# Can't take it anymore!



## sgeorge (Jul 31, 2011)

Well I'm not a huge fan of the Japanese style teddy bear look, but I think the spoo in that picture doesn't look too bad, not too 'doodle-like'.

If you're curious about how he would look all fuzzy, maybe just continue to grow it out. Then you'll know what he looks like and never have to do it again! :aetsch:


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## lavillerose (Feb 16, 2011)

My June to December 2011, below. Drove me BONKERS every step of the way. But dangit, I had Ambitions®. I was going to make my Mpoo look like a black Bichon if it killed me. Nearly did.

I would never attempt something this full on a standard. For one, I honestly don't think you can grow enough hair on the face to pull it off. They eat and drink, and it breaks just from getting dirty. Bichon handlers actually band up the hair on the top lips to help keep them from chewing/rubbing it off. This was almost 6 months growth on a Mpoo, and if I had any more patience at all at this point, I would have grown her a full year to really get the correct huge Bichon head on her.

Plus, disguising the long nose of a poodle is much harder the bigger you go. You have to leave a ton above the eyes and on the back of the neck. On a standard, we're talking show lengths, and hairspray to make the look work.

I've clipped Albi down to an inch Teddy since, but I still haven't shaved her face because I'm doing a Bedlington clip next. And I don't want to have to go through growing her face out more than this once. But thank God a Bedlington clip won't take so much freaking hair!

But I'm DYING to see her beautiful shaved face again. I miss her expressions. My dog is a year and a half old at this point, she's been growing this face for a third of the time I've had her! But I have ambitions, dangit! I suffered through the Bichon, and I will have my black Bedlington! Two weeks from now. Just two weeks more growth... And then in March I will finally have my poodle back.

Maybe you could shave his face, but still do his body and legs in the Japanese style?


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## Rowan (May 27, 2011)

I'm also not a fan of the Japanese grooming or the fuzzy poodle face in general so if you ask me: SHAVE! LOL 

But you have to do what works for you and Leroy and I hate to steer you off that path. 

SHAVE! SHAVE! SHAVE!

Oops, I mean, do whatever _you _want and all. 

Better yet, what does Leroy want to do? I think we should ask him.

*Lavillerose*: Albi looks amazing in the first pic. Your scissor work is fantastic---I wish I could scissor half as well.


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## sgeorge (Jul 31, 2011)

lavillerose, I just have to say that is a mighty impressive transformation! :adore:


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

I attempted the Bedlington clip on Vegas, but without the complete crown it just doesn't look good! That's SO much hair on a standard too. I say if you want a full faced clip, you'll want to do mini or toy, since you don't need nearly the amount of hair to get a full face.

On standards fluffy face = looks like a doodle, unfortunately. I loved Vegas's fuzzy face, but I was always washing it.. it smelled so bad.


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## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

I've grown out his face before, for about 6 months or so. His face got really nasty. So I already know what he looks like fluffy... the look I'm going for is a lot fluffier. I do not want to get into too much neck hair or hairspray-length hair! So I might just go with the shave. Lavillerose, you've got more patience than I do!! I keep looking at beautiful poodle-y looking poodles on this forum and really missing his shaved face. What makes it worse is that I've been doing more poodles at work lately... and LOVE their expression after and the cute little shaved feet. So I get my FFT shave fix a _little_ bit at work, but it's different when you see your dog everyday looking so ratty!

Also lavillerose - I heard that some poodles have a hard time seeing with the bedlington clip - I think it looks awesome on a poodle! Lets them slink around with their backs curved instead of looking so posed all the time lol


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## lavillerose (Feb 16, 2011)

Fluffy, now you have a toy, you can have a Red Bedlington at some point in his life! :biggrin:

Rowan and Sgeorge: Aw, thanks, you guys!

Tokipoke: Albi can barely see now, she's always turning her head to the side to see. I think once I get her cheeks shaved off and the nose and head scissored in, she'll probably be able to see a lot better than she can at the mo'. lol

By high summer I pretty much intend to zip her down with a #5 everywhere and do a full restart, but I'll never grow her face out again, that's for sure!


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Oh I plan on doign fun clips with Cairo! But I want to do a show clip while he's got his puppy hair, since there's not much else that looks good with puppy hair..

