the hair, it has no dander on it. Secondly, we felt the handbag. So after it has been washed in a washing machine 3-5 times it is pretty clean. In fact, it would be cleaner than the clothes we are wearing unless we've just washed them 5 times.

Visit: www.cattyshackcreations.com

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