Families and dog groomers, do you really understand hand stripping?
Today two dachshunds returned for hand stripping, a year since their last grooming visit with us. Audrey is wire haired and Mr Darcy has a longhaired coat, which sadly for the time being, is rather shorter than it should be.
Both coat types should be hand stripped. Not only is this their official breed standard, hand stripping is the only way to ensure each dog retains its natural coat properties. Hand stripping also promotes healthy skin and this contributes to the overall health and welfare of a dog.
Before we start, let’s address an elephant in the room, as some dog grooming peeps out there truly believe that hand stripping is painful and cruel. When done with true knowledge, love and care this is simply not true.
Let’s start by understanding the two coat layers
Each dog’s coat contains two types of hair. Short soft hair, usually referred to as undercoat, covers most dogs’ skin, and is their natural insulation layer. The longer, harsher or silkier hair is the primary coat and its purpose is to protect the skin and undercoat from ‘the elements’ such as rain, mud, parasites and also the sun. The best way for me to explain is to use some pictures we share with our grooming students and customers interested in hand stripping.
Simply to compare her two hair types, this wire coated Border Terrier has been photographed half hand stripped.
Why we need to know what’s going on underneath the skin
The primary hard wire outer coat of this border terrier grows out of the dog’s skin through hair follicles. The skin is the largest organ of the body and has four complex layers as noted on the left of the diagram below. On the right, the diagram attempts to illustrate the additional complexity of each hair follicle, both simple and compound. Essentially all one needs to know is that a lot can go wrong if the hair follicles or skin is traumatised and especially if bacteria then enters.
For those interested, very briefly the vascular plexus basically concerns a network of veins and arteries supplying blood flow. Sebaceous glands produce a natural oil which lubricates and moisturises the skin. Arrector pili muscles are what makes a dog’s hair stand on end when it ‘raises its hackles,’ and Apocrine sweat glands are less about conventional perspiration and serve more to release unique identification pheromones, or smell.
All dog hair grows from compound follicles (with the exception of whisker hairs.) Basically this means that both undercoat and primary hairs grow as a bunch from one ‘exit hole.’ There are usually more undercoat hairs than primary in each bunch, however the ratio varies significantly between different breeds and their coat types, and also between individual coats within the same breed.
The structure of each individual hair
The following images are primary hair samples, hand stripped from a lovely red wire coated Irish Terrier, and viewed through our microscope. C illustrates the shafts, tips and roots of the hair. It is very clear that the hairs shafts taper from a lighter pigment and thicker hair at the base, to a much darker pointed tip at the ends.
In the next image B, we see a small section of this dog’s coat broken by a stripping blade, and the collected hair once again examined closely. The shredded hair looks uneven and patchy on the dog, and under the microscope we can see the jagged shards at the other end of the broken hair shafts.
When a primary hair is cut, it exposes the centre or cortex of the shaft. In extremely basic terms, the hair remaining in the follicle, has lost its protective wire tip and the exposed cortex, almost straw like in dissection, it is now prone to sucking in dirt and moisture. Cutting off the tip has also chopped off its colour. Image A shows a wire coated Norfolk Terrier, whose hair from the skirt, shoulder and neck down, had been clipped or cut and is much lighter and fluffier than the hand stripped coat higher on his jacket.
How hand stripping works to keep a dog’s skin and coat healthy and natural
Let’s face it, the texture and colouration issues caused by cutting a wire coated dog’s hair are essentially just cosmetic. Yes the hair will totally lose its wire properties, yes the dog will change colour and yes it will get dirtier. But before we make any conclusions, let’s briefly think about what is going on in the follicle and under the skin where these hundreds of thousands of cut hair shafts remain.
My last diagram simplifies the stages of hair growth. All hairs eventually come to the end of their growth cycle and fall out naturally (commonly called moulting.) Hand stripping essentially just helps nature do its job.
Stage A is a fully formed, strong hair attached to its root ball deep within the follicle. Stage B shows it beginning to release from the root and C shows the hair now detached. D, E and F illustrate the stages of a new wire hair growing up behind and pushing the existing hair out of the follicle. G now replaces A as the new fully formed hair. A groomer can strip the hair from the latter stages of D, and throughout stages E and F, this ‘old’ hair can easily and painlessly be removed.
Cutting rather than hand stripping leaves all the old hair shafts in the follicles. This clogs the follicles up and eventually the lovely new wire tipped hairs cease to form. So not only do we have colour and texture loss, we leave the skin prone to problems such as dandruff and sebaceous cysts.
Which dogs should be hand stripped and which clipped and scissored?
I’ll sum up by stating that hand stripping is most definitely the best option to keep a wire haired dog’s coat natural and skin healthy. Most silky coated dogs can also greatly benefit from hand stripping. However it is much more common that silk coated breeds are clipped, largely without consequence, for convenience, ease and grooming budget.
There are many reasons why a dog groomer may suggest that your wire coated dog should also be clipped rather than hand stripped. From an elderly dog needing a shorter, simpler grooming session for health reasons, dogs with a lack of undercoat, to dogs that just won’t tolerate the time and patience required, an individual dog’s welfare needs must come first.
In conclusion, my personal advice is as a customer you must ensure your dog groomer knows what they are doing and can advise you accordingly. As a dog groomer, please only offer hand stripping if you are really passionate about why and how you are doing it.
If you’d like to discuss a one to one hand stripping knowledge and skills day with me, please email me at pip@thedoghouse-pro.co.uk
