Feathers Fly Off Shelves

Fishing and fashion have a lot more in common than you might think.

As a new hair trend has gained popularity, fly fishermen are having a harder time finding tying materials for their flies.

Since the beginning of the year, the feathers have been flying off the shelves at Jimmy All Seasons Angler.

“The selection is not anything that it used to be,” owner Jimmy Gabettas said.

Feather hair extensions are the new craze this year in salons everywhere including Bella Hair Designers in Idaho Falls.

“You can shower with it, curl with it, just treat it like your hair,” hair designer Bridget Empey said.

As more women are buying feathers, fly fishermen are losing selection.

“Our suppliers, we will put an order to them and they may ship 10 orders of an 100-piece order and we feel lucky,? Gabettas said.

Jimmy’s hasn’t raised its prices, but if you don’t know your stuff, you could pay a lot more online.

“Fly tying isn’t driving the market here, it’s fashion,” Gabettas said.

On urbanhairfeathers.com we found feathers cost more than twice as much as Jimmy’s.

“A lot of people are taking feathers from their own fly tying supply to selling them online for inflated prices,? Gabettas said. ?I suspect a lot of the feathers we have sold have gone to online auctions for higher prices.”

So why the craze?

Empey said for $7 a feather you don’t have to color your hair, which could cost 10 times as much.

“I wouldn’t normally put these crazy colors in my hair so it’s a way for me to have the color without actually putting the color in,? Empey said.

As for how long the trend will last, that’s debatable.

?It will probably last a couple more months and phase out,” Empey said.

“It’s dried up the supply for feathers and I don’t see an end in sight,? Gabettas said. ?The demand has not let up.”

Even if the trend phases out tomorrow it could take years for the supply to catch up because the feathers are genetically modified.