GroomPod 477: Van Conundrums, Coat Damage, & The Niacinamide Secret Transcript

Susy ladies and gentlemen, groomers of all shapes and sizes. Welcome to episode four hundred seventy seven of The Groom Pod, recorded on April five, twenty twenty five. In this exciting episode, we are going to answer some basic questions. And of course, I am joined by my good buddy Barbara Bird. Hi, Barbara, how are you today?

Barbara  Hey, I'm doing fine. We're having a little rain. And you're not?

Susy No.

Barbara  So that's sort of a turnaround, huh?

Susy It is. Uh, we're enjoying a week of sunshine. I don't know, I might dry up and flake away in that much sun. Plus.

Barbara  Well, I'm really glad to have rain because we have such a bad pollen situation here. And it's, you know, I got this asthma thing now that's happening. Oh my God, the rain. Uh, it just tampons, everything down. And so it's kind of a comfy day here in South Carolina.

Susy Oh very nice. Well, this podcast is brought to you by our wonderful sponsors. Best Shot Show Season stats co grew more and precision sharp. And what's new this week is brought to you by best Shot is grooming. Is Grooming Day a battle against mats and tangles? Take control with the ultimate duo from Best Shot Pet first transform your grooming routine with the max. This ultra concentrated. Why isn't my thing going down? Geez, Louise, I'm starting again. Yes? Is grooming Day a battle against mats and tangles? Take control with the ultimate duo from Best Shot Pet first, transform your grooming routine with the max. This ultra concentrated single ingredient conditioner is a total game changer. It conquers stubborn mats, reduces drying time, and turns your recirculator into a high performance D shedding machine. Then put all the finishing touches on your masterpiece with all new ultramax, anti-static and scissor spray. It's perfect lightweight companion for effortless. It's a perfect lightweight companion for effortless combing and precise scissoring while completely eliminating static and those pesky flyaways. Professional results start with the right products. Visit cvs.com or your local distributor, like Cascade Grooming Supplies to grab your bottle of the Max and the new scissoring spray today. Best shot pet made from the best stuff on earth. All right, I've done two weeks in the van now. Barbara. Two weeks. And it's such a learning curve. You know, it seems like the same animal, but it's not quite the same animal.

Barbara  Right?

Susy So I have discovered that it is not nearly as daunting to run off of shore power as I thought it was going to be. But I do have a conundrum. I have a problem. I have a situation that I cannot exactly figure out how to solve. So I'm going to call on our vast listener knowledge of people who are working in wagging tails, grooming vans, and use shore power from time to time. Where do you put the cord? How do you store the cord? How do you wrap the cord? Oh my goodness. One hundred foot of twelve gauge extension cord is annoying to deal with. I've always had a hose reel on the outside of the trailer, and I don't really particularly feel like drilling holes in the side of the van. I don't think that would be a good idea. So I'm not gonna. So I have to figure out how to deal with one hundred feet of shore power cord. So I looked up all kinds of neat little options, like there's a daisy chain option where you kind of link it all together, but it makes up a fair amount of bundle of cord, although they say it doesn't get tangly. So that looks like a possibility. Another possibility is putting it in a bucket with holes drilled on either side, and you have one cord coming out to go to your van, and the other cord that you can pull out long, and then coil back in the top of the bucket to keep it from getting tangled. But I really don't have a spot to put the bucket. I've just got a little teeny area that isn't even big enough for a hose reel at all. There's no hose reel. So yesterday I did a house where I had to unwrap almost all of my cord, and I have taken two strips of double sided Velcro tape, and I've made three Velcro ties that I can kind of wrap around the whole collection of stuff. So I unwrapped the Velcro ties and I fed out almost all the cord. I had a little bit still coiled up on the ground, and I worked that way. And it turns out not any more complicated than working that way in the trailer was. So I feel good about that because most of my houses are shorepower. I have twenty amps in them. And why not save the gas, right? So then it came time to collecting the cord back up and that's a lot of cord. So I told the guy whose house I was at just, uh, just unplug it. Close the garage and go in because this is going to take me a while. And then I pretended I was on the boat because to go through the locks here in Washington state, you have to have one hundred foot lock line. So I coiled it up as if I was going to coil up one hundred foot boating line. And then I wrapped it back up and it actually worked. Okay. I mean, I can suffer through this. Then I asked my friend Dana Chavarria, who is entirely a shore power in her Tales of Wagon Van, and she's like, I haven't figured it out. I just set it in the seat next to me. So that's where she carries her cord. So I'm calling out to the masses. Everyone help! I need to know what you do with your gigantic shore power cord. I am not using the twenty amp cord that came with the van, because that thing is a monstrosity, and I don't have any need to run that much power through it. So the little contractor cord works fine for me, but I just need to know how to deal with it. Ah, the other thing that happened this week, which was really kind of funny. Okay, well, it was funny for me. I have no gray water tank in my grooming trailer, so I've never had a gray water tank to deal with. Everybody just expects my doggy wash water to just go down and down the side of the road. So I figured that I would probably kind of continue along that way. I mostly rural that I would leave the gray tank open, so it would just drain away and I wouldn't have to deal with smelling it because I've been smelling it. And, uh, and it turns out that I couldn't get it to drain. I could not figure out why it wasn't draining. And I've worked for two weeks. I've filled up that water tank every day. For most of the two day, you know, fourteen days. Filling up my gallon fifty gallon tank inside and filling up my gray water tank. Somehow. And not draining it. So there was always a little drip, drip, drip hanging at the back of the van. And I assumed that I must have had a clog in my gray water tank. So I looked up in the manual and it said, take some Dawn dishwashing soap and squeeze it in there, and then put some hot water in and then drive around. So I did that. Yesterday morning I filled it up. I got my Don out. I squeezed a whole bunch of my dish soap in there. Then I put in a bunch of hot water where it went, I don't know, but then I drove away to my first appointment. I went back there, I opened the valve and it still just drizzled out. I couldn't figure out what was going on. So finally I thought, I better take a look. Well, it turns out there was a cap over the gray water tank, and I had been holding all of that gray water in two weeks. So I.

