August 1, 2026
What Hand-Stripping Is, and Which Dogs Need It
This is for owners of wiry-coated breeds: most terriers, schnauzers, and a number of the working and sporting breeds. Their coat grows in a cycle — each hair grows, dies, and is meant to be shed — and the dead outer hair carries the harsh texture and the deep colour the breed is known for.
What clipping does to a wiry coat
Clippers cut the hair rather than removing it, so the dead outer coat stays in the follicle and the soft undercoat keeps growing around it. Over a few clipped grooms the coat gets softer, the colour fades toward grey or fawn, and the water resistance goes.
The change is gradual, which is why it often goes unnoticed until the coat no longer looks like the breed. It is also largely reversible with a season or two of stripping, though not quickly.
What hand-stripping is
Dead hairs are pulled out at the root, a few at a time, by hand. Because those hairs are already at the end of their cycle and loose in the follicle, this is not painful for a dog whose coat is ready — but "ready" is doing real work in that sentence. Stripping a coat that is not ready is uncomfortable, and no reputable groomer will do it.
It is slow. Our Hand-Strip is 120 minutes at $95, and the two hours are the service — there is no faster version of pulling hair out one small section at a time.
Is it worth it?
It depends on what you want from the coat:
- Showing, or you want the breed's proper look and feel — hand-stripping is the only way to keep it.
- A pet who swims, hikes, and gets filthy — the harsh coat sheds dirt and water noticeably better than a clipped one.
- You want low maintenance and do not mind a softer coat — clipping is a legitimate choice, and we will not talk you out of it.
What we will do is tell you which one you are choosing. Plenty of owners have a schnauzer clipped for years without ever being told the coat change was a consequence rather than age.