The Details of Deshedding

By Christein Sertzel

It’s summertime in the Midwest USA, and time for many groomers to start talking about deshedding. We’re past the interim phase of Spring season coat shed, and on our way to the next phase, late Summer coat shed.

Spring coat shed consists of predominately blown undercoat, but summer shedding consists of both undercoat and guard hair.

The reason for this pattern is the function of the coat as an environmental barrier and thermoregulator. The days are the longest of the year, the heat is usually high. Dogs let loose all they can to create comfort. They also shed more guard coat in an effort to make way for the bulking up of undercoat production in late summer and early fall.

This phase is more noticeable to pet owners because of the amazing amount of undercoat their pets lose at home.

We start getting calls around June with complaints of “tufts of hair all over” and, “My dog is so hot.”

Genetically speaking, different breeds shed different areas of coat cyclically depending on the time of year. Typically in late summer, the Nordic or triplecoated breeds will shed an abundant amount of coat across their stomach and sides, rough and neck.

Part of this is due thermoregulation for their major organs. During the cooler months, you’ll find that these dense coated breeds shed less on those areas in order to insulate their major organs, but will shed more throughout the hips, pants/britches, and sometimes the tail (not so true with Husky/Akita/Sammy/ etc who use that tail to wrap around them in cold weather).

You’ll find that during the colder months they shed less on their legs and ears.

Shedding certainly keeps groomers in business year round with cyclical and seasonal coat changes. It requires thorough knowledge and that makes it a major component of a groomer‘s career.

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Working Smarter, Not Harder

Deshedding can be hard on dogs when we work harder and not smarter. Deshedding is also hard on groomer bodies and equipment if we are doing a lot of it mechanically with our combs, rakes and brushes. However, dead coat removal and opening or unpacking dense coat can be a lot easier. We must harness the power of the bathing and drying cycle to remove most of the dead and loose hair before we ever have to touch it with tools.

Utilizing the bathing and drying cycles is less invasive to the skin and hair coat. It can remove shedding hair and skin build up far more gently so that the skin is less likely to become irritated. In this way, there is far less hair damage and breakage caused by some of our metal tools. Water temperature and flow encourages hair follicles to dilate and release even more hair in the resting phase.

Irrigating or flushing the coat with more water volume and less pressure works great on longer dense coats such as Newfies, Samoyeds, Keeshonds, Chow Chow, Rough Collies, Australian Shepherds, Border Collies, etc. It helps open the coat starting at the skin and aligning the hair fibers as the water flow pushes through the coat.

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Higher water pressure and volume works best for unpacking medium to short dense coats like that of a Shiba Inu, Basenji, Pugs (these 3 breeds shed constantly but still hit a seasonal crescendo). It also helps open the secondary undercoat that is porous, as well as the lesser tertiary undercoat whose job is to literally weave in between the undercoat and create even more loft and insulating pockets within the coat.

Water higher in volume and pressure more effectively breaks up insulating pockets within extra fine undercoat, and lifts up and out any dead skin and oil build up. Breeds with dense, shorter coats typically excrete a lot of oil and it builds up quite readily under the telogen or resting phase hairs that turn over so frequently. Undercoat Hair Guard Coat Hair

By visual comparison we can surmise that undercoat hair will tangle and break far more easily because of its strand/fiber size. This hair is also more porous due to its cuticle thinness and composition. Remember topical products will not work the same on every type of hair.

If a dog’s coat is very thick and contains tertiary hair, a heavy silicone or a waxeous conditioning agent of poor quality, actually adheres MORE and the coat may catch on itself instead of releasing. It is important to rely on method and not just a specific product recommendation.

Trust the ProcessDifferent Hairs Means Different Snares

Dogs that shed seasonally typically have tertiary or secondary undercoat hair. This type of hair is more porous and has a different hair cuticle formation than both undercoat hair and primary or guard coat hair. Under a microscope these comparisons look like this. If we tackle deshedding with a 3 way approach, and don’t simply rely on a product’s marketing information, we can choose from a much broader scope of brands and formulas that work well for each type of coat, as well as perform well with water chemistry, and maintain

When we pay attention to the grooming process instead of just the product, we have much more freedom to address the coat types and issues, such as matting and depleted quality coat.

