Goat Hair Dye and Maunchie the Unicorn Goat!

Goat Hair Dye and Maunchie the Unicorn Goat!

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Kalie Aubrey works as a dog groomer and owns goats. What do those have in common and how does it involve a unicorn? Hint: Goat hair dye is involved.

Working as a dog groomer, Kalie saw that a lot of clients like to experiment with dyeing their pets’ hair. It was very fun to play with the different colors and designs that you could do. During a time of much color experimentation, Kalie had two bottle baby goats that needed a bath after weaning. With permission, she used the tubs at the dog grooming salon to bathe the babies. One thing led to another, and before you knew it Kalie’s white La Mancha had a rainbow faux-hawk goat hair dye!

The dog grooming salon where Kalie works uses only safe, vegan semi-permanent dyes on pets. Some of the colors even have food-grade components plus all are FDA-approved and deemed cruelty-free. They’re not stinky or harsh as some home-based hair dyes tend to be. Being semi-permanent, the goat hair dye colors only lasted about a month before fading in the sun, but Maunchie certainly had fun with it while it lasted.

Do goats see colors? I have no idea, but the 15 goats at Kalie’s place didn’t mind their friends coming home with new hair-dos. Maunchie loved the extra attention he received from neighbors and others passing by. Some even inquired about dyeing their horses’ hair!

goat-hair-dye

Maunchie was raised as a bottle baby and is a very mellow, sweet guy. He follows his humans everywhere, happy to simply be involved in whatever they may be doing. Maunchie loves running around the shop and jumping on tables. He even seemed to enjoy getting his bath, probably because he was getting loved on the whole time! Kalie didn’t want him to be tied up during the bath and dyeing process, so she had a coworker sit with him giving love and attention. Maunchie even liked getting the blow-dry at the end.

Kalie used Opawz Pet Safe semi-permanent dye. One tool that is available to use with the dye application is the blow pen. The blow pen is shaped like a coloring marker with the dye inside. You blow through the end and the dye sprays out the other side. This is often used with stencils. Kalie used this method to stencil hearts on the hip of one goat.

Not everyone is going to find pleasure in goats with crazy-colored coats. Just as some people enjoy dyeing their own hair and some don’t, some enjoy dyeing the hair of their pets. To each their own! As long as the pet is comfortable and you are using a cruelty-free pet-safe dye, it is not animal abuse in any way. Abuse would be testing on animals, neglecting them, or failing to give them proper medical care. Goat hair dye their doesn’t fall within those lines. Grooming is great for the health of your pet’s skin and hair, and using hair dye just adds a little more to the grooming process. Would you say someone was abusing their dog by getting it groomed?

Because Kalie’s goats are well-socialized with humans, they enjoy the extra attention and treats that they get when she takes them to the groomers for a new color. For them, it was just more bonding time. For Kalie, she got to combine two things that she really enjoys: grooming and goats. Even though her goats are used to dogs, Kalie still only brings her goats in when there are no scheduled dog grooming appointments to avoid any stressful situations in that regard.

There are many benefits to having socialized goats that are used to being handled on a regular basis. It makes grooming, hoof trimming, vaccines, and health checks much easier. Who would have thought that another benefit would be the option of dyeing their hair!

Kalie has always loved animals. She grew up with many animals including horses, pigs, and birds and was always excited about their care. Who loves chores at a young age? Kalie did! At least, she loved the chores concerning the animals. Once she grew up and had a place with acreage, she started raising goats. After researching and learning as much as she could, Kalie started with three bottle babies. From there, she has mostly Nigerian Dwarfs with a few other breeds in there as well.  Her work with dogs only continues her love of working with animals. From dog training in high school to hunting labs to now dog grooming, she feels blessed to be where she is. Kalie is able to fall in love with many of the dogs being brought in for grooming then goes home to her own dogs and goats, sometimes mixing those two when she gets an idea for a dye job!

What do you think? Would you consider making your goat into a rainbow unicorn?


Originally published in the July/August 2022 issue of Goat Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.

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