By the way Lavillerose, those pics are gorgeous!


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## Arborgale (Dec 11, 2011)

Not that my opinion matters, but I really like the classic shaved poodle face. To me it looks neat and clean. I feel that Japanese style is ok for the shock value. It looks cool on other people's dogs, but I want a poodle with a smooth face. 

What do you want to come home to? That you can only decide for yourself. I know Leroy will rock whatever style you give him! 

Seeing all the wonderful grooming on this site has given me aspirations also. I can't wait 'till Rosie is older and I can try bracelets. I will have lots to learn about scissoring in the mean time.


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## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

Cairo will be so fun to work with! Love the color!

I asked Leroy what he would like me to do. He said "Do whatever makes you happy, as long as I get a treat!" I'm sure he'll prefer the shaved face so I won't have to blast his face with the HV dryer. I'm also planning on shaving his ears. I get the urge to shave and now shaving anything I can lol.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

OOooh, I love shaved ears o3o


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## FunkyPuppy (Jan 27, 2011)

Oh, I am so disappointed! I wanted to see a Japanese Spoo! to be very honest though, I was hoping you would do it... so I wouldn't have to! so selfish! lol, shave away my friend, I really don't blame you at all!


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

Here's a clip I've always liked . . . on 'Keeper'. I'm sort of a fan of the short-eared, 'real dog' look. Even fuzzy, I don't think anybody's gonna mistake him for a doodle. He's allllll Poodle!


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Here's Vegas in his bed. clip. He's in the background. He gets a stick stuck to his face in the beginning and tries to grab it, then is all WHATEV IDC ANYMORE!

Also, Vienna is a dork.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

Here's a stpoo in kind the Japanese style clip. This is done by a friend of mine, who can be self conscious about her grooms so I wont say her name unless she wants it said (; she's a great groomer though!


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## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

lol Vegas is so funny with that stick on his face. I got distracted by Vienna cause that's exactly how Leroy acts. I think the black spoo in the Japanese trim looks great! But now that I've seen it, I think I can move on lol.

Sorry Funkypuppy for disappointing you! I fought long and hard whether or not to shave him. I really wanted to grow it out but it is driving me too crazy. So now I've learned: a) I can't go longer than a month without a face and feet shave. b) I have little patience for growing hair. c) I'm not good at keeping promises   

But! At least I can say I tried and I have strong preferences for clean face and feet. I'll go in steps and shave his face and ears and leave his feet for now. This is just more reasons why I need a mini!


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## bigpoodleperson (Jul 14, 2009)

I could never do a fluffy face! I think that black spoo above is really really beautiful and really like that look. I just like a kissable nose! Also, I hate the smell of beards and all the "stuff" they get in them. Not for me. 
FS, I think I know who groomed it.


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## lavillerose (Feb 16, 2011)

Fluffy: That IS a great groom! The rounded feet, just slightly ball shaped. It wouldn't take too much more hair to really accentuate that effect.

Tokipoke: What about a very small mustache? My mom's Spoo Pepper has had a little Van **** off and on. Big mustaches on Spoos just tend to look a bit dorky, IMO. But they're cute as long as you keep it small and close to the nose. With the Japanese style on the body and a big head blended into the ears like on that other thread, I think it would give it some real flair.


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## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

lol @ the mustache. I think I did that mustache for 2 minutes on Leroy when I was shaving his donut mustache to a french mustache. I'll have to see how I'm feeling on Tuesday (when I take him to work to get his shave). His face drives me crazier than his feet. I do want to shave his feet but also get annoyed with shaving it so often, because I like the freshly shaved look, so will have to keep up with it weekly or every other week.


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## mom24doggies (Mar 28, 2011)

I saw a spoo in the trim like what Fluffyspoos posted, except for it was a little shorter. I don't think it looks too doodley, although it takes more then one look to decide that it's a poodle. Either way, I'm a huge fan of shaved faces, unless the dog in question has a very short, stubby muzzle. Then a teddy bearish look is cuter, IMO. But Leroy has such a handsome face, why cover it with hair?! Trev is the same way, he has a gorgeous head.


