# Straightening/fluffing question.



## Purley (May 21, 2010)

I am not experienced in grooming a poodle. When I give Lucy a bath I use cream rinse on her and then I stand her on my grooming table and use a metal comb to straighten her hair. I don't have a proper dryer - I just use my regular hair dryer. 

I am wondering if there is any way to get her hair to stay fluffy and straight for longer. My granddaughter leaves a lot of "people" hair products here. I have some Chi hair straightening lotion and several other mousse products. Could I use human products on a dog? 

I can get her hair looking fluffy and straight but as soon as she goes out in the snow - its all curly again and it seems like a bit of a wasted effort.

This is a photo of one of Karin Benker's puppies. I'd like Lucy's hair to look like this but maybe all poodles go curly pretty quickly after being outside. I don't think Lucy's legs will ever look exactly like that because she has pretty sparse hair on her legs -- I would just like it straight.


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## partial2poodles (Feb 11, 2010)

You are going nowhere fast...as long as you are using your low velocity human dryer.

And yes, you can use SOME human styling products on leg and topknot hair...but its a waste of time and money without that poodle quality dryer.

Everyone with poodles and SNOW has to deal with curliness. We just learn to deal with it and are more appreciative of warm, dry, not humid weather when we can get it.


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## Feathersprings (Jul 15, 2010)

I need Hoolies coat to be straight for clipping.. to maks sure it is nice and even and then I dont care how curly he is.. that is why I got a curly dog lOL! We are near the Ocean and lots of Humidity... My husband hates when i comb him and cant wait for it to go back to "normal"


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

Oh OK. Well I am not going to spend all that money on a professional dryer so I will have to have her curly. I suppose if I am going to have her hair natural, then there really isn't any point in using the dryer. I might as well just let her dry naturally. 

So when I have her professionally groomed and she is dried with one of those stand up dog dryers, is there any way I can keep her looking "fancy" longer or with all the snow, there is no product or anything I can do?


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## robin (Dec 18, 2010)

Purley, you might check to see if there is a self-serve dog wash anywhere near you ... they usually have hp dryers to use as part of the service. It could help out while you save up for a dryer.
best,
robin


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## neVar (Dec 25, 2009)

purley- right now my strght aint lasting more thn a day with all this snow- go out for a pee get snow- come in melt and curl *Sigh*


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## neVar (Dec 25, 2009)

oh ps im very very happy with my metro quick draw. $119 from tybrushe.com (alberta)


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## spoospirit (Mar 10, 2009)

_Yes...force air dryers can be bought very reasonably. 

It is a given that when you poodle goes outside and it is damp or them get into snow or water they are going to curl back up. It's just like the human hair. My hair frizzes and is unmanageable in conditions like that too.

I groom my two spoos once a week. The rest of the time, they are left as they are except to brush them out after spraying them with a conditioner. I would only blow them straight again if I was going to take them out in between grooming such as visits to the nursing homes and such. Then I would wet the coat first before blowing it out._


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## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

I think Jak used to dry Saffy with two hair dryers taped together. Now, granted. I'm not sure if this was perfecty straight, but he seemed to have at LEAST mild success with it. 

I would ask him, but, ya know... :/

Oh hypocrisy.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

yup, Jak would (still does) dry with two human hair dryers taped together, just cos then at least he has a bit more 'puff' with two! It's still nothing compared to a force dryer, and takes a looonnngg time on a standard with a lot of coat! 

But we don't have snow. And Jak (and I) minimise the out-door time if it's very wet and horrible; Paris has so much coat if she gets wet on a cold day it takes forever to dry!! So rainy days are inside days! haha.

I don't think it'll make a whooolle lot of difference if you have a bigger dryer; the snow will still cause it to get damp and crinkle right back up again REGARDLESS of if you have straightened the coat perfectly! If you're getting it mostly straight now, then a different dryer won't KEEP it straight any longer (it'll just be quicker to get it to being straight! lol).

Once they're damp, their coat will crinkle back up; it's a fact of poodles coats! Though I'd personally still dry her out with the dryer after a bath rather than leaving her to dry naturally, cos the curls will be lessened at least, and you will find the difficulty in combing a very curly coat compared to just a crinkly coat! lol.


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## neVar (Dec 25, 2009)

bella's leg hair stays pretty straight- top knot too just gets a kink in it. But the body where it's shorter goes cuuuurly (it's got probably agood 1" + on it.


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## SpooWishes (Dec 7, 2010)

I have to admit that for a moment I actually thought my spoo's hair wasn't capable of the fluff I'd seen so many photos of on here. I was so happy to see how fluffy my groomer got him. Of course he had to go pee as soon as we got home, so I snowblowed a path in my backyard for him ...not that he stayed on it. Those professional dryers are amazing!


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

I have said it before and will say it again...for those who only have one Poodle and do not want to spend gobs of money on an HV dryer...a small shopvac works like a charm. You put the hose in the exhaust hole and use it just like you would an HV dryer. You can likely pick one up for $50 or $60. This is all we used in one shop I worked in, and the air will warm as the motor gets warm. This is all Trillium uses on Betty-Jo and Jenny, and she can tell you, it does a remarkable job. Do not ever use it for vacuuming though or it gets stinky.


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## A'n'A Mom (Dec 4, 2010)

What length hose do you find works best on a small HV for a Standard?


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## Feathersprings (Jul 15, 2010)

I have friends that have used the shop vacs all the time and like them just fine.. you can find them on sale really reasonably priced!!! I think a lot of us used them in shops back before there were so many options!!!


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

So -- you mean all I would need is a regular shop vac and then use it for blowing rather than sucking?? And never use it to clean anything or the dog will smell like dirty floors???


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

Purley said:


> So -- you mean all I would need is a regular shop vac and then use it for blowing rather than sucking?? And never use it to clean anything or the dog will smell like dirty floors???


yup! exactly!!! They make good force dryers so you won't have to spend soooo long fluffing her coat up.

She'll still curl when she goes into the snow, but perhaps you won't mind so much if it's less time you spent fluffing it. lol!


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

Yes - and roll on the summer and let's hope we have one of our normal hot dry summers this year - not like last year's pouring rain - and then her coat will stay "fancy" for longer.


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## kime1701 (Aug 31, 2010)

*Air Shammy*

Purley, I just started grooming my spoo and bought a reasonable dryer called the Air Shammy. It is a motorcycle dryer but works pretty well. Kess has a really thick puppy coat and it takes me about 45 min to dry her with this one. I bought it online for 120 and it's made here. We'll see when her adult coat come in how well it works but by then I will have probably clippered all of that soft puppy hair off, just hate to do it yet.


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