We can harness the power of the process and remove the dead hair, stale sebum, dead skin and environmental debris that literally acts like sandpaper on hair. In fact it can remove the “glue” in the coat and address the electrostatic charge in dead coat. Porous, dead coat has a negative electrostatic charge, which lifts the hair shaft cuticle and causes the hair to catch on itself. Choose a method such as a pre-poo conditioning step, or a co-washing step, BEFORE you shampoo to smooth the hair, grab onto protein-based dirt and skin cells, and remove the static charge in the coat by altering the pH. You’ll optimally want a cationic surfactant for your pre-shampoo conditioning step. What this means is that the formulation of the conditioner contains positively charged cations (positively charged particle) because they are attracted to negatively charged hair strands. These particles also sit ON the hair and resist being washed off by water alone. This action offers manageability.

Choose a shampoo that will adequately address the amount of hair and coat debris without being too overly stripping and perhaps lifting that hair shaft more with a harsh cleanser. A cleanser with a protein additive or other manageability or conditioning agent such as a silicone derivative will plump up and smooth the hair shaft with a thin substantive film and boost the untangling ability of the hair fibers.

Choose a conditioner that is high quality and preferably one that has a silicone

derivative in addition to its moisturizers.

Choose a coat spray that not only provides slip, but also contains a humectant for a healthy coat. A humectant works to help draw in environmental moisture. On a depleted or dry, lackluster coat, choose a coat spray with BOTH a humectant and a light emollient. This will offer greatest longevity of the moisturizing action to the hair and skin.

Note: lighter coat sprays work fine on dry coat and healthy hair. Heavier coat sprays with added emollients and humectants typically need to be applied to damp coat and dried into the coat for greatest protection and performance. These work best on depleted coats and very porous hair.

Deshedding Products

Aside from using both water and air as part of your most effective deshedding,

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choosing products to help with removing dead hair efficiently can be a groomer’s best, yet hardest, decision.

There’s a lot of deliberation in social media about what products work best, which tools to use, and what methodology is the most efficient.

It’s been my experience from researching skin and coat function, that some of the marketing surrounding deshedding products may sound amazing, but might not actually be that much different from other products in the lineup. Most deshedding products have some type of an additive that offers substantivity to the coat, which in turn provides slip. These additions to a formulation will minimally coat and smooth the hair shaft allowing for greater ability to slide the hairs apart. They also may contain a silicone derivative which will deliver the same affects.

There are many products available touting their use as deshedding products. I have found some deliver, while others do not. At a minimum, a majority of them perform similarly when all is said and done.

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What we should be thinking about the best deshedding products are three things:

What’s the meat and potatoes of the topical product formulation?

As long as there’s full disclosure of the ingredients deck on a product label, we can begin to see many similarities from one product to the next. What to consider most importantly is the actual type of coat that you’re looking at addressing for your deshed services. Remember that your water chemistry can drastically affect the function of many ingredients within a product. Second and third considerations are:

What type of coat am I looking to deshed, and is the formulation really best for that coat type? What methods would be more effective to get the most coat out without overworking the skin and coat, your body, or the dog?

With this information clear and upfront, choose from the range of products, regardless of whether or not they’re actually sold as a deshedding product.

Now with some products in mind, ask yourself the following:

Is there something in here that coats the hair for slip?

Is there an additive ingredient in here that addresses pH and will help lay the cuticle flat?

Is there a depositor ingredient in the product that adheres to the hair during the rinsing process?

You may be surprised to find that the shampoos sold for shedding, are predominately a standard moisturizing or conditioning shampoo with added silicone.

From my experience the KEY topical product is your conditioner and coat spray (which is also a conditioner) choice. It’s the chemical action of the conditioning steps that adjusts the pH to best help seal and lay flat the porous cuticle associated with undercoat hair.

