I stood in front of the bathroom vanity and sighed. My long, fine hair looked limp, bedraggled, as if a tiny spider spun an invisible web between the strands, dividing them, coating them in slick lacquer. Fifty strokes of the boar’s bristle brush did no good, nor did a vigorous scalp massage. I had exactly twenty minutes to shower, dress, and pack my valise for a make-or-break business meeting. No time to wash my hair, no time to shave the darn mane from my head, and believe me, I considered it! What’s a gal to do?

Grab the Grah-Toe, of course!

From Greasy To Gorgeous With Grah-Toe

I selected a  Lignum Vitae Wood Mini 3 Tine Lilliputian Hair Fork handmade by Kimi and Stacy of Grah-Toe Studio. The hair toy looked alive, as if it breathed green and brown vapor into a million swirls, into an earthy rainbow. I ran my hand across the tines. They undulated beneath my fingers, rising and falling in an elegant swoop designed to cradle crowning glory against scalp. The top of the fork swelled in an arc that mimicked the gentle rise and fall of a young tree’s fresh Spring shoots. It fit in my hand, small enough to add a hint of interest to any updo, but conspicuous enough to capture any eyes when said updo winks from across the street. This is no sissy hair fork.

Thirty seconds later, my hair rested in an artfully messy bun. A soft splash of impossibly smooth olive grain poked from the top of my twisted tresses, offering a spot of unusual, almost shocking visual interest. When you can accomplish a hair success in under a minute with one simple hair accessory, you know you’ve found a winner.

Grah-Toe Purple Heart Wood Hair Fork

Kim and Stacy of Grah-Toe Studio create works of hair art from the natural world surrounding us. Shed elk antlers become whimsical fairy hair sticks, accented with dots of spalted holly or a glass-blown watery evil eye. Hard chunks of black and white ebony and red mahogany become hair forks that carry the shape of the changing tide, a forest’s snaking path, even a lethally gorgeous weapon when fashioned into a hairstick sword. When you hold a Grah-Toe piece, you hold the charm and heartbreak of your first kiss, the memory of a magical autumn walk beneath a colorful canopy of live oak. These are the hair toys of the elemental world.

Stacy and Kim of Grah-Toe Studio

Kim grew in a family of boys, with a dad who wanted her to have long hair, but being a rebellious artistic girl, she kept it shorter than her brothers. “It was mostly out of spite,” she reminisces. “When I think about it now, I said it was easier, and usually it was. There were a few times it got to almost shoulder length, but I went back to a short cut. It was comfortably me, it was different, sometimes asymmetrical, sometimes lighter or darker, but never like ‘all the other girls.’ My journey with long hair began with my spiritual journey. I felt one day during prayer that the Lord was telling me to let my hair grow out. It seemed a strange thing, and I thought maybe it was just me thinking it at first, but there was no doubt about it the next time I cut my hair. I was sick about it. I have only cut it a few times since then, and that was 20 years ago!  I met Stacy shortly after this change in my life, and we were both at shoulder length hair. Since then we have grown it out together, donated it together, and lost a bunch of it together due to age and illness, but our love of long hair has only grown.”

Stacy’s parents forced the ubiquitous boys’ short cut on him and his brother – the tight sidewalls, part on the side, good boy’s look that now belongs to a forgotten world. When he became a teenager, he grew his locks until his high school administrators delivered an ultimatum: if he didn’t cut his hair, he would have to wear a short-haired wig to school. And for his junior and senior years, that’s exactly what he did! Stacy broke down and trimmed his hair to shoulder for his senior portrait, and over the years has cut his hair for job interviews or to donate it, but he has always liked having long hair and looking at other people’s long hair.

French twist with Grah-Toe antler stick

Stacy describes his hair as thin, grey and “leaving,” while Kim likes to think of her hair as a comfort, a joy, and brown with sparkles. “I love my hair and wish I had the thickness I so disliked before I knew how to care for it,” she muses. “When we started our shop I had lost my job due to illness, and the medications they had me taking caused me to lose a lot of hair. It still has never grown back as thick as it was then, and I grieve for that, but I am thankful for what I was left with as well.”

