[Fwayiam]

My Lili is 15 months now and I groom her daily. I saw a dematting brush the other day and a lady in the aisle told me

she uses it once a week all over to get rid of all the loose hair. Is this brush okay to use? I wasn't sure if it will damage her hair or not. Lili is brushed daily as I keep hee hair quite long and she barely ever gets a matt.

 

[Raindrops]

There is definitely no need to use a dematting brush on a well maintained poodle! Poodles don't have much loose dead hair. Dematting brushes will damage hair and actually cause more matting in the future.

 

[cowpony]

Lili is adorable.

I wonder how familiar the lady was with poodle coat care. A healthy regularly groomed poodle like your girl should have very little loose hair. It sounds like you are doing fine if you groom her daily and rarely have mats

Mats tend to form around loose hair and damaged hair. Hair texture can also affect matting tendencies. My parti boys tended to mat pretty badly. Part of that was due to their love of romping in mud; mats would form around bits of dirt. Part of it also, I think, is that their dark and their light hair had different textures. When they got wet the different colored hair would coil differently and form mats at the color junctions.

I think, therefore, that the wrong matting comb could actually make matting problems worse by breaking the hair. It depends on the style of dematting brush. The kind with a row of hooked blades will definitely damage the coat. A Furminator will also damage the coat. A rake with widely spaced blunt metal teeth is probably fine.

 

[Fwayiam]

There is definitely no need to use a dematting brush on a well maintained poodle! Poodles don't have much loose dead hair. Dematting brushes will damage hair and actually cause more matting in the future.

Thank you so much! I was not familiar with the brush and thought it looked a little rough. Definitely will avoid purchasing one

 

[Fwayiam]

Lili is adorable.

I wonder how familiar the lady was with poodle coat care. A healthy regularly groomed poodle like your girl should have very little loose hair. It sounds like you are doing fine if you groom her daily and rarely have mats

Mats tend to form around loose hair and damaged hair. Hair texture can also affect matting tendencies. My parti boys tended to mat pretty badly. Part of that was due to their love of romping in mud; mats would form around bits of dirt. Part of it also, I think, is that their dark and their light hair had different textures. When they got wet the different colored hair would coil differently and form mats at the color junctions.

I think, therefore, that the wrong matting comb could actually make matting problems worse by breaking the hair. It depends on the style of dematting brush. The kind with a row of hooked blades will definitely damage the coat. A Furminator will also damage the coat. A rake with widely spaced blunt metal teeth is probably fine.

Thank you for your response! I felt the brush looked quite rough. I think Lili is shedding her puppy coat perhaps as a lot of her hair is starting to come off. She's 15 months right now.

 

[Rose n Poos]

Poodle puppy coats don't actually shed, not so you'd notice any more than any other time. 15 months seems rather late for coat change. Do you blow dry Lili's fur to be that straight?

This is what happened with my lighter boys coat at change (you can see his fur better). The strands themselves change from straight to curly, so the coat wasn't shed, it literally stopped growing straight or slightly wavy and turned curlier in the same strand. He was about 5 months old in this picture.

Lili is just adorable!

 

[Fwayiam]

Poodle puppy coats don't actually shed, not so you'd notice any more than any other time. 15 months seems rather late for coat change. Do you blow dry Lili's fur to be that straight?

This is what happened with my lighter boys coat at change (you can see his fur better). The strands themselves change from straight to curly, so the coat wasn't shed, it literally stopped growing straight or slightly wavy and turned curlier in the same strand. He was about 5 months old in this picture.
View attachment 471920

Lili is just adorable!

Thank you! Yes I blo dry her hair and she gets brushed for at least an hour a day. I really enjoy brushing her hair and she likes it as well. I notice every two weeks a lot more hair comes off her which gets stuck amongst her hair. Usually it gathers in the brush or comb and I get a handful of hair in my hand. Shes my first dog and poodle so I am new to everything 😅

 

[Rose n Poos]

I don't mean to scare you, and it depends on what you mean by a handful, but this doesn't sound normal for a poodle. She looks to be toy or miniature in size and that just sounds like a lot of hair coming off.

Just as with a human, you should expect to see some loose strands in the comb or brush every time, and since you're brushing for an hour daily, there's no reason I can think of for a poodle to be shedding a lot more hair every two weeks if they're completely healthy.

I'd suggest that you consider visiting with her vet first to ask about conditions which can cause hair loss in poodles. I'd also check with her breeder to ask if they did the full health testing on her dam and sire.

On a different note, since her fur is quite long, when combing (not brushing), can you get the teeth of the comb down to her skin and comb thru to the outside smoothly all over, without catching any tangles?