Leisha Hailey
Appearances
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
And I thought, oh, this would be great. I'll get the wig to go with this jersey. I went to all the pet stores. I looked online. And I could not find a wig. And I thought, well, this is like a void that needs to be filled. And I decided I was going to be the one to do it. These days, pet wigs are everywhere.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
I had a Farrah Fawcett, like long, blonde, flowing hair, feathered. I had like a bob, like can I see the manager kind of bob. What's your favorite wig that you made? I think for me it was the beehive because it was so – it was just like the ultimate wig. It was like fire red. It had little like sideburns that were curled that came down. And it got funnier as it got smaller.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
Like it made a lot of sense on the pit bull, but when it went down to like a chihuahua or a Pomeranian, it was hilarious. I think that was a big part of this, is that it was so silly and so joyful. It was enjoyable to wake up and think about. And that's a really nice thing to follow. Leisha had had a really rough year before this.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
One word. I had a tagline, it's a wig for your pet. Very descriptive. Well, you know. If you didn't get from the name that it's wigs for pets. Exactly. Because that was always the second, that was always the follow-up question when I said I'm making pet wigs. People would say, what is a pet wig? It's a wig for your pet.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
It was almost so shocking to people that they had to have that follow-up question. So I made it clear.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
It was beautiful. I just want to give it full props. It was a really great-looking booth. It was like a room you walked into. It was all white and clean. It had all the samples on a wall on shelves. And I remember I really wanted it to sort of feel like when you walk into the Apple store. I wanted it to be clean lines, white walls, very stark.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
And then I wanted the pictures and the wigs to be the moment. So I wanted it to be like top of the line classic, like so high. I want it to feel high end. The reaction that people had when they rounded the corner, people lit up in a way I've never been a part of. Like, I've never seen people so happy. I had a line out the door.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
Like, I'm not going to say they were climbing over each other to get to it, but it was sort of rabid. RuPaul himself even came by the booth.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
It's suddenly all feeling very official. It felt, you know when Annie walks into, in the musical, when Daddy Warbucks, you know, she walks into the house and she's looking around, like, almost like that, like, am I going to like it here?
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
She starts as confidently as she feels. One of the first things out of my mouth was, I'm about to blow your mind. This, unsurprisingly, was not the first time this guy had heard this. But then Leisha goes in for the hard sell. I think I talked a lot about the void in the market, the missing piece.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
the finishing touch to every costume out there, the billions of costumes that are sold every day, to pets, to owners all around the world, yet they're not completed. Because that was a real frustration of mine. It honestly was. It drove me crazy that you couldn't complete a costume.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
He said, OK, let me see him. And I put him on the desk and presented my my pitch deck. And the first thing he said was, great. I'd like to place an order. I think this would be great for Halloween. Let's launch it Halloween. Oh, my God. I know. And right away, the questions started coming at me. How much can you make them for? Where are you making these? How are they packaged?
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
How fast can you turn these around? Do you have insurance? You know, just on and on.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
I had no means at the time to fulfill one wig order. Not even one? Yeah, I would have called my sister back up and said, we got to get Kraken. I got like some wigs to make. I just had the idea. I had a great idea.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
Which, frankly, Leisha had no interest in doing. I remember just wanting to take the wigs and put them back in my safe little bag with my great little ideas and like zip it up and just like... Yeah, never mind. You know, you just want to, like, forget about it. Like, protect them from... Yes, from the horror of reality. Because that's what he represented, too.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
I think he just made me realize it was about to become very unfun very, very fast.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
It was sort of a strange, like, fantasy bridge that I walked across for a year and a half. Like, because once it was over, things sort of normalized and the pieces of my life that I was used to started falling back into place. Yeah, I think I was better. I think I was done.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
How did it feel when Halloween rolled around? The first Halloween, you know, when I would walk through the pet aisles, I'm like, no, they're still not here. I still don't see a wig. Someone should really do something about this.