The photograph at the left is the most viewed “pin” on NPDD’s Pinterest page (clicked over 16,000 times, and re-pinned nearly 143,000 times), and has been one of the most viewed posts on our website, but the person behind this incredible Poodle cut was a mystery to us until very recently. Happily, we can now credit Isabella Jane Doblas Jones of Spain for her creative scissoring on what is called a “spiral cut.”

In the terrific grooming magazine, Groomer to Groomer, a piece written by Dawn Omboy, “The Timeless Spiral Trim,” shares the genesis of the spiral cut. It can be traced to the All American Grooming Contest, Show and Seminar originally sponsored by the late Jerry Schinberg. The grooming industry’s longest running event is now in its 46th year, but results of that very first show were disappointing to Schinberg, and he said as much to the first winner, Lynette Wallace Jacobsen. Understandably, the comment angered her – but it also challenged her. At the next show, Jacobsen “executed a beautifully scissored, balanced, and symmetrical spiral trim that went from the back of the poodle’s head, several times around the body, and ended at the base of the tail. It looked like a corkscrew.” The video below gives us a brief glimpse of how the cut is done, but finer details of how the cut is created can be found here.

Our thanks to Isabella Jane Doblas Jones who invites us to visit her Facebook page to see more examples of her grooming talent. She also details her work on the spiral cut here.