Selkirk Rex Grooming

About the Selkirk Rex

The Selkirk Rex is filed with the Cornish and Devon Rex because it carries a curl, and in every way that matters for grooming it is their opposite.

A Cornish Rex has down only, no guard hairs, and a coat so fragile that brushing it snaps the hair. A Devon Rex is sparse and delicate in much the same way. The correct handling for both is essentially to leave the coat alone.

A Selkirk has all three hair types, present in full and all of them curled, producing a thick, plush, woolly coat in loose irregular ringlets that a Poodle owner would recognize immediately. It is dense, it holds dead hair, and it is the only Rex coat that genuinely mats. Follow Cornish Rex advice on a Selkirk and you will have a felted cat, which is exactly the warning the Cornish Rex page gives from the other direction.

The odd one out among the Rex breeds

The three Rex breeds share a word and nothing else. The curl in each arises from a different mutation, and the coats behave completely differently.

The Cornish Rex has undercoat only, with no guard hairs at all. Short, fine, evenly waved and fragile. Do not brush it.

The Devon Rex has all three hair types but short and abnormal, giving a sparse, loose, irregular curl. Also fragile, and prone to patchiness. Do not brush it hard.

The Selkirk Rex has all three hair types present and normal in structure, but every one of them curled. The result is a genuinely dense, thick, soft coat. It is the only one that needs combing, and the only one you can damage by neglect rather than by handling.

The Selkirk curl is also dominant, and the breed was outcrossed to Persians, British Shorthairs and Exotics during development, which is why it has the round face and heavy cobby build the other two do not. Non-curly kittens appear in Selkirk litters routinely and are normal.

One more difference worth knowing: the curl is unstable through the first two years. Selkirk kittens are often born curly, straighten out over the first months, and then curl again as the adult coat comes in. An owner worrying that the curl has disappeared at eight months is usually watching a normal process.

Longhair and shorthair, and how they differ

The breed comes in two coat lengths and both occur in the same litters, since the long coat is recessive.

The shorthair has a dense, plush, springy coat with a tight irregular wave, closer to crushed velvet than to ringlets. It mats least and needs combing through a couple of times a week, mostly to remove dead hair before it binds.

The longhair is the one people picture: a full, woolly, ringleted coat with a plumed tail and a heavy ruff, genuinely sheep like. It is the higher maintenance of the two by a clear margin, needs combing every two or three days, and will felt if it is left.

Both shed a moderate amount, which surprises people who expect a Rex to shed little. The Cornish and Devon shed almost nothing because there is almost no coat. A Selkirk has plenty of coat and sheds accordingly, and because the coat is curled the shed hair stays in it rather than falling out, which is the mechanism that produces mats.

Neither variety wants clipping as a routine matter. A clipped Selkirk loses its entire character, the regrowth can come back with a different texture, and cat skin is thin and tears easily under a blade, so it is a job for a professional and only where matting has made it necessary.

How to comb a curl without destroying it

The tension in grooming this breed is that the coat needs combing and the curl does not like being combed. Both are true, and the way through is technique rather than choosing a side.

Use a wide toothed metal comb rather than a slicker brush. A slicker separates and straightens the curl, leaving a frizzy cat that looks nothing like the breed, and repeated slicker work over years can genuinely loosen the curl pattern. A wide comb passes through, lifts out dead hair and leaves the ringlets grouped.

Work on a dry coat, in sections, from the skin outward, exactly as with any coat that mats. Be gentle: the aim is to remove dead hair rather than to style the cat.

Do not over comb. Once a section passes freely, stop. More combing on a curly coat does not make it better, it makes it fluffier and looser.

After a bath, never towel a Selkirk vigorously and never blow it straight with a dryer on high. Both destroy the curl for weeks. Blot with a towel, then let it air dry or use a dryer on the lowest cool setting from a distance. The curl re-forms as the coat dries on its own, and a scrunching motion helps it along, which is advice that will be familiar to anyone with curly hair.

Humidity tightens the curl and dry air loosens it, so the same cat looks different in July and January. That is normal.

Where it mats, and the two rules that never bend

The same six places as any coated cat, all of them out of sight when the cat is standing and all of them places a cat cannot easily reach: behind and under the ears, the armpits, the inside of the back legs, the belly, the ruff under the chin, and the base of the tail.

On a longhaired Selkirk the ruff and the trousers go first. On a shorthair, the armpits.

Check by running the comb through those places every few days rather than by looking at the cat, because a curly coat hides a mat completely: the surface stays plush and springy while a solid layer forms underneath.

Two rules apply to every cat and they are absolute.

Never cut a mat out with scissors. Cat skin is thin and mobile, and a mat pulls it up into a fold underneath that sits exactly where the blade goes. Cat degloving injuries from well meaning owners with scissors are a routine emergency presentation. Clippers flat to the skin, or a groomer.

Never bathe a matted coat. Water tightens a mat like a wet knot. Comb first, always.

And watch for the things that change the picture: weight gain, arthritis and any illness all reduce how much of itself a cat can reach, and any of them will turn a manageable Selkirk coat into a neglected one within a season.

What to tell your groomer

Say the breed and say it is the curly Rex that needs combing, not the fragile kind. A groomer who knows Cornish and Devon Rex may reasonably assume the coat should be left alone, and that assumption is wrong here.

Ask for a wide toothed comb and no slicker, and ask that the cat is not blown straight or toweled hard, because both flatten the curl for weeks.

Say which variety you have, since a longhair and a shorthair are meaningfully different appointments.

Say honestly when the coat was last combed to the skin and where you have found mats.

Ask them to check the six hidden places and to trim the sanitary area and the paw pads.

And ask whether they take cats, work without sedation and keep cats away from dogs, which is the question to ask on any cat booking.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Selkirk Rex