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## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

Thank you mom24doggies! It's so fun to play with poodle hair! I figure I'll go the full face and feet look when Leroy grows to be an old man, when he can no longer take long hours of grooming. But for now, he's a young buck who will get the streamlined poodle look!! I just looked at my old posts and I wrote "I don't think I'll do the mustache/beard thing again. Blech, just not my thing." - I don't know why I keep going back and forth and torturing myself! But you know, growing the face out really scruffy and then shaving it has such a bigger impact than biweekly maintenance shaves on the face. I love the transformation!


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## mom24doggies (Mar 28, 2011)

tokipoke said:


> Thank you mom24doggies! It's so fun to play with poodle hair! I figure I'll go the full face and feet look when Leroy grows to be an old man, when he can no longer take long hours of grooming. But for now, he's a young buck who will get the streamlined poodle look!! I just looked at my old posts and I wrote "I don't think I'll do the mustache/beard thing again. Blech, just not my thing." - I don't know why I keep going back and forth and torturing myself! But you know, growing the face out really scruffy and then shaving it has such a bigger impact than biweekly maintenance shaves on the face. I love the transformation!


 I know, their hair is the BEST to play around with!! Yep, I've already decided that when Trev gets to be an old man, it will be a #10 all over with maybe a TK and Pom tail. But for now, heheh, poor guy has to put up with me.  

Me too!! The transformation is so much fun! I try to make myself go more than two weeks without shaving Trev's face, but I don't always make it. I can't stand those little fast growing, pokey, hard whiskers they have! And since Trev is a very cuddly little guy, always rubbing his face on me and stuff...those things hurt!!


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## tokipoke (Sep 3, 2011)

mom24doggies said:


> I can't stand those little fast growing, pokey, hard whiskers they have! And since Trev is a very cuddly little guy, always rubbing his face on me and stuff...those things hurt!!


I've been taking Leroy to work with me, and I'm caught stooping over him and taking the scissors to his faced. I'm asked what I'm doing to him! I say "I'm cutting his whiskers off. I hate how they poke out and messes up the lines of his face," then I went on to say how some groomers will even take the hemostats and PULL the whiskers out!! I was told "I can see you doing that" lol. That sounds painful but I guess some dogs don't mind. The dogs that are SO sensitive when you hit their whiskers drives me nuts! It's so hard to trim around their mouth. People have told me that I shouldn't be cutting his whiskers off. Yes, it does help with their sniffing, and people say with cats it helps their "balance and depth perception" but my cats are hairless and don't have whiskers and they act like any other cat. So they will be fine. When Leroy gets old and loses his eye sight, I'll leave his whiskers on his face.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

I have a groomer friend with Dobes that plucks their whiskers, they've been growing back thinner and smaller. She normally shaves them though (whiskers, not the dogs lol)


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## Jack-A-Poo (Aug 21, 2011)

lol it's very tough huh to try and grow it out, I know that now too. Sasha's teddy look was from when she was a puppy and her face was never shaved so when I got her she was already a mini teddy and that was ok. But now after I've shaved her there are times I thought maybe I wanted to grow out her teddy face a bit just to see how it looks like with a long TK and I didn't make it past 3 weeks LOL

If you can't stand it any longer I say shave it too else you'll just drive yourself nuts everytime you see him :lol: And who knows, one of these days (or years) maybe you can try again if you want....same goes for me lol I would like to see her with a teddy face and a long tied up TK but right now it's not happening for me as well :lol:


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## Rowan (May 27, 2011)

Fluffyspoos said:


> Here's Vegas in his bed. clip. He's in the background. He gets a stick stuck to his face in the beginning and tries to grab it, then is all WHATEV IDC ANYMORE!
> 
> Also, Vienna is a dork.
> 
> Vienna trying to play - YouTube


I was distracted by Vienna too and had to watch it twice to catch Vegas! I give Vienna points for trying. That other dog is like, "_What's up with this bitch?_"


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## Mallhopper (Dec 16, 2011)

tokipoke said:


> When Leroy gets old and loses his eye sight, I'll leave his whiskers on his face.


That was just too funny! I LOL! 

I wish I was brave enough to trim Bentley...You all are so talented!


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