Barbara  Two weeks?

Susy Yes, it was drizzling out, so overnight it probably would mostly empty, but it never emptied completely. So I reached under there and I said, what the heck is this? Because I couldn't find the drain and I twisted it and completely flooded my shoes. Out came fifty gallons of water in a torrent and it eddied around my feet. I know, so I had to laugh though, because I have no idea where that how it held that much water in there because it's only fifty gallons. So I'm learning.

Barbara  So didn't your manual tell you how to deal with the gray water tank?

Susy Yeah. It says open the valve and the water goes out. It didn't say, well, I found it later that there was a cap that some that you put on in the winter, or that you take off in the winter and put on in the summer. I'm still not sure what the cap is actually for, because if the valve is closed, it's closed and it's the grey water, not the fresh water. So you're not in danger of losing your ability to work for the day. Why would you put an additional cap on there? Y y just to confuse people like me and make me feel like an idiot? I was like trying to figure out how I was going to plunge out that stupid drain hole, and I was going to have to take it apart. And no, I just needed to pull the cap off. But if I'd have looked underneath there a week ago, I would have figured it out. But I didn't look down there because there was water dripping, so I didn't assume that it was completely shut off, but it was. So anyway, that cap is not going back on. It's safely stored inside the van in one of my many little containers of stuff that I have, I'm violently labeling. Violently. I'm. I'm radically labeling.

Barbara  I'll put a label on.

Susy Yes, I've got my label maker. I'm sticking labels on everything. I'm like, oh, I can't read that one. Do make new labels. So yeah, it's much easier to work when you start to get organized and you know where your stuff is and somebody else's stuff isn't in there. Although I do still have one of the cupboards over the cab that's full of Sharon stuff that I'm going to pull out probably today. But I love it. It's it's great. It's working well. And now that I can plug in, I don't have to watch my gas tank nearly as much because that was really stressing me out. Since I don't have a gas station that's reasonably priced, all the gas stations that I'm near to are at five seventy five a gallon, and it just.

Barbara  Oh fuck.

Susy Yeah. It just seemed like.

Barbara  Excuse me, I had to drop the f bomb. Yeah. On that, believe me, I get it.

Susy Yeah. It's rough.

Barbara  It's not the highest yet.

Susy No, but that is the highest gas station anywhere. And it's the only one that I can drive to on the way to half of my appointments.

Barbara  I think anywhere in the whole United States to maybe the Navajo reservation.

Susy Yeah, it's pretty bad. Pretty bad. Uh, I can get it.

Barbara  That's a rip off.

Susy Yeah, I can get it for five nineteen at Safeway or at Fred Meyer or at Ampm or at Costco. But none of those places are near my house. They're all quite a ways away.

Barbara  You know, I remember when I used to have I used to have this, like, model a roadster convertible with a rumble seat in the behind. Cool. It was so cute. It was so cute. And I used to, um, be able to go get twenty five cents worth of gas and it would do me for a couple of days, you know, like G. A dollar's worth of gas would last me for a week.

Susy You probably remember this. Do you remember the rationing where if your license plate was even numbers, you get gas on certain days. And if your license plate was odd numbers, you get gas.

Barbara  We never had that.

Susy Oh, in the seventies. You don't remember that?

Barbara  I don't remember that.

