✋ What Is Hand Stripping? And Where To Start!

🤔 Is hand-stripping dying??

Let's talk about hand stripping! ✂️

As grooming evolves and client-demands change, so do grooming styles. And it seems like hand-stripping is losing its cool a little bit…

So today, we wanted to breakdown why we shouldn’t let this practice shed away…
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❓So How Does It Work?

Hand stripping is basically a fancy way of getting rid of all that extra hair or undercoat from our furry friends. Instead of just snipping away at the top layer of fur like you would with regular grooming, hand stripping involves pulling out the hair from the root.

(Imagine it like plucking out those pesky eyebrow hairs, but for your dog.)

You can use something called a hand stripping knife, which sounds intimidating, but it's really just a small comb with a sharp edge to grab onto the dead hair.

❓ Why Do We Do This?

For breeds with wiry coats, it's actually healthier to remove that wire coat and leave behind the softer one.

If you just clip the coat instead of stripping it, you're basically just cutting off the dead stuff on top, which can leave the coat looking dull.
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❓ Does It Hurt?

So, here's the scoop—yanking out hair doesn't exactly sound like a day at the beach, right?

But if it's done the right way, the dog won’t feel anything.

The soft fluffy hair (in wire-hair breeds only) comes out very easily, so the dog barely notices. The only thing worth noting is for those first-timers. If a dog has never been hand stripped before, he/she may feel a bit uncomfortable.

So start slow, ease into it like dipping a toe into a pool. Then gradually increase the amount of hand stripping you do each time, and soon enough, they'll be chilling like a champ.

❓ How To Charge For This?

Hand-stripping takes way longer than your usual grooming session—like, 6x longer!

I mean, you could zip through with a clipper and buzz your pet's back in five minutes flat, but hand-stripping?

That's a solid half-hour job for the same area.

So point is - charge accordingly!💰💰💰

❓Want To Learn More?

Everything looking good on paper? Well it’s now time to put this practice to work.

If you’re ready to get started, we found this simple tutorial on Hand Stripping Basics with Gina’s Grooming!

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In this video, Gina talks about why she hand strips certain types of breeds and demonstrate the basics of how to get it done.

And of course, every good groomer has a great toolkit. Here are the tools you need to get this job done:

✔👍✔ Stripping Knife

🖖✨🖖 Stripping Stones

✔🙌 Crown Royale Grooming Powder

😎👍😎 Coat King Rake

In summary, hand stripping is a grooming art form.

Not a lot of groomers know how to do this, so if you find the time to learn - you might be very valuable to a salon (and your clients! 🥳)