All About Hand-Stripping

Wire coated breeds can be considered a double coated breed. This is because they have 2 types of hair that make up their coat; the dull colored softer undercoat, and the rich colored wire top coat.

Hand stripping is the grooming process of removing the dull undercoat while preserving the harsh top coat by finger plucking, stripping stones, stripping knife’s, etc. Hand-stripping is usually performed on a dirty coat, as it’s easier to grip the hair and remove it. Once you remove the dull undercoat, new, healthier, hair will begin to emerge from the hair follicle in it’s place and will be thicker and have more vibrant color.

How to know my wire coated dog needs to be hand stripped

Only the upper portion of a wire coated dog’s top coat is actually colored and has the wire texture that it’s known for. The lower portion of the top coat the hair is very thin and dull in color. A wire coated dog needs to begin being hand stripped at a young age to ensure time to get adjusted to the process.

When you spread the coat out with your fingers and you begin to see dull and soft under coat, it’s time for another session. If they are not hand stripped at this time, then the whole coat will begin to change color and will become softer in texture. This is known as a blown coat. In order to avoid blown coat, you should schedule sessions no longer than 8 weeks apart, with a heavy preference of every 4 weeks for pet coat maintenance.

Does hand-stripping hurt?

Wire coat was designed to be pulled to create and keep a weather resistant type texture. If done correctly, it does NOT hurt. Though some dogs may not care for certain areas to be done. If you are not actively showing the dog then these sensitive areas can be clipped or scissored to avoid unnecessary discomfort.

Why not simply clipper my wire coated dog?

When clip wire coat, you begin to damage the follicles, which will lead to the loss of rich color, as well as harsh texture; leaving your dog with under coat, which is soft, thin, and dull. Each time you clip the dog down the coat will continue to get softer and softer, these effects can also be found through spaying/neutering your dog, which causes a loss of important hormones for wire coats. There are ways to help preserve wire coat such as carding over clippered coats, but the only way to get and keep a nice harsh coat, is to continue to strip out the under coat and allow top coat slowly back in its place. It can take a very long time to revive a soft coat back to the correct color and texture, however it cannot always be achieved if appropriate coat type is lacking.

Three types of hand-stripping

There are 3 types of stripping: “full strip,” “staging,” and “rolling.”

Full stripping takes everything off and leaves the dog with just the undercoat fuzz, or bald with no hair (AKA “stripping to undies”). This takes around 10-12 weeks to begin filling in, but until then will be rather naked looking while the top coat grows out over the under coat if it was left. This is best for quarterly groomed pets, coats that need a restart, blown coats, etc.

Staging is when you are preparing for a presentation on a certain date, such as a dog show or grooming competition. Different parts of the dog are stripped by a schedule since each area can grow at a different rate and that each section needs to be different lengths to show of the structure of the dog.

Rolling the coat is when you have many layers in the coat. Each time they come in a layer of coat is removed so there is a shorter coat underneath. This allows new top coat growth to gradually overtake the soft under coat.

Benefits of Hand Stripping

Thick and harsh coat that helps to repel dirt and water reducing coat odor
Helps keep healthy skin, coat, and oil ratios
Keeps your dog(s) coat color intact and vibrant
Does not mat as easily as soft coat
Hair growth rate varies, some breeds can go 5-6 months between stripping sessions once you have layers

Cost

The cost of hand stripping and carding is a time based service ($65/hr) with a base bath charge. Hand stripping is a very labor intensive process, involving a specific knowledge base that many stylist cannot physically achieve. Thus making hand stripping a specialty skill, which in turn will cost more than simply clipping a coat.