Bangs with a Bow on a Shih-Tzu

This little sweetie is growing up.

She is now 6 months old.

She came in yesterday for her third grooming.

The first two grooming's were bath and trims.

For her second grooming, her Mom and Dad wanted a Bow in the top of her head.

They liked that.

When the Mom came in yesterday, she said that her husband still liked the bow on the top of the head, but that hair was always falling out into the puppies eyes.

I suggested they try the Bangs with Bow look.

That way her husband would have the Bow, and the hair would be out of the eyes.

She is most definitely ready for a hair cut.

Her Mom wants 1/2 off.

Let's see what I can do with this little mop.

Where to start.

First, I combed back all of the hair on the top of her head, away from her eyes.

Then I cleaned out the corner of her eyes.

I took a little more hair off then I usually would because her eyes water so badly.

Next, I start to slowly comb the hair over her eyes forward.

The amount of hair that you comb forward for the bangs will be different depending on the size of the dogs head and the thickness of the coat.

Be conservative at first, because you can always comb some more hair forward, but once you cut the bang you can't go back.

Before I cut any of the hair for the bangs, I use the last couple of teeth on my comb to get a nice even circle of hair for my topknot.

* Note: I like to let the dog rest it's head on the table while I work on the top of the head.

They tend to stay still longer this way.

At least for me.  :)

You'll see in the picture above that I started out with just a little hair at first.

Then I started working more hair up and into the topknot piece till I had the amount of hair that I wanted.

Again, the amount of hair in the topknot depends on the length of the hair, the thickness of the hair, and where the ears are set.

I like to tie pet topknots up with a small, soft childrens pony tail band.

Then I stand back and look to see if everything looks okay.

*Note: I also like to, very gently, pull up on the topknot band to make sure that the hair is not tied too tight.

Time to cut the bangs.

Once again, I am conservative with the first cut.

I don't want any oops.

I hate oops.

Don't move.

Don't move.

Good girl.

After that first cut, I can now see the eyes and start to shape the bangs.

I curve the bangs down the side of the face and blend them in.

I like to angle my scissor in under the bang to take away some of the thickness of the bangs.

It opens up the eyes without taking more length away from the bangs.

Sorry, I know that most likely I did not make any sense.

I hope you can understand what I am saying by looking at the picture.

Oh, is it just me or is this picture scary.

I am the one who scissored the dog, and this picture still scares me.  :-/

Anyway, I also like to take the eyelashes and a little bit of the hair right above the eye very short.

This also opens up the eye more without taking the bangs too short.

Just the  little bit of hair, right over the eye.

Can you see how it opened up the eyes.

You can now see the eye clearly even with the bangs hanging over.

I also do this with Schnauzer eyebrows to open up the eyes.

Next, I trim the top of the topknot.

How much I take off depends on the owner.

I like to give it a curvy shape.

This is a side view of the bangs.

There she is.

Bangs with a Bow.

I only have a handful of customers who get this type of head.

This is the way I do the Bangs with a bow.

I am sure that there are other methods out there.

Some are most likely easier then my way.

Didn't she do great for her third grooming and first hand scissor hair cut?

They grow soooo fast!

Happy Grooming, MFF