Scissoring a Poodle Topknot...

...my way.

I say my way, because I am sure that different groomers scissor topknots different ways, all with the same end result.

I was asked to show how I scissor my Poodle topknots.

So, this is my way.

Over the years, the biggest complaint that I would get about topknots, is that the hair over the eyes grows back too fast.

I am sure that every groomer out there has had a Poodle come in where the owner has chopped a big hole in the topknot, right over the eyes, because the hair was hanging down over the eyes, and they could not wait to bring the dog into you.

Because of the complaining, I started to take my Poodle topknots tight.

That does not mean that I scissor all of my top knots short.

It means that I scissor the over the eyes and the sides tight.

 

As you can see, all of the topknots are scissored tight over the eyes and on the sides of the head.

I use the height of the topknot to determine how full the topknot will be.

Here are the steps that I use to scissor my topknots.

The most important thing, before you even think about scissoring, is how you prep the topknot to be scissored.

Even if you are a groomer that kennel dries your dogs, you must take the time to hand dry the topknots. 

Straight from the tub is best in my opinion.

TIP: After towel drying the dogs head, rub about a quarter size amount of mousse into the topknot.

Then blow dry the topknot.

Make sure that the topknot is completely brushed out and dry.

The mousse will help to stiffen up the hair, and give it more body so that you can get a nice topknot.

 

Once the topknot has been fluffed, brushed, and combed I am ready to scissor.

 

I scissor my topknots in 6 steps.

I start with scissoring over the eyes.

I hold my scissors at an angle for the first few cuts so that I do not cut too close over the top of the eyes.

 I follow around the eye to the side of the head.

Make sure that the shave line goes from the corner of the back of the eye, to the top of the ear.

If the Poodle has ears that are set too high, I just shave the face making the shave line straight back to the ear using the corner of the eye as a guide.

After I have scissored a little over the eyes, I move to step two and scissor both sides of the topknot, over the ear.

I like to toss the ear back so that it is out of the way while I am scissoring a clean line to the ear, on each side of the topknot.

Then I put the ear back down and start the cut over the top of the ear.

I scissor over the top of the ears, moving to the back of the head.

I like to blend the back of my topknots into the back of the dogs neck.

I do not like a crisp, defined line going across the back of the topknot, separating it from the neck.

As I said before, this is how I scissor my topknots.

It does not mean that this is the way you have to, or should scissor a topknot.

Out of all of the Poodles that I groom, only one customer asks for a sharp line around the back of the topknot.

As I get to the back of the ear, I start to curve my scissors downward, so that I will be able to blend it into the back of the neck.

I hold the ear forward so that I can scissor and clean out behind the ear.

Remember to constantly comb and fluff the hair.

My third step is to scissor up the sides of the topknot.

I scissor up on each side of the head.

I scissor from the shave line, working my way up the sides, curving into the top of the topknot to start to shape it.

I like to cut only a little hair at a time, widdling away at the hair.

When shaping the sides, I hold the head in many different directions so that I can see where I need to scissor.

I hold the head down, and turn it sideways.

Once I have shaped up the sides, I move back to the front of the topknot and shape up over the eyes.

Again, I scissor a little at a time, scissoring from the top of the eyes, up towards the top of the topknot.

On to step 5.

Now I scissor the very top of the topknot, working from the front of the head to the back.

How much I take off of the top determines how full I leave the topknot.

My next to last step is to scissor the back of the topknot.

As I said before, I like to blend the back of my topknots.

I scissor the back of the topknot down into the neck.

After all of those steps are done, I still go back over the entire topknot, shaping and fixing anything that still needs scissoring.

I still need to scissor this topknot more, because the owner likes it very short and tight.

That is how I get the basic shape that I want.

I hope that this helps.

As I said at the beginning of the post, this how I scissor my topknots.

My customers like them.

They like the hair short over the eyes.

I don't get very many complaints anymore about hair falling in the eyes. :)

I only hear that now from customers that go months in between groomings.

I am still trying to figure out how to stop the hair from ever growing back over the eyes, since so many people think that the hair cut should last forever. :)

Well maybe not forever....just months, and months, and months.............

Happy Grooming, MFF