The Fairhope Groomery

The Fairhope Groomery operates out of a suite at 21883 Highway 181, just north of the Fairhope Walmart, offering full-service dog grooming to Fairhope, Daphne, Spanish Fort, Silverhill and the surrounding communities. Owner Jillian, who is Baldwin County born and raised, started grooming dogs in 2011 at age 17 while working at PetSmart, and later opened her own shop to bring a needed service to the area while building a schedule flexible enough to work around raising her husband and three children.

The grooming team includes Rebecca, who has groomed professionally since 2016 and joined the Groomery in November 2020, and Simone, a groomer since 2010 who also joined the shop in 2020. Jennifer rounds out the team, arriving in 2024 with more than ten years of grooming experience working alongside Jillian. Between the four groomers, the shop’s combined experience stretches back well over a decade, giving regular clients a familiar face at each visit rather than a rotating cast of stylists. The shop is licensed and insured, and describes its business model as sitting “in between mobile grooming and a regular salon,” a positioning meant to combine the convenience of mobile service with the equipment and setup of a dedicated salon space.

Most appointments run about two hours per dog, a pace the staff say keeps pets calmer and more cooperative than an all-day drop-off format. The shop describes prioritizing a “safe and calm environment” staffed by “patient, experienced stylists,” with an emphasis on quick, efficient turnaround that gets dogs home the same afternoon rather than boarded for a full day.

Two core packages structure the service menu. The Mini Spa Package includes a bath with premium products, blow dry, ear cleaning, nail filing, sanitary clip, paw care and a spritz of cologne, priced by coat type and size: $55 and up for a small short or smooth-coated dog, $60 for medium, and $70 for large, with long or full-coated breeds running $60 for small, $70 for medium and $90 for large.

The Full Service Package builds on the Mini Spa with a complete haircut and style, including breed-specific and seasonal cuts and shave-downs as needed. That package starts at $70 for small breeds, $100 for medium breeds, and $150 for large breeds and doodle mixes, with final pricing adjusted for a dog’s specific breed, weight, behavior and coat condition. Add-on services include teeth brushing with a breath freshener for $10 and a flea and tick shampoo starting at $10, priced according to treatment time and the product needed.

That positioning between mobile grooming and a full salon means dogs skip the driveway wait of a mobile van while also avoiding the all-day boarding common at larger grooming facilities. Jillian built the shop’s scheduling around that same flexibility for her own family, and the same philosophy carries over to how appointments are booked and run for clients, with a focus on getting dogs in, groomed and back home within a single visit rather than dropped off for the day, an approach the shop credits for keeping anxious pets calmer during their time on the table.

The Groomery operates as a flea-free facility and requires that every dog be current on a flea preventative before an appointment, a policy meant to protect both the pets in the shop and the equipment used between clients. Prospective clients can follow the shop’s work on Instagram and Facebook, both under the handle Fairhope Groomery, or reach the shop directly by phone at 251-278-7779 or through Messenger to book a visit.

Together, the shop’s small, tenured team and two-hour appointment model give Fairhope pet owners an alternative to both mobile grooming vans and larger all-day grooming salons, with an owner who has spent more than a decade building relationships with the dogs and families she serves.