Susy Oh, yeah, because I was driving from New York to Florida and also from Washington to California with my grandfather. He would drive, we would drive up and down the coast. And it was crazy. We'd have to wait in line. We could only get gas on the days that matched our license plate. It wasn't for a really long period of time, but it was in the seventies. At some point, I don't remember when.

Barbara  I don't remember that. I remember that it was a it was a time of crisis. And my father was in the sports car business.

Susy And that's.

Barbara  Cool. It was hard. It was hard on everybody, I bet.

Susy I bet. Yeah. So I'm dealing with the gas thing. It's fine. I mean, I. Everybody's tipping me more. I haven't I've also kind of laid out the. I've laid out the carpet that perhaps we're going to have to raise prices to compensate for the cost of renting the van, and I've got it on the insurance, but I haven't found out how much that's going to change either. I assume it's going to go up, but I'm not positive. So yeah, all of the fun stuff that you have to deal with with a big change like this, a gigantic change, a massive change.

Barbara  This table keeps going up.

Susy Oh yeah. You can't see Barbara's cool shirt otherwise. Or my parrot. Come here. Where are you going?

Barbara  Oh, here you go.

Susy Yes. We've been. We've been graced with the visit from the bird. There he is. Right there. Yep. All right. Well. So. Okay, that's about it. That's about it for the what's doing? I don't have much else to. What's new.

Barbara  Yeah. You don't want to hear my what's new because it's just, you know, medical stuff and bowel movements, you know. All right then. Well, you.

Susy Did have a night out. You went out.

Barbara  I did, I had a night out with three guys.

Susy That's c that's something to talk about.

Barbara  That was pretty. That was pretty cool. It just happened like that, and I just rode it out. Yeah, yeah yeah. Ha ha ha. Very cool. Three minutes. How many do you have?

Susy Ha ha. People are gonna be jealous.

Barbara  Oh. That's cool.

Susy Well, that is cool.

Barbara  They were all tanvis.

Susy Well, that's even better.

Barbara  Can be senior. Handy. Handy. Handy. Junior. Handy.

Susy A hand v flock.

Barbara  Sun a hand V. Yeah. You know the handyman. Good looking guys. Too cool. Yeah.

Susy It looked like you had fun.

Barbara  Yeah, yeah, we had fun.

Susy Okay. Speaking of fun, let's get on to our next subject, which is actually we're going to hear from our sponsor. We're going to hear from. Okay. Precision sharp. So are your shears working as hard as you are? If you're ready to level up your scissoring game, it's time to check out Precision Sharp. Whether you're sculpting intricate styles or tackling heavy bulk work, their sliding thumb, Lynx and Bobcat series are built for the job. The link shears are your go to for lightweight, lightning fast precision. While the Bobcat series gives you that extra power and control you need for those challenging coats, and they both hold the edge beautifully and feel perfectly balanced in your hand all day long, thanks to the sliding thumb ring. Find your next favorite pair at precision comm, where performance meets perfection. All right.

Barbara  So what's our first topic?

Susy Ready, groomers. Here comes our first appointment. We're doing questions off of Facebook and also off of a private message that I got from a lovely listener who's been listening since the beginning, whose name is Katie. And she asked if we had an episode about over conditioning the code and wanted to know if if it causes breakage and what does code damage look like? And it kind of tied into a question that we had on the Facebook group about a couple of Maltese that are trying to be kept in full coat, and it is really challenging for that. So let's start with the over conditioning the coat. What happens when you over condition the coat does it. What? What's the look?

Barbara  Well the look is flat. So because it's heavy. When you over condition the coat, you make the coat too heavy or too oily. Um, which isn't so common these days because we don't use that many oils in there. Uh, these products like we used to, but over conditioning makes the hair fall. Kind of it has no body. It has a, it takes the body away and it causes the hair to fall. Kind of like too straight off the body, off the off the dog. And it so it looks kind of weepy and it can kind of separate too. They can have kind of strands, um, instead of a, of flowing fabric of hair, you know, so kind of stringy and just looks off.

Susy Stringy.

Barbara  And greasy. Yeah, and it can be a little. It just can be a little off putting. You know, and and it usually it can. And that can happen either from you applying too much heavy conditioners. And that would be conditioners with oils in them. They're going to be what makes what weighs the, the thing down the clots and the, you know, p g whatever's there, they're lightweight, lightweight, lightweight, silicones lightweight. But it's the oils that within it. So if it's one of those shampoos that's offering a lot of argan oil and this oil and that oil, then that could easily be overapplied not rinsed off and leaving a kind of an over conditioned look, most likely that over conditioning comes from build up. So if you're doing a dog, you know, like super often like weekly or every three days or something and getting ready for a show or something, you could have the products not wear off before you put more on. So you just kind of layering product upon product, and then you get to the point where you're, you know, you're suddenly your adult fails and you wonder like, what happened? Well, it could be over conditioning.

