It’s all the rage and oh so cute, people shaving down their kitties into eye-catching designs like feline poodles. People cite several reasons for trimming down their Maine Coons, including the fact that they will be cleaner and cooler in summer. However, your MC’s coat is not just for show, and there is potential harm in Maine Coons with lion cuts.
Shaving your Maine Coon into a lion cut style without medical reasons is not a kind option. Your Maine Coon’s coat helps keep them warm in winter and cool in summer through a complex process of fur-related thermoregulation. The coat also protects from sun and environmental damage like bites, scratches, and chemical pollutants.
Your MC’s coat is an integral part of their anatomy, and you shouldn’t shave your kitty down just for how cute they look. However, there are several valid reasons why you can opt for this cut. Let’s explore what a lion cut entails and how this style choice may affect your MC’s well-being.
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What Is a Maine Coon Lion Cut?
The lion cut is a grooming technique where groomers shave down most of your Maine Coon’s body with a #10 blade leaving the cat’s hair between 1.5mm and 1.8mm, depending on the clipper brand. The groomer will leave the following areas untouched:
- Face
- Mane
- Legs
- The tail tip or entire tail
- Chest (optional)
After the cut, the overall look of your MC will be that of a little lion, with a distinct “mane” and impressive tail. Below, the Instagram account more visually showcases the appearance of the Maine Coon lion haircut.
Is It Cruel To Shave Your Maine Coon Into a Lions Cut?
Your Maine Coons glorious coat is not there as a fashion statement—feline fur plays several crucial roles in protecting your cat from environmental effects. Not only does the coat provide a barrier to harmful sun rays and wind, but it also circulates natural oils essential for your MC’s healthy skin.
By shaving your Maine Coons coat merely for aesthetics, you may compromise a key component of their overall health and condition. Your cat uses erector pili muscles that raise or lower their coat hairs to manage their core temperature when the external environment is too hot or cold.
Your kitty also uses a seasonal shedding system to prepare the fur for its vital role in keeping them safe from temperature spikes and external pollutants. The fur also protects your cat’s sensitive skin, substantially thinner than canine or human skin.
5 Downsides of Giving Your Maine Coon a Lion Cut
1. Shaving Your Maine Coon Affects Their Thermoregulation
Many of us think of cat fur as wearing a thick coat in summer, but this is not the case. Cats’ fur acts as a thermoregulator, keeping a cool layer of air between the external environment and their skin.
When your cat experiences hot or cold temperatures, their autonomic nervous system signals to their musculi arrectores pilorum or arrector pili. These tiny muscles attached to each hair follicle cause them to stand on end, called piloerection. When the hairs are erect, the raised hairs trap air, helping the cat keep warm.
When it’s hot, your MC’s nervous systems send messages to the arrector pili to lay flat (pilorelaxation). This process reduces the air between the skin and hair, increases heat loss, and reduces body temperature.
Shaving most of your cat’s body to 1.5mm in length prevents their natural responses to regulating their core body temperature. This regulation is essential in felines as they have fewer sweat glands than dogs and humans.
2. The Lion Cut Is a Distressing Procedure
The lion cut requires your Maine Coon to undergo extensive handling, including sensitive areas such as their bellies, bottoms, and hind quarters. Combined with the extended period of shaving, the distress of the clipper buzzing makes the experience traumatic for most MCs.
Even if your MC is used to grooming, this cut is far more invasive and distressing than the standard grooming procedure.
I only ever shaved one of my cats due to an emergency involving a whole paint can and a very energetic domestic long-hair. The result would have made Jason Pollock proud, but a blue and tabby cat was not ideal going forward!
After the procedure, my usually unflappable Stix was in terrible embarrassment. He looked at us bewildered and tried as well as he could to keep his bottom covered. He was deeply offended by our stares and refused to walk past us.
I could only describe his outrage and embarrassment as a modest man suddenly stripped of his suit on a public walkway, with all his private bits on show to the midday peanut munchers. It lasted a day or two before he settled into being a feline flasher, but he let us know we had deeply insulted him.
3. Shaving Removes Your Cat’s Natural Protective Barrier
Maine Coons are double coated, most likely due to their Maine origin with the icy coastal winters of their early ancestors. The MC coat has three layers made up of the following hairs:
- Guard hairs: These are the main outer hair layer of your Maine Coons coat, also called primary hairs. These are the longest and thickest hairs that help protect from moisture, dirt, and bites or scratches.
- Awn hairs: These hairs lie beneath the guard hairs, shorter than the guard hairs but longer than the down hairs. These types of hair help protect the undercoat.
- Down hairs: This soft and dense downy layer is thick in the Maine Coon breed. The down insulates the cat from cold, and your MC will typically shed much of this layer in the summer months.
When you shave an MC in a lion cut, you eliminate the guard hairs and affect the awn hairs, stripping off a layer of protection from external damage. Maine Coon’s guard hairs are particularly water resistant, and their thickened form acts as a barrier to injury, moisture, dirt, and abrasion.
The upper fur also protects your MC from the following external damages:
- Insect bites
- Stings
- Thorns
- Absorption of chemicals and toxins into the skin
4. Shaving May Lead to Sun Damage and Skin Cancer
Your double-coated MC has an essential blanket of fur for the cold and a solid barrier to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one of the three most common cancers in cats, with an incidence rate of up to 48%.
Ultraviolet radiation causes skin damage in cats, just like in humans. The melanocytes in the hair follicles produce melanin, a pigment that protects from sun damage. The two main melanin types are pheomelanin (red fur) and eumelanin (brown/black), which lie in the cortex of the primary hair shaft. Shaving your cat’s fur affects this protective barrier and may allow harmful UV rays to penetrate their skin.
5. Shaving Removes Your MC’s Defensive Displays
Our domestic cats’ ancestors are solitary creatures, and although our modern cats can and do exhibit social behavior. However, their inter-species communication is limited compared to pack-minded dogs.
Cats communicate fear and aggression to each other and other species by raising the hair along their spines and necks to signal a wary and defiant mindset. When a cat fully arouses their fur and turns itself sideward to its enemy, it appears larger and more dangerous to its potential attacker.
When you shave your cat, you remove one of their most essential communications and threat displays to other potentially harmful animals. This lack may leave them more vulnerable to attacks from other cats or neighborhood dogs.
4 Advantages of Giving Your Maine Coon a Lion Cut
Sometimes, despite the importance of a Maine Coon’s fur for its well-being, there are still occasions when it’s beneficial to give them a lion-style haircut. Here are four advantages of giving a Maine Coon a lion cut.
1. Medical Treatments for Fungal Ringworm
Microsporium Canis is a fungus that causes ringworm or dