This is a vast generalization, but it seems to me that (in my corner of the world, at least) hand scissoring dogs without first using a blade or snap-on comb to set the length is a dying art. It certainly isn't something I was ever taught. The longest comb I had when I first started grooming was about 2 inches, and as far as I knew, there was no way to do any length longer that and shorter than full coat, except maybe to trim the belly and legs but leave the body long. I didn't know anybody who hand-scissored. And then the new metal snap-on combs came out, and the standard went down to all haircuts being an inch or less.
Then I read this blog post: http://petgroomingthegoodthebadthefurry.blogspot.com/2012/06/hand-scissoring.html I love this blog and read it regularly. After reading this post, I decided to try to do some full-body hand scissors of my own. This blog post was written almost 8 months ago, so it has clearly taken a long time for me to find dogs with the right kind of cut and hair to practice on, but I think I have finally perfected my technique well enough to spotlight some before and after pictures.
Let's start with today and work backwards. This Cavachon was my first dog of the day today; a new client. She wasn't happy with the last groom, mostly because they took his face too short. She just wanted about a quarter of an inch taken off his body. Here is how he looked before the bath.
Sure, I could have used a snap-on comb to set the length on his haircut first, but I decided to just scissor it and see how that went. Ironically, I had a comb length in mind as I was scissoring him, and when I was done, I checked the finished length with that comb, and it was almost dead on! Anyway, here is the final result. I have to say, this is easily the best hand scissoring I've ever done on an entire dog.
Being a Cavachon, his hair was rather wavy with a lot of cow licks. Snap-on combs can't factor in cow licks (the cut winds up looking choppy), but hand scissoring can. I started as a bather almost 9 years ago and started doing cuts almost 8 years ago - I believe it's never too late to learn something new, and I definitely want to always improve my grooming skills.
I also did this Wheaten today. She is easily my favorite Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier to groom - she has the best personality! Her hair isn't that great, but at least it has gotten impressively long - when I first started grooming her, she had really bad allergies which were causing bald spots, hot spots, and thin patches and what hair there was was so fine that it matted really easily. Here she is before the bath - what a mess!
Usually most of the curl and most of the mats come out with the bath and blow dry. You can see here that this wasn't really the case today...
Here she is all brushed out - which took forever, unfortunately.
That's a pretty striking difference in coat texture from before the bath.
Anyway, her owner wanted about 1/4-1/2" off all over - basically the dog equivalent of telling your hair dresser just to take off your split ends. Her hair is much too long for a snap-on comb, so I had to scissor her whether I liked it or not.
Isn't she sweet? Side note - you can see here that she gets a Teddy Bear Head rather than the traditional Wheaten Head. I hardly do any actual Wheaten heads these days. This isn't my choice, I just don't have any customers who like that look.
And just to show you that I'm not perfect, here is a dog I did a few days ago. I think he was a Shihchon. Here he is before the bath - what a mess!!!
Luckily he only had a few mats under all of that hair. Here he is after the bath and all brushed out but before the haircut.
They wanted less than half of his length taken off, which would have been longer than my longest comb, so I had to hand scissor him. He was only scheduled for an hour and a half but wound up taking two hours - and I really feel like I should have spent a little more time polishing him up, but I had a customer who had been waiting on me to finish him up so I could start on her dog. Yeah, I would definitely like to go back in time to do some polishing, but I wanted to be fair and show you the not-so-good with the good (I could just be picky, the owner did seem pleased with the groom).
Not my best groom every, but considering this isn't something I was really even trained for, I guess I'll take it. Hopefully they will come back again and I will have enough time to polish him up next time.
OK, last one. Here is a cute Toy Poodle puppy I did a couple of months ago. It was his first haircut, and they just wanted a light trim all over. Here he is before the bath.
There isn't a whole lot I can do about tear stains aside from shave them out, but his hair was so fine that his actual skin was stained and there wasn't much of anything I could do about it. Anyway, isn't he precious?
Most of the groomers I know now and have known in the past don't/won't/can't do this kind of hand scissoring, so I take particular pride in the fact that this is something I decided to tackle and perfect. Hopefully the word will get out that there IS a groomer out there doing cuts longer than an inch!
Oh, believe me Jennifer, the word WILL get out if you keep scissoring like that!
ReplyDeleteMost of the cuts that our shop does are snap-comb or full hand scissor cuts, becuase so few groomers hand scissor. I think that your hand scissoring is really good and will only get better and better the more you do it. There are many times that I could easily run a snap-on over a dog but I decide to totally hand scissor. Actually, I think it is faster sometimes to just hand scissor then use the snap-on only to have to go over it with the scissors anyway.
The Cavachon is beautiful! (So are all of the other grooms for that matter.) Don't sweat the Shihchon. From the picture, it looks like that dog has a very soft coat, and it is extremely hard not to have scissor marks in that type of coat. You could have knit picked on that coat ALL DAY.
To be honest, I am amazed that you have had no scissor training. You should be extremely proud of yourself. My blog may have helped you a little, but you are the one who has been determined enough to push yourself and teach yourself to hand scissor.
The word will get out! Owners DO talk when they are happy with the person that groomed their dog. Plus, other people will see those dogs and ask where that dog was groomed.
I enjoyed seeing your before and after pictures. :)
Lisa, MFF
Wow, thank you so much for the compliments!!! I really look up to you and admire you as a groomer, so it means a lot to hear you say that you are amazed that I haven't had any scissor training. The other groomers I work with have the same amount of experience as me (or even less), so I no longer have a more experienced groomer to look up to and learn from, so you and your blog have been invaluable in helping me improve my skills.
DeleteFor the time being, I'm generally a little bit slower with just hand scissoring, but I am sure that as my confidence and skill improve it will eventually be faster to skip the snap-on comb.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI like reading your blog, especially befores and afters :)
But omg now i cannot see the letters :( your previous design was much more readable!
Thank you very much for reading my blog and taking the time to comment, Insomnia! I will take your input and fix my layout again in a few days when I have time.
Delete:-)
Thanks!
Oh, now i can read, thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou hand scissor beautifully. I have only been a groomer for a few years now and scissoring in general is my weakest point, I do a decent job, I'm just a lot slower than my boss would like me to be. How long did it take you to get your speed up with scissoring? My boss wants/expects me to try and get faster by the end of this week and I'm afraid of messing up and falling short of her expectations. At the same time I would love to be able to do it quickly and have great results, my confidence holds me back though.
ReplyDeleteBy the end of the week?! That's a tall order.
DeleteI've been grooming for almost 9 years, and it's only within the last 6 months to a year that my scissoring has gotten good (thanks for the compliment by the way!). And I'm still a little slow at it. Speed and proficiency (and confidence, for that matter) can only come with time and practice.
Do you work for a big box store? I spent 5 years at one, and it was just like a factory - they wanted quantity over quality. There's not a lot you can do in that situation other than try to find a job at a private shop.
Anyway, keep your head up. I wound up leaving the big box store because they insisted I groom 8 dogs a day with NO overtime. I said, look, I can do 8 dogs a day or I can work 8 hours a day, but I' can't do both. Of course, giving up paid vacation time and health insurance is not something to take lightly.
Anyway, I'm just rambling now. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on my blog!
Thank you so much for responding! I actually work for a private business, things have been really wonderful but she has had to pay out a lot in taxes so here lately she is pushing for more dogs done in a day and has started taking later appointments in order to do so. I am comfortable at 7 dogs a day and I can handle 8 if needed, she however can do 10 or more and since she wants the extra money and she and I are the only 2 groomers it falls on me to pick up the pace I suppose. I talked with her last night after I posted on here because I was really nervous about what she had said and she clarified that she should have worded things better and that she just wants me to let loose of my fear of messing up and dive in there because she thinks I'm holding myself back in terms of speed. She said she just wants to see improvement by the end of the week which I think is doable but I don't think I will ever be comfortable grooming as many as she does. I came from a huge chain store and got in store schooling through apprentice/internship program they had started and found it very difficult to find anyone who would give me a chance after I left there, it took almost 3 years and the girl I work for now was skeptical. I was trained more on talking the people into shaving their dogs so it would be quicker and I could do more so I understand everyones hesitation. I had barely ever used a comb attachment and never fully became comfortable or confident in my scissoring because I rarely had so showcase it. I'm the type though that I do like to get the job done in a timely manner to stay on track and so the pets aren't here all day but I feel if I go over in time a little to ensure the pet is perfect or as close as it can be when it leaves that I have fully apllied myself and the customer gets their moneys worth. Look who's rambling now...sorry
ReplyDeleteMy boss is worried about taxes, too, but she went a different route and sat down all the groomers and said, "Shampoo costs $X, towels cost $Y, such and such costs $Z - is there anything we can do to reduce these costs? Are we making sure we aren't over-using shampoo? Can we use more cheaper shampoo and less expensive shampoo?" etc. She definitely wants to make sure we are still doing quality grooms.
DeleteMaybe start by picking one thing you can improve your speed on - maybe you are confident enough to do the nails faster, or take a couple less minutes blow drying, or do your shave downs a little faster. See what things you can improve your speed on without compromising on your quality. Because I'm with you - sending out the best-quality grooms you can will insure that people return - which in the end is more important than rushing through as many dogs as possible for the temporary extra few bucks.
That's all my opinion.
:-)
Anyway, good luck this week, I'm sure you will do great!