Susy So that solution to over conditioning is probably a clarifying bath, a bath with a good degreaser.

Barbara  You want to do it? Yeah. You want to do a clarifying shampoo or, um, you know, a, um, a stronger a sulfate for sure. A sulfate shampoo for sure. Um, and um.

Susy Does over conditioning cause breakage and coat damage.

Barbara  No, that shouldn't happen.

Susy Okay. Because it's got a protective layer of oil stuck on it, it seems, because it's like.

Barbara  It's got an extra extra layer of, of protection on it. So it's, that's not going to, it's the air conditioning not putting on enough. Now that might allow for more breakage, more, more problems to occur, more damage to occur. Yeah.

Susy And so then you, so the solution is you bathe the dog again in something that's going to remove some of that build up, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you don't then condition afterwards, but maybe choose a lighter conditioner.

Barbara  Yeah, well, you can use a regular conditioner, but you're going to use it with the dilution. That's use it with a little more dilution. You know, like you don't necessarily have to go to a like a cream rinse or different product. Um. Unless you just like think that. Conditioner is shit. Excuse me, but that's, that's the bottom line there. That stuff ain't working. Um. I love conditioners. Darn.

Susy I love shampoos, but I'm learning to really appreciate the different conditioners that are out there. I especially, you know, I love the oatmeal conditioner. That's the apple oatmeal conditioner for all kinds of different coats. I think that's such a great all purpose conditioner. And it's easy to rinse out and it doesn't build up and it smells delightful. It pushes all my buttons. It's the good buttons.

Barbara  And I gave mine away. Oh, I gave mine I because I gave all of my stuff to Melody to trial. And she loved the oatmeal line. So now I don't now I don't have it. So I, I have to hit up Dave.

Susy Definitely, because it's really quite a great champion.

Barbara  I've got.

Susy I've got conditioner.

Barbara  Yeah. I've got so much stuff, so much dog shampoo and conditioner.

Susy It happens that way. All of a sudden. That's like One of the problems I'm having with the van is I don't have enough room for all of my assortment. I'm running out of spots, which is crazy because the whole side of the van is a shelf and one half on one side and a whole one on the other side, and I still have it crammed full of bottles that I'm putting labels on like a crazy woman. Because it turns out that I put labels on the bottom and they need to be on the very top so I can see them over the rack.

Barbara  But ah.

Susy Yeah. Lesson learned.

Barbara  Well, well, label location counts.

Susy It does count. It counts totally. So the the Maltese dogs. That's a lady who's having to keep the dogs in full coat. And they've never looked shiny and not damaged since as long as she's been doing the dogs. And that's a frustrating one. And she wants to use a hair straightener on that. And I know they do that in the show ring, and I've certainly done it for creative dogs. But my hair, my hairdresser doesn't want me to use a straightener on my own hair. No.

Barbara  Listen. And somebody said that hair straightening, uh, tools when you use a heat protection don't damage hair. That's not true. Sorry. Maybe once.

Susy But if you use them repeatedly, if you're trying to send these dogs home with straight coat.

Barbara  When you have. If you have damaged already coat and you use heat. In fact, I suspect her drying with a stand dryer with heat might be part of the problem.

Susy Oh, interesting.

Barbara  Because she's been drying them meticulously, which means she's really going the distance and getting them very dry and applying that heated air. Um, for two years, every two weeks. Well, even maybe.

Susy Good tools. I don't think you can save yourself from that heat.

Barbara  No, I, I think that I. I think the, I think the Maltese, the lady, the woman that owns the dogs is going to have to have a coming to Jesus moment where. She realizes that you can't keep full flowing Maltese coats without a lot of maintenance. You know those show dogs that you drool over? They wrap those coat those coats in dozens of small little packets with, you know, it's a whole system. I learned how to do it and I did it once and forget it, you know. But that that Maltese coat is such that it's very easily damaged hair. It's thin. It's it's fine. So that means there's not a lot of caught a lot of cuticle before you get to the cortex. And so that it, it can open here and there, you know, and you can have so you can have, uh, like hair shafts, hair shafts that are not holding moisture because they've got holes in the, in the cuticle. And, and every time you apply heat to that, it just cracks it open larger and you just get, uh, increased damage. And then the there's another side to coat damage that we don't talk about too much. And that's, um, the tensile strength of the hair and the tensile force of the tools. So tensile strength is the, the amount of force it takes to break the hair. I happen to know that my hair has very poor tensile strength because I can take a little, you know, like I sometimes I break apart mats and I get down to the very bottom in there and I there's like a little teeny terrible knot. That's not going to come out. And I've tried to, I've done everything and pulled all around the sides of it. And I've got to just like cut that and I can't find my scissors. All I have to do is break it with my thumb thumbnail. Oh, and my hair breaks like that. And, you know, like, that's not healthy hair. That's weak. That's, you know, like not enough tensile strength and too much tensile force from the old thumbnail. But tensile force can come a lot from rushing. Brushing is more forceful on the hair and the coat, then combing. Although you can run into a mat and demolish it with the comb. Um, but that aside, regular, uh, grooming. That's why I kind of prefer to use a wide tooth comb on my drop coated breeds and work my way down to a finer comb. But, um, every two weeks, though.

