We greatly admire the precision that goes into creative grooming. We hazard a guess that as long as there have been people and dogs, we’ve wanted to fuss with their hair. From historical evidence, i.e., etchings and lithographs, we know that the Elizabethans sheared their dogs. By most accounts, Curly-Coated Retrievers were the first dogs to be groomed, their hair clipped short their hunter-owners.

Mary Elizabeth Thurston writes in her fine book, The Lost History of the Canine Race, that in the Renaissance, dogs owned by aristocrats were tended by professional groomers called “demoiselles,” who created hairstyles to match the extravagant coifs of their aristocratic owners. From the 17th century when the Poodle became the official court dog of King Louis XV of France, we have the first official records of dog grooming parlors. Groomers also worked on the banks of the Seine and in Paris streets, the French public wildly enthusiastic about trimming the coats of their Poodles into outlandish patterns.

G.O. Shields’ 1891 book, The American Book of the Dog, shared an illustrated pattern for clipping a Poodle. The Book of the Dog and Ashmont’s Kennel Secrets published in the early 1900s mentioned grooming in Europe or shared washing, grooming, and conditioning tips.  By the 1940s, “dog barbershops” existed, but grooming shops didn’t really take off until the 60s, and by then, new grooming tools greatly aided the work of the groomer.

It was only a matter of time before before things got competitive. Groomer Has It, an American reality show broadcast on Animal Planet between 2008 and 2009, put twelve American dog groomers in a competition for $50,000 and a “mobile grooming salon” prize.  These days, creative grooming competitions in the U.S. occur every month at the state, regional and national level. In fact, the world’s longest running grooming show is coming up next week (August 18 – 21st, 2016) in Wheeling, Illinois.

Image: The “Spiral Cut” seen on this Poodle was created by the talented groomer, Isabella Jane Doblas Jones, who has graciously given us permission to share her photo.