Hand Scissoring a Springer Span.

I have been Christmas shopping for the past two days, and I have come to a conclusion...

Christmas shopping, dealing with the traffic, and the crowds, is more tiring then doing a full day of grooming.

And, to those of you out there who have all of your Christmas shopping finished by October, and I know a few of you, I am sticking my tongue out at you right now!

Back to grooming...

Saturday I groomed a Springer Spaniel that comes in about three times a year.

This is 'Chessy'.

We don't groom very many Springers, and the ones that we do groom either get shaved down twice a year, or get the same hand scissor cut that I do on 'Chessy'.

'Chessy's' Mom and Dad want her short, but not too short.

Keep the waves in her hair.

No springer ears, but clip the inside of the ear.

Scissor to neaten the ears.

They like the tail long.

 'Chessy' has a lot of long shaggy patches of hair all over her.

 Under all of that shaggy hair, she has a beautiful, plushy,velvety coat.

She has long shaggy ears.

She also has long shaggy whiskers that I am not allowed to cut!

 When 'Chessy' first started coming, her owners wanted me to scissor 1/2 of her coat off, but her coat has so many different lengths that I chose to scissor her down to just above the meat of her coat.

  Because her hair grows in a hundred different directions, I scissor her in a hundred different directions.

(If you'll look at 'Chessy's' back leg, you will notice that she refuses to stand straight and loves to lean her butt on my backboard.)

I will turn my scissors and scissor in whatever direction makes the coat look the best.

 I constantly comb her hair up, let it fall naturally and scissor.

 I lift her front leg and give it a little shake to make sure that all of her hair is falling naturally.

I also comb the hair down from her armpit and blend it into her skirt.

'Chessy's' owners do not want her coat smooth, they want the waves to stay in.

I comb, comb, comb and scissor, scissor, scissor, untill I get the look I want.

A little trick that I do:

Even scissoring, I do a rough cut.

Meaning, that I scissor the coat on the long side at first.

As I am scissoring, I will go a little shorter, and a little shorter till I get the look I want.

I usually do this little trick in one area before I move on. 

Once I move on, I know how much hair I want to cut off.

I can't put the coat back on, so this saves me from just blindly cutting into the coat and then being sorry that I cut too short.

I clip the underside of her ears.

I lift her ear out of the way and scissor to blend her neck into the sides of her face, and the back of the ears.

I use both thinning shears and scissors to blend the top of her ears into the top of her head.

Chessy's Groom:

Body: Hand scissor to just above the meat of the coat, leaving the coat wavy.

Feet: Scissor short and tight.

Ears: Clip the inside of the ears. Blend the outside of the ears to the top of the head with thinning shears and scissors. Leave ears long, only neaten.

Tail: Neaten, leave long.

Head: See below...

DO NOT TOUCH THE TUFF OF HAIR ON THE TOP OF 'CHESSY'S' HEAD!  :)

If you touch the top of her head, you will ruin her whole groom.

Her owners will die on the spot.

You will never groom in this town again.

You know I am not exaggerating!

( I'll even take that over Christmas shopping. )  :))

Happy Grooming, MFF