Susy She's not going to be able to. I mean, there's going to be tangles, especially in that coat if it's all damaged.

Barbara  Well, she's saying that it's matted in the rear end and the elbows every time. So that means that there's it's never growing full out healthy. It's she's always got damage that she's dealing with. And it may, may be bad on other parts of the coat that she doesn't realize. Speaking of examining the hair and the skin, I just love my Germanic neck dryer for examining the skin.

Susy Sure pet your pet dogs. Sure.

Barbara  Pet your.

Susy Pet. Yeah.

Barbara  The pet, because it's got a light on the on the end of it. And so it, it throws the light right where the air force of the air is separating from a, you know, like so you can look right at the skin. It's like, oh man, it's so cool. I wish I had this years ago. I wish I had that years ago. I would have, I'd be out there, like blowing and looking.

Susy Finding skin problems everywhere.

Barbara  I gotta figure out how I can take a picture. I gotta figure out how I can, you know, like, use one hand to blow the code and the other hand somehow to catch the picture. I, I, I'm going to maybe I'm going to have to put it on the camera, on a tripod and use a remote, because I want to get some pictures of my yeasty skin. Maltese. Um.

Susy So so so her brushing.

Barbara  So brushing has so, you know, like some dogs have weaker skin, weaker hair. We're just going to call it that, you know, like they, it has less tensile strength, although there are ingredients that help restore and maintain tensile strength of hair. I mean, hair care is getting so much more supported by real science. And it's an exciting time to be interested in in hair care and skin care because they're learning so much more by their investigative techniques and, and technical stuff is allowing the humans to see what's going on and to figure out what's going on. And then they also can evaluate the ingredients. So, um, the niacinamide. Niacinamide is an ingredient that I noticed was like popping up in all of my haircare and in my skincare. And so I asked, AI, what's with niacinamide that it's so popular. And the answer is that niacinamide helps to. Restore hair strength that has been. Um, there's a term. Can I look it up?

Susy Yes, look it up.

Barbara  Meanwhile, take a moment to.

Susy We'll just watch the bird in the background. Whoops. Over there.

Barbara  I'll be I'll be like, okay. Have you will you. Okay, I can share.

Susy I think you can share.

Barbara  Okay. Okay, so let's see what's out here.

Susy We're kind of rookie at the sharing thing guys. So just bear with us here. We're getting better. Oh, it's only been eleven years. There we go. Oh, look at that.

Barbara  Okay, I still can't I. Well that's interesting, but. Maybe I'm screen sharing, but I can't see it. And what good does that do me?

Susy Well, click on the okay. Uh.

Barbara  Wait a minute.

Susy Click on the the uh.

Barbara  Oh, here I am, here I am. Okay. So, um, is This is about niacinamide. Thank you for your patience, everybody.

Susy Yes.

Barbara  Well, I kind of here.

Susy I'm gonna I'm gonna do a test ding with the dinger, and then you people can tell me if I've turned it down enough because I turned the ding down a little bit. So there's a test down. Yeah. The ding. So let me know if the ding is better, everyone. Anyway, go ahead Barbara.

Barbara  Okay, so here are the key benefits of niacinamide for hair. Improves scalp health and hair growth. Niacinamide can decrease the secretion of a protein associated with hair follicle shrinkage, thus preventing early hair loss and supporting thicker hair.

Susy Well that's cool.

Barbara  It's been scientifically established. Strengthens and repairs by increasing keratin synthesis. It helps rebuild damaged hair fibers, boosting elasticity and reducing breakage. Sounds good to me.

Susy Yes, definitely.

Barbara  Reduced oiliness and irritation. Niacinamide regulates sebum production and reduces scalp inflammation and itching. I need that environmental protection. It protects hair from oxidative stress caused by pollution, UV rays, heat styling, and aging. By the way, aging.

Susy So like your dog could start out with good hair. And then as it ages, the hair gets less tensile strength. That's right. Okay.

Barbara  Less healthy. That's really common. We've all experienced that with older dogs, but this is really nailing it, you know? And so, um. And it is also an environmental well, that's environmental UV rays and heat styling. Heat styling causes oxidative stress.

Susy And and it.

Barbara  And and and.

Susy Body to.

