THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9407280060
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MONIQUE WILLIAMS, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
WHEN I SPOTTED a colleague at work rubbing hoof cream on her nails, I thought that she was, well, a bit peculiar. Hoof cream for your nails?
``Don't laugh,'' she said. ``It works. I have never had long nails in my life, and the other day, I actually had to cut them off.''
There you have it. Straight from the horse's mouth.
Shampoos, conditioners and hoof creams designed for horse grooming are the latest crossover products to make it from animals to people.
In an age when products get to the shelves via massive advertising blitzes, every now and then comes a product that will bypass the traditional channels and get to the market by word-of-mouth.
Five years ago, Roger Dunavant, president of Straight Arrow, a horse-grooming company in Bethlehem, Pa., was peddling his wares to the New York Police Department, which uses horses in its work.
Dunavant discovered that many in the force used the products for themselves.
``Most of the people using our products were horse people.'' he said. ``They loved how the products gave their horses beautiful coats and the great fragrance.
``Women would use the Hoofmaker, for example, and find that their nails grew long and really strong.''
Even physicians suggested the horse shampoo and conditioner to their chemotherapy patients, whose hair seemed to thicken after they used it.
``We were receiving thousands of testimonials from our customers,'' Dunavant said.
Research showed that 10 out of 12 horse groomers were actually using the products for themselves.
The company is now marketing a new line named ``Equenne'' that is made for humans and scheduled to hit the shelves this summer.
The horse shampoo and conditioner - appropriately named Mane 'n Tail - are made of vegetable protein. Standard shampoos found on shelves are generally made of animal protein.
The products are said to be gentle and non-irritating to horses, whose skin is more sensitive than humans. According to the literature, the products are better than traditional detergents used to bathe animals. They also contain a fragrance that is said to repel flies - definitely a must in Hampton Roads.
The Hoofmaker is the cream that's turned my colleague into a believer. It is said to help stimulate hoof growth when applied near the ring.
And forget about itsy-bitsy 2-ounce bottles of cuticle creams. Sold in regular outlets like Wal-Mart (check the grooming area for pets), this stuff comes in 16-ounce, 32-ounce or 5-gallon pails and costs $6 to $7 for a 16-ounce bottle.
Finally, a product that is useful to the whole family - the two-legged ones and the four-legged ones. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The horse shampoo, which is made of vegetable protein, works well on
people's hair also.
by CNB