How To Groom Your Bichon Frise

Doing a Bichon Frise hair cut can be a difficult process, but there are a few shorter styles that can be done by the novice groomer. Although overwhelming at first, following the steps to Bichon Frise grooming will soon become easy as you do it more often.

The first step you need to take is choosing a Bichon Frise hair cut style. When it comes to simple styles there are three choices. The first is a shaved down or lamb cut which provides you with the closest cut and gets rid of any mats your dog has. The second option is the modified puppy cut which resembles a panda. With this cut you only clip the body and the chest from the Adam's apple to the breastbone, everything else is hand trimmed with the scissors. The last option is a fuller cut or puppy cut, which is entirely hand trimmed with scissors and can be quite difficult without prior grooming experience.

Start with the genitals first while the blade is cool when you start your Bichon Frise hair cut. Make sure you don't clip any tail hair while you trip the dog. Next clip the belly by raising the dog up by their front legs so that they are standing on their rear legs and work your way up to the first or second set of nipples. Always be aware of where you are clipping. Move hair out of the way before clipping if you can't see clearly where you are. By feeling the teeth of the blade you know that they are separated which means they can catch skin. This is why you should always clip with the lay of the coat and never against the coat. Check your blade whenever it doesn’t seem to be cutting properly since it is likely clogged with hair. When trimming Bichon Frise hair a blade can become clogged quickly.

Next to trim and shape the Bichon head you will need scissors to do the job by hand. There isn't much that needs to be done with the head when it comes to a Bichon Frise hair cut. You just need to do some clipping in order to keep it in proportion to the length of the body coat. To shape the head it will take a lot of practice or trial and error. While scissoring you should use a picture of a Bichon Frise head for reference. Don't become discouraged if it doesn’t come out perfect the first time. To maintain the round appearance keep a little visor to the fur over the eyes but trim away any hair that hands into the eyes in order to keep the eyes exposed. You should cut any hair beyond the outer corner of the eye. Before scissoring you want to comb the head hair up. To keep the round appearance of the face you want your head hair to be similar to that of the chin hair.

Mary Stevenson has worked as a groomer for many years. You can master the difficult process of Bichon Frise grooming with a few simple tips. Bichon Frise grooming tips not only make the process easier but fun as well.