Barbara  Niacinamide has also been shown to increase the hair shaft diameter for improved volume. So it plumps up the hair it um.

Susy Interesting stuff. Yeah.

Barbara  And so, you know, like, so that's one of the ingredients that we can like start looking for. It's niacinamide is also called vitamin B3 by the way.

Susy Okay.

Barbara  It's a member of the B family and, um.

Susy Cool new stuff. And fun with sharing.

Barbara  I did.

Susy I.

Barbara  Wait a minute.

Susy Let's see if I can.

Barbara  So I'm going to be doing, I'm going to be doing some more work on this hair growth and hair strengthening and, and all of that because I'm very interested in it and um, Sandy at shows and is interested in it too. So that's, uh, that's good.

Susy Cool.

Barbara  I've always got so much on my plate.

Susy Yeah.

Barbara  I can hardly get my nap in.

Susy So. Unshare unshare yourself.

Barbara  I never thought I'd be eighty six.

Susy Susie, help! Oh, I know.

Barbara  Hey, I got a full plate, and I need to take a nap.

Susy Oh, God.

Barbara  Now what do I do?

Susy Yeah.

Barbara  And then I say, well, I'll get up and I'll work late tonight. Yeah, right.

Susy Yeah, yeah, we know how that goes with podcasts that don't work. We'll just do it later. No.

Barbara  So. Okay. So is that good enough?

Susy I think that's good enough. I think we should take another break.

Barbara  I understand you understand both tensile and it's spelled T e n s I l e. Tensile strength and tensile. What was the other side of it?

Susy The damage caused. Force. Force. Force. Force. Yes.

Barbara  Tensile force. So it to to really drive home what tensile force looks like. That's what it that's what's happening when you have a matted dog and you just go after it, calm down with the main breaker or the comb or the whatever tool you're at after, you know, like then you're just pulling it so hard that even if you straighten, even if you get the mat out, you've damaged the hair just with oxidative stress.

Susy And and as you get older, as you get older. Pressure. Yeah. When you hear those little snaps, that means your hair is breaking. It's like little pins in your heart.

Barbara  Oh I know. Oh, I know I had a, I, my, I had a new hairdresser and she went for the, the fine toothed plastic comb on my hair and it was just. Ting ting ting. Yikes. I said, oh, this is this is not good.

Susy Nope, nope. Time to change.

Barbara  I just didn't want to be like, throwing a fit the first time in her chair, but I never went back.

Susy There you go. Okay, let's take a break. And then we're going to get to one more question. But before we do, you love grooming? But the business side? Not so much. Between the constant phone calls, the no shows, and the messy calendars, it's hard to focus on the pets. Meet groomer the all in one software built specifically for salon, mobile and house call groomers. Let clients book online twenty four sevenths. Send automatic text reminders and manage your payments all in one place. Spend less time on paperwork and more time doing what you love. Start your free trial by putting Groom Pod twenty two in the coupon code at groom more dot com. And one more.

Barbara  Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to point you to one of the best whitener shampoos in our marketplace. We're talking about show Season Brite shampoo. It features a deep cleaning system and a punchy whitening system that goes beyond the usual blue colorant with an actual optical brightener and a dash of dimethicone. This makes all colours look radiant and glowing, and white coats look like new snow. Get your bright on Today Show season where every day is a show day.

Susy All right, we have one more. Oh, yeah. Oh, let me play this. Oh, no, I can't, because it won't show. It's time for Bieber's classroom. So we're going to answer a question that was about the Chris Christensen dilution rates. If I can actually find the question fast enough. Here we go.

Barbara  Well, it was just like, what's up with Chris Christensen? Dilution rates that are most of the shampoos call for direct full strength. Put it on the duck's hair. Well, that's because. They want to dilute it. Do you hear me? Yes. That's because they were. Some of their products are rather expensive to make. And the way that they make a profit is to do the dilution at the factory, rather than having you dilute it. And, um, so they're, you know, like I did find out in using Chris Christensen that most of their products worked fine through a recirculating system that, you know, I didn't have to use a whole lot more or, or anything. And I could just use an ounce to an ounce and a half at the most of their shampoos through the recirculator. And it would just work a charm. Um, but this the reason that they created the.

Susy Smartwatch.

Barbara  The smartwatch fifty. That's. Thank you. Thank you. Your brain. Suzy's brain fills in for mine. Uh, we.

Susy Work.

Barbara  Together as.

Susy A team.

Barbara  Yeah. So, um, yeah. Smartwatch fifty is dilutable. Fifty times fifty parts water to one part shampoo. And I think it's crap.

Susy I agree.

Barbara  So there you go. Uh, you know. You know, what I have against the smartwatch fifty is that it's using like, it's using like car wash shampoo.

