Since 2019
The finish you would expect from a hairdresser.
Chloe cut hair on Bower Lane for the better part of fifteen years before she cut a single dog's coat. She still thinks of Fringe & Fur as a hairdressing salon that happens to work on dogs, because the habits that matter came from behind that chair: look at what you have got before you touch it, tell the client what you are about to do, and never let a booking run so tight that the last client of the day gets a worse haircut than the first.
The turning point had nothing to do with a business plan. A regular client used to tie her cavoodle up outside while she had her colour done, and one Tuesday the dog turned up with its fringe felted solid over both eyes after a rushed forty-dollar groom at a shopping centre kiosk. The owner was close to tears in the chair. Chloe got a pair of her own thinning shears, sat on the salon floor with the dog between her knees, and spent twenty minutes doing to its fringe exactly what she would have done to a client's own hair: combed it out section by section, cut only what would not comb, and left the rest. Word of that twenty minutes went round the school pick-up line faster than any colour result ever had.
We opened properly in 2019, two shops down from the old hair salon, in a fitted-out shopfront with a proper wash bay instead of a laundry sink. We chose Subiaco because it is the suburb Chloe already knew every dog owner in, and because a strip with this much foot traffic and this many cafe tables meant a finished dog would be seen by its next client before it got home. The wash bay, the hydraulic table, the glass frontage onto the courtyard: all of it was built to run the way the hair salon did, one client on the floor, an appointment book instead of a queue, and a consult before a single clipper guard goes on.
Priya joined in 2021 from a high-volume salon in Wembley and does most of the doodles and standard poodles now. Jack came off six years in a boarding kennel and runs the wash bay like it is the most important room in the building, because he thinks it is. Ruby runs the front desk, the retail wall and every puppy visit, and keeps the appointment book honest about how long a matted coat actually takes. Four of us, one dog on the table at a time, and a finish Chloe still checks the way she used to check a client's fringe in the mirror before they left the chair.
What we hold to
In a few words
To bring a hairdresser's standard of consultation, honesty and finish to dog grooming in Subiaco, one dog on the table at a time.
Since 2019
Averaged over the last twelve months of the appointment book.
9,100
Grooms since 2019
Across Subiaco and Perth's inner western suburbs
410
Dogs on the regular book
Rebooked every four to twelve weeks
1
Dogs on the table at once
No crate bank, no waiting on a free groomer
2.5 to 4 hours
Average time on the table
Most dogs are collected the same afternoon
84%
Rebooking rate
Owners who book the next appointment before they leave
Four people, most weeks
Between them, thirty-eight years of hands-on animal handling and, in Chloe's case, fifteen more behind a hairdressing chair before that.
Owner and lead groomer
Chloe spent fifteen years behind a hairdressing chair on Bower Lane before she retrained in dog grooming. She still runs the salon like a hair salon: a consult before the clippers, one dog on the table, and a finish she checks the way she used to check a fringe in the mirror.
Certificate III in Hairdressing, Certificate III in Pet Grooming, Certificate IV in Companion Animal Services, canine first aid, low-stress handling training · 22 years' experience
Senior groomer
Priya joined in 2021 from a high-volume salon in Wembley and does most of the doodles and standard poodles on the book. If you see a groomer cross behind Chloe at pickup time most afternoons, it is her, fetching the next dog.
Certificate III in Pet Grooming, canine first aid · 9 years' experience
Groomer, wash bay
Jack came to grooming after six years in a boarding kennel and runs the wash bay like it is the most important room in the building, because he thinks it is. He has strong opinions about rinse time.
Certificate III in Pet Grooming, Certificate II in Animal Studies, canine first aid · 4 years' experience
Client coordinator, retail and puppy visits
Ruby runs the front desk, the retail wall and every puppy meet and greet. She is the one who keeps the appointment book honest about how long a matted coat actually takes.
Certificate III in Animal Care Services, canine first aid · 3 years' experience
On record
