Clipping Heads

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showing71

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My sister and I got into a fight this week about clipping heads. On her steer, she wanted to shave him bald at the poll. I wanted to shave the front of the poll and trim the hair down on the back of the poll and blend it in to his neck. She said the shaved poll makes him look more masculine, which I disagree with. What do you all do?
 
grand chaser09":2eja5k6t said:
are you talking about like shaving behind the poll or just on top??
She wants to shave the poll down like the rest of the head. I shave the poll to the point on the top, and blend the hair behind the ears and into the neck. I'm trying to find pictures of examples but am having a hard time...
 
I'm not sayin I leave 4 inches on the poll like some geniuses, but I dang sure don't take it all the way off.
 
I always was under the impression that the poll is left to make the head appear larger, but I may be totally off base. Cowboy2.0 has my respect in this show cattle business, what are the pro's and con's of shaving verses not shaving Cowboy 2.0?
 
This is what I do...
Leave the hair behind the poll and blend it into the neck.
IMG_6252.jpg


This is what she wants to do, shave the entire poll.
2413343567_9b89a64df1.jpg


The steer has tons of hair, so I don't want her to shave it, because then what am I supposed to do with the neck? This is her steer, so she wants to do it this way. I don't know why, because whenever I have clipped her animals before she hasn't said anything.
 
A good poll starts with the person dehorning the animal. They need to be able to shape the head, not just cut the horns out and sew them up. If the animal has alot of hair, then you want a smooth, straight line going from the top of the neck, to the back of the poll. Th front of the poll needs to be slick with the sides tapered to a point at the top.
 
every animal is different, take a good look at the head and decide what to do.
if in doubt, you can always start by leaving the hair on, see how it looks, and then slick it if you decide that would be better.
you can take it off, but you can't stick it back on (unless you're really talented!)
 
I've found enough show calf pictures to prove I'm right to the sis. I'm going to clip him my way and i she wants to shave the poll, she'll have to do it herself. Thanks for the input.
 
showing71":29gviuzu said:
I've found enough show calf pictures to prove I'm right to the sis. I'm going to clip him my way and i she wants to shave the poll, she'll have to do it herself. Thanks for the input.

Lol. I'm an older sister, and this is what I would do. :lol:
 
Just to let you all know, I won :banana: . My family went to visit the guy who runs the place I interned at the past 2 summer's family this weekend, and we went and looked at his daughter's show calves. They pay big bucks to get them clipped by pros, and guess what, their heads were clipped like I wanted to do on my sister's steer. She shut up right away on shaving her steer's head bald.
 
With cattle that have fairly long and good proportioned heads, I clip it off. But I do it about 4 weeks before the show so it doesnt look so harsh by show day. If they have a short dumpy head I leave a bit on the poll, and shape it up (but not to the ridiculous levels some people take it).
 
showing71":3y1tdhxw said:
grand chaser09":3y1tdhxw said:
are you talking about like shaving behind the poll or just on top??
She wants to shave the poll down like the rest of the head. I shave the poll to the point on the top, and blend the hair behind the ears and into the neck. I'm trying to find pictures of examples but am having a hard time...

normally we just shave straight up the face and leave the top of the poll and behind it alone. then we just blend it all in to give them a longer look. but if my calf is already extreamly long then i do shave the top off so he doesn't look like a limo.
 

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