Susy Oh, it's the floor cleaner ingredient. That's right.

Barbara  It's the floor cleaning stuff. And I mean that industrial stuff that you wouldn't use for cosmetic applications because it's harsh. But if you dilute it fifty percent, it's going to still foam and it's not so harsh.

Susy Boy, that's trusting a lot for our groomers to, to cut that stuff down and make it not harsh. And I think that oftentimes people don't measure, you know what? Get yourself a, a measuring cup or a shot glass or something that you can easily tell how much shampoo you're putting in and.

Barbara  Or a pump in the gallon.

Susy Or a pump in the gallon.

Barbara  You know, because that one pump, one full pump is an ounce. And, um, you can kind of count on that. Yeah. You, you really do need to measure. That's the professional thing to do. I know we do. We like our bartending, but I you know, I like it more like. Julia. She. Julia.

Susy Child.

Barbara  Julia. Child's, you know, you know how much butter you can put in there. Well, you put that much in, you know, but you only you know that it's four tablespoons because you've been measuring four tablespoons for your life, you know, so, you know, like that's why somebody like Julia Child doesn't have to measure her ingredients because she already knows what, you know, what a teaspoon is going to look like. It's a pinch or two.

Susy It also helps you control your bottom line if you measure your stuff.

Barbara  Because oftentimes.

Susy Our visual is.

Barbara  I think, I think, I think that especially when you have unsupervised Bathers.

Susy Yeah.

Barbara  And they're put under pressure to, you know, bathe in dry dock in fifteen minutes. I mean, this used to be me. And, you know, like, we used to, like, cheat all over the place. Just pour some of this in and do that and blow dry it. And she's. Yeah.

Susy Yeah.

Barbara  So that's a that it's just a waste of money. Yes it is when you're pouring extra shampoo and conditioner down the drain. You're just wasting money. So there's no you. Your goal should be to find the least amount of every product that you need to use under the circumstances that you use it. What's the least amount? Use that amount.

Susy It's interesting to, to get a new situation where I don't know how fast my water comes out of the pump. I can't seem to figure out how much water my bathing beauty needs in that bathtub, and I'm so used to having to park at an angle that I was really enjoying not parking at an angle, but I think I'm using more water than I need to to get it to the level where the bathing beauty is sucking it out. So little learning curve there as well. But I'm, you know, in it invigorates me with new excitement and passion for grooming. So what the heck? It's worth it.

Barbara  I am so happy that you're happy. I was so, so afraid you were not going to be happy.

Susy And I'm ready to move the trailer along to another young groomer who might rebuild the interior. And because it's already plumbed, it's got the electricity in there. It's perfectly usable if someone decides to refinish it. So there's some value in there and I can let it go.

Barbara  I think you should park and cover it. Yeah. And save has your backup. But I can't because, you know, you always need backups, right?

Susy But I won't be able to pull all my stuff out of the van and put it back in there. See, it's a conundrum. Which is why I'm laying the groundwork to all my people to realize that if the van breaks, I'm not coming to work. Instead of what I usually would do was call them, tell them I got to swap vehicles and then show up for the appointment. I'm just letting people know in advance that perhaps the difficult part of having the van is that when it goes down, I'm down. So otherwise then I've got to retrofit everything back. I can understand.

Barbara  I understand you used a lot of things that were in your trailer to write.

Susy To.

Barbara  Yeah.

Susy Yeah, I could certainly I could certainly stick a stationary table in there and work if there was an emergency. But is it worth keeping the trailer for that? I mean, I just don't know because it's one more I don't know. For those who don't know, I have seven vehicles already. The trailer would just take an eighth parking spot in my house. And you know, I don't want to look like the hillbillies.

Barbara  Well, I think that's great of you because you've held on to all those other vehicles that you're willing to let go of the trailer. It is. I'm surprised actually. I'm actually surprised because I know you keep a spare dryer. You keep it spare. Handy vac system. You keep spare. Everything I do here, you are going to get rid of the trailer. Well bless you, you know, and I, I always say that if you have a breakdown in the van, it's because you need it. You get God's giving you a day off.

Susy So that's the way I've always thought of us. The snow situation when it snows. I can't pull a trailer in the snow. I'm not going to drive this van in the snow because it's gigantic.

Barbara  Oh.

Susy So if it snows, it's it's the world saying, hey, take a day off. Right. So I.

Barbara  Just.

Susy I think you're right. I think I just need to adjust my attitude and embrace the not working part. And nobody's going to turn my cable off. Nobody's going to turn my head off. You know, I will survive.

Barbara  So yeah, I would actually I would probably compromise and I would give it, I would keep that trailer for a year. That seems reasonable. I would give the van a year to show its worthiness for the long haul.

Susy That sounds.

Barbara  Reasonable.