Before her illness, Kim’s hair was naturally thick, and as it grew to mid-back, updos became a problem. “We had no idea about long hair web sites then,” she explains. “All the plastic clips that said ‘for long hair’ snapped immediately in my hair. I would cut off a little of my hair to keep it lighter, but I wanted to go longer and didn’t know how to manage it. We had been making hairsticks then, but everyone was making hairsticks. We decided to try creating a wooden fork. We did a little research and created our own shapes, ones that didn’t look like anyone else’s stuff. It was amazing the difference it made for me. I still have that first one we made! It’s clunky and funny, but it still works!”

At first, Kim and Stacy’s hair forks were larger than they are today. “We were gearing them toward our own heads, which we learned are not typical,” Kim laughs. “Our hair forks have greatly evolved in the 2 1/2 years we have been making them. As we changed and altered the patterns, new inspirations would come to us, sometimes in our sleep, sometimes in a rock formation, even some of the changes were influenced by both of us having been in the dental field for years. We knew a lot about materials, and Stacy was always into making cool little things, so the evolution to inlays and carvings was natural and exciting!”

Stacy's Hands

In 1996, Stacy suffered an accident while at work in a cabinet shop. A dull blade caused him to slip, and his hand met spinning blade. He grabbed his hand to his chest, and ran to get help. The people next door thought he had been shot, as the blood splashed an ominous pattern on his shirt. “We like to share a bit of ourselves with our wonderful customers,” Kim smiles as she describes the loss of Stacy’s four digits, “not to elicit any type of sympathy as we know that God has a plan in everything, and Stacy has excelled even without a few of his fingers!”

Grah-Toe Studio found its name in Kim and Stacy’s traveling experience. “We drove from Florida to the west coast,” Kim says. “The rock formations are amazing, some of which are called grottos. As Christians, we believe that our artistic talents are a gift from God that we are grateful for all the way down to our toes! As we traveled and marveled, we tossed these concepts around, along with the amazing earth the Lord has given us to enjoy. We decided to call our studio Grah (from grateful) Toe (to our toes)! Inspired Creations from Grah-Toe Studios! We were living in Florida at that time,” Kim continues, “and knew we wanted to do our art full-time somehow, but we just couldn’t make it work. We came to Utah in 2005 and were both working, myself as a dental assistant, and Stacy in construction for a bit and as a dental lab tech for a bit. They had a local art show and we decided to participate, and it was our first taste of selling our wares. It was awesome fun, we made a little money, and we were hooked!”

Grah-Toe Icetana

The look of large combs from the early 1900s as well as the curvy lines of nature inspire Kim and Stacy. Today, they sell their one-of-a-kind creations online at their Grah-Toe Studio Etsy shop. New listings sometimes last only minutes as self-professed “graniacs” – long hair lovers with an addiction to the layered beauty of boldly patterned hardwoods – hover twitching fingers over the Buy Now button, making quick budgeting calculations in their heads. Hair toy collection can almost be a contact sport when it comes to Grah-Toe Studio’s breathtaking designs. Customers can follow Kim and Stacy at their blog, The World Needs More Love, where they find news about upcoming hair toy styles, educational and fun posts about the materials they use, travelogues, photo essays, and announcements about store sales.

“I have become friends and fans of lots of other hair accessory makers,” Kim says, “and we have worked together, done trades, and I like to wear their work too, which is completely different from what I make for myself, which is usually simple and big. I like big hair forks,” she grins.

Grah-Toe Studio

Kim and Stacy take custom orders – everything from delicate etchings to gemstones and inlays on hair forks to “icetanas,” stunning acrylic hair sabres with wire-and-fabric wrapped hilts. Whether you design your own piece or select one of Grah-Toe Studio’s artistic creations, you choose to make a daring statement, choose to show off your own unique features accented with an heirloom quality handicraft.

“I remember my dad going on and on about Crystal Gayle and how more people would like me if I let my hair grow long,” Kim states. “I would say ‘if that’s why they are going to like me, I don’t want to know them.’ It’s funny how parents seem so much smarter when we get older – appearances DO count, but teenagers have to find themselves, and learn to be strong in who they are, their choices and what they look like. I needed to know for myself that people do take you on face value at first, and it can make a big difference, for good or bad.”

With a hair toy from Grah-Toe Studios, the first impression you will make will always be a memorable one.

Visit Grah-Toe Studio’s Etsy Shop at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/grahtoestudio

Visit Grah-Toe Studio’s Blog at:

http://grahtoestudio.blogspot.com/