INTERVIEW: Chanel Rhodes, wig designer for horses, is now featured at the Autry
Photo: The work of Chanel Rhodes is featured in the new exhibition Black Cowboys: An American Story at the Autry in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of the Autry / Provided with permission.
The Autry Museum of the American West, nestled right near the hills of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, is currently hosting a wide-reaching exhibition entitled Black Cowboys: An American Story, offering visitors a unique portrait of the “Black West” and the many contributions of Black men and women to the history and image of cowboy culture.
One of the featured artists in the show is Chanel Rhodes, who has built a career out of designing and building colorful wigs for horses. Her work is prominently displayed in the Autry.
The relationship between Rhodes and the Autry began a few years ago when the museum was interested in stories related to the Black Lives Matter movement. At that time, Rhodes had completed a little project with her horse — they both had matching hair — and the Autry was interested.
“So that was the first thing,” Rhodes said in a recent phone interview. “And one day I was searching Google, and I saw that they had a page with my name on it. But there was no content, so I reached out to them. I said, ‘If you would like for me to provide you with some content, I will.’ So months went by, and they reached out to me.”
That correspondence was essentially the Autry asking her to become a cultural adviser to Black Cowboys: An American Story, and she was an immediate yes. Soon enough, she started connecting the museum with other Black equestrians.
“I’ve been to the Autry several times,” she said. “I actually had to install my wig on the mannequin in the exhibit, so I had to go up there a few times to do that. … I have a business. I make wigs for horses, and so it’s been a pretty unique journey, I will say. I’ve gotten to share my story in several different types of ways.”
Previously Rhodes has shared her story on the Access Daily and To Tell the Truth TV shows, and she loves talking about her unique career. “It’s been an interesting journey,” Rhodes said. “My pieces have been used in music videos and such. There are horse wigs out there, but what I’ve made is something that’s really unique and that actually works. I work full time, too, and I actually use them at my job as well.”
The hairpieces that Rhodes makes for these horses are made of elastic and synthetic hair. She first came up with the idea of wigs for horses in 2019, but she didn’t know if there was a market for such a unique offering.
“I tried to make a prototype,” she said. “It was quite the process. My now-husband, then-fiancée encouraged me to just put some scrap pieces of hair into my horse’s mane, and that’s that piece that ended up being in the Gene Autry the first time I’ve ever had anything in the Autry. And so during COVID is the actual time I had to develop my product, and I cranked out like 60 prototypes. I had to teach myself how to use the sewing machine. I live in Anaheim, and at that time, my horse was about 10 miles up the street. Now she’s out in Chino far away because [the Anaheim] farm closed down, and I would drive out there, put the mane in her hair, watch it fail, cry, go home, try again. I did that all throughout COVID.”
Rhodes, who is an English and Western style rider, has also made leg feathers for draft horses, and she’s willing to work with a variety of clients on a variety of different looks for the horses. Her business name is Mane Tresses, which is billed as an equestrian accessories company.
“People like to come back to me to get different colors because my color options are endless,” Rhodes said. “I can match literally anything. So [one client] sends me a color of her hat. She goes, ‘I want this tail this color, and I want a blend of this color.’ She’s ordered from me like nine times, so I get those type of customers that repeat and want more colors.”
Rhodes added: “I work with a horse production company, too. She actually had some horses that were supposed to be used with Beyoncé, but I don’t know if she ever used my hairpiece. But I made one for that project, so that’s where my stuff is used. So you may never know it because they kind of give a seamless look to the horse, so they’re perfect for horses on the set so they can look more uniform. Hairpieces on horses, they’re out there, but they’re nothing like this. I make them out of synthetic hair, so they’re a lot cheaper. And they come in a wide variety of colors, and I can match anything.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Black Cowboys: An American Story, featuring the work of Chanel Rhodes, runs through January 2026 at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Click here for more information.