Susy I fully embrace.

Barbara  That. Yeah.

Susy Yeah, because I have to clean it. Clean the trailer out anyway. And Sharon's stuff is all in there now. It's all over the floor. I've got bags of her stuff everywhere in that trailer. I was like, oh, I should pull my clipper. Oh, I can't get over all those bags. I'll just leave it in there for now because now I once again have three clipper vacs. So, you know, it's all good.

Barbara  The well-equipped groomer.

Susy I am well equipped. I could have a second groomer in with me if there was room, but my table is in such a weird spot, it doesn't quite work. Although I will say that everything seems to be manageable now that I figured out what I need near me and what I don't need to be right next to me, and what needs to be near the tub, and what needs to be near the table. Because that was all like one area before there was no separation of tub and table. We were right next to each other and I could reach everything from everywhere. That's different. You know, I have to get up and walk around the table and go grab something. Walk all the way back. It's so expansive. It's just so large. There's room everywhere. I did find out. This is great. I know this is TMI. I can pee in the tub because it's back far enough away from the window that people can't quite see around the corner. So as long as I choose to pee on the left side of the tub, I'm still okay. This was an important thing because I often don't pay attention to.

Barbara  Important, right? I know I hadn't thought of that.

Susy Yeah, I'm halfway through a dog and I have not paid enough attention. And I'm still, you know, drinking the Pepsi. And then all of a sudden I'm like, uh oh. And there's nothing worse than trying to get a dog finished and do the pee pee dance at the same time. It's horrible. It's just, it makes your grooming bad because all you can think about is, oh, I need to go in to the owner's house and use their bathroom because I'm gonna pee in my shoes. It's terrible, but situation solved. I just had I have to because I'm so freaking short now. I have to carry a step stool to reach the fantastic vent fan. I have to get on the step stool to reach the fan or to see in the top storage. So I've got the step stool in there anyway, I can get in and out of the bathtub with that. And it wasn't so bad. It's funny though. Yeah. All right. I think we have taken enough of your time for today. Thanks for joining us. I really hope you like this new vision for the groom pod, which is Barbara and I just talking less editing, more fun times, visuals, me moving around, you guys getting seasick because I never sit still. I mean, the whole thing. You get to enjoy it all now.

Barbara  But it doesn't sit still either. I'm not a very good idea. I would never make it on CNN.

Susy I don't have Parkinson's. I just do this naturally. So anyway, the thing about us evolving the podcast is we've been doing it for eleven and a half years, and we know you guys get tired of the same old thing. We get tired of doing the same old thing. So by taking the editing out of the picture, it gives me a lot of time back. You guys who love us will still watch anyway, apparently. But please. I posted a question about the videos on our Facebook discussion group. Facebook.com slash Thegreen pod. Go there and let us know if you're okay with the videos and okay with the no editing because it pushes, it pushes every bit of my control issues. You know, it just it's like, ah, but, um, I'm, I'm trying to get used to it. It's okay. I'm fine. Anyway.

Barbara  I'm fine.

Susy Happy evening everyone. See you next time on the.

Barbara  Happy, happy.

Susy Bye bye.

Barbara  Take care of yourselves. Take care of yourself. We love you.

Susy All right.

Speaker 3 Recording stopped.

Susy Okay. See? We can do.

Barbara  This. Oh, we got through that. Yeah, yeah.

Susy It's not so bad. I'm over the visual part of it. I can just be myself and not think too much about it being a video. Are you okay with this? This is good.

Barbara  Yeah, I'm okay with it. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Susy It's more personal, too. They hear our flub ups and our giggles.

Barbara  I I'm fine. I think it's a good idea. I think it's timely. I think we need to do it.

Susy Okay. Just. I lose my songs, but that's okay. I can read.

Barbara  Well, yeah. I lose my voice.

Susy Yes. All right. I better go check on the infirm downstairs. And then I'm going to go groom a Javanese. And then I'm going to ride the horse. Yes. Yes, boy. Yes, I'm very excited. Okay. What day is the scary doctor?

Barbara  Thursday.

Susy Okay, so I want to, you know, I mean, keep checking.

Barbara  Afternoon.

Susy Okay, perfect.

Barbara  Thursday afternoon.

Susy Okay.

Barbara  So, um. Good. I assume I'll have pretty much every results.

Susy Even if you don't have results.

Barbara  A plan forward, or I'll know what the next test is.

Susy Okay.

Barbara  Whatever. You know.

Susy Well, I'm there right on your shoulder. I'm there the whole time.

Barbara  All right.

Susy At least you know the invisible me, I got it. Happy Easter.

Barbara  You're always with me.

Susy Yeah.

Barbara  Thank you, thank you. I love you.

Susy Love you too. See you later. Bye. Okay.