Without the conditioning steps, your deshedding procedure will be sorely lacking.

Try these next suggested procedures for different coat types and see the results you get!

ONE

Lightly wet the coat with an ample amount of warm water which dilates hair follicles, increases circulation and promotes greater hair release. Monitor the pet for signs of heat stress and be sure your water is warm, not hot.

TWO

Apply quality conditioner and gently work it through the coat. Work it from root to tip on open coated areas, and massage it gently all the way to the skin. For packed areas squeeze it into the coat. Take your time and use your fingers to break up areas of packed coat by hand.

THREE get a squeak in the coat depending on your water chemistry and your product choices. Don’t always look for that squeak. Sometimes its not about the washing, but its always about the rinse.

FIVE

Apply your final conditioner application and work it through the coat by hand or with your shampoo delivery system. Give the conditioner ample contact time in order to do its best work. Typically 5-7 minutes for high quality cream conditioners is enough.

SIX

Do a very thorough cool water rinse with the cot lay. Cool water calms dermal nerve endings and helps tighten the skin follicles. It also helps to congeal the conditioning agents within your conditioner across the skin and the hair shafts evenly.

SEVEN

Squeeze excess water from the coat in the tub. Liberally apply a quality coat conditioning spray onto the dripping coat and work it deeply into the coat with your hands. Don’t try using a rubber or meta tool at this point. Your hands are the best tool for working in

Don’t rinse the conditioner from the coat. Apply a clarifying shampoo or a protein enriched shampoo depending on the amount of coat dirt and skin build up present.

FOUR

Work the entire coat head to tail, spine to feet, with the growth of coat with either high volume or high pressure depending on the coat type. This rinse should be warm. You may or may not

TEN

Once completely dried move to the grooming table. Areas left damp will continue to shed more and be prone to tangles. Work the coat methodically with a pin brush, comb, or a coarse rake if still needed. Stay away from slickers on any coat more than a couple of inches long, and stay away from fixed tooth style rakes for risk of stretching and breaking coat. Be mindful of your technique. The coat is smoothed, open, and aligned the most at this point. Your comb and brush strokes should be with a fixed wrist and the motion from the elbow and/or shoulder, just like hand stripping. A pat-and-pull method works great here, too.

In the end, you can actually save time and manual labor by working step-bystep with each component of the deshedding procedure by allowing each part to serve its function. Using water, shampoo, conditioner and coat spray and air in a mindful manner makes removing dead coat and skin build up much more easy on both you and the pet. That is time well spent.

the spray and feeling areas of lumpy (packed) coat that you can start to break up with your fingers.

EIGHT

Move the dog to your drying table. Settle them comfortably, and with a warm air setting and medium to high velocity, direct the air flow through the coat with the coat lay. Work the air from the surface, layer by layer, down to the skin on any packed areas. Work down into the coat, and be sure you’re blowing the water out so that the skin surface is dried as well.

Monitor your air temp and be sure the air flow doesn’t sit in one spot to avoid risk of burn. Methodically work each area of coat instead of erratically whipping air through the coat.

Work with the direction of gravity draw. The wicking ability of the hair shaft will follow this principle as well and the speed drying.

NINE

Use your fingers as you go from area to area, using the dryer to “airbrush” the dog in the most gentle and effective

See references.

Sources:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Scalepatterns-of-hair-shafts-in-dogs-a-irregularwave-b-streaked-c-mosaic-d_fig1_325858765

Tumiłowicz, Paweł & Goliszewska, Agata & Arct, Jacek & Pytkowska, Katarzyna & Szczepanik, Marcin. (2018). Preliminary study of guard hair morphology in four dog breeds. Veterinary Dermatology. 29. 10.1111/ vde.12656

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Breedsnumber-of-dogs-average-measurements-ofhair-thickness-average-medulla-areato_tbl1_325858765

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S2665910720301195

https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/287359922_SEM_Study_of_Hair_Cuticle _in_Some_Canidae_Breeds

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ full/10.1177/0192623316631843