Nearly 100 clients are coming in per month at Belleza Salon in Turkey Creek asking for feather hair extensions.
"We looked into it, and we ordered a few just to see how the clients would react to it and it took off," said E. C. Crippen, a hair stylist at Belleza. "It's the hottest thing right now, absolutely."
But people who want hair feathers are buying up the supply fishermen use.
"I mean, they just buy them all. They buy everything in sight. Our shelves are empty," said Dave Carson, a fisherman and employee at Orvis in Sevierville.
"There's a lot of fishermen that are not happy because we use these feathers to make flies. There are some fishermen that are upset because they figure what it will do is raise the price when they come back," Carson said.
The average price for a package of rooster feathers goes for about $25 at tackle shops, but for just one feather at the salon, it's $15.
Prices aside, the rooster feathers will not be available for a year. That's how long it takes for manufactures to restock.
"Their roosters are too young to be able to harvest to get the necks," Carson said.
For some people, it's fashion. For others, it's sport.
For now, Carson is hanging on to all the feathers he can. "My daughter is a hairdresser, and I have to hide my feathers from her. She doesn't know where I keep them," he said.
Right now, the fly fishing store Orvis is still receiving daily shipments of feathers, but the store is bracing for bare shelves in the coming months.
Feather Hair Extensions Hit Knoxville
