Helping to Staighten and Smooth

Lets Get It Straight

As a hairdresser I am continually confronted with the problems clients have in managing their wavy, curly hair into straight swinging tresses. It appears dog groomers have just the same difficulties.

Owners of Afghans, Beardies, Cockers, Maltese, Yorkies and indeed any breed whose standard or judged success requires that coat to swing and swish in a smooth flowing curtain, continually do battle with the waves and vagaries of a less than well behaved coat.

I am reminded of the picture that Ginger Rogers made when she twirled with Fred Astaire and that beautiful swish those skirts of hers made with the hemline falling absolutely perfectly when they finished. Now it seems to me that the coat of an Afghan could be made to do the same.

I constantly see handlers with brushes tucked into the bums of their pants whipping out the brushes and madly trying to control static and coats that have kind of climbed up on themselves when they did their run.

Now we all know Ginger Rogers had lead weights sewn into the hem of her skirt but if we can put a man on the moon, then it seems reasonable that we ought to be able to get a coat to sit and behave.

Fortunately, advances in grooming products and techniques have heralded the way for all sorts of little tricks of the trade. There are two requirements that most of these coats need to conform to. One is to get rid of the wave, curl or wrinkle and secondly to get rid of the boof, static and bulkiness, allowing the coat to sit down smooth and flat.

To address the wave/curl/wrinkle, you will need to apply a special anti-curl type silicone styling product. Silicones of old were dreaded things to behold but the new dual and triple molecule silicones are water soluble and don't build up into nasty hard brittle layers. This should be applied to a freshly washed damp coat and just how much to apply will depend on breed, texture and degree of wave.

Plush Puppy make a product just for this, Plush Puppy Swishy Coat and a good rule of thumb when first using this is to add a heaped tablespoon to approx 300 mls of warm water in a spray bottle and apply "section by section". Naturally this will only work properly if you apply all the way through the coat. No point applying only to the top layers.

So section off and apply to the underneath layers first and blow dry with a coolish dryer using a good brush. Some advocate the good old pure bristle brush, but frankly, I never think they get through the coat enough for me. Besides they are hellishly expensive. There are several half bristle half synthetic oval brushes that are superb for this type of work for example the Plush Puppy Porcupine Brush. If the coat is particularly dense and coarse, you may want to make the strength greater or if there is a lot of static, then add a spray of the Plush Puppy Shine & Comb. If the coat is finer, then make the Swishy Coat strength less. You can always just slather it on by hand but that is fairly wasteful.

Here's a really great tip Plush Puppy Blow Dry Cream really flattens a boofy coat. You can either use this singly or mix this half and half with the PP Swishy Coat and then oh boy! watch that wavy/boofy coat sit shiny smooth and flat. Make sure when blowdrying that you stroke the brush through the root to ends and not overbrush which causes extra static. Work your way all through the coat in this manner and bingo that coat will be just perfect. So some of us want volume and lots of coat and others just have too darned
much of it.

On the day, a light mist of Plush Puppy Reviva Coat and water in the Plush Puppy Spray Bottle misted over the coat work wonders to reduce static. Just let the mist settle and smooth the coat with your hands.

And for the grand Finale Plush Puppy Protein Coat Balm. Just a tiny amount in the the hands , rub together and smooth lightly over the top of the coat for the perfect finish. Simply sensational this finishing cream is light as a feather and completely non greasy. It will leave the coat flyaway free and beautifully soft. Now run like the wind and watch the coat move and think of Ginger Rogers.

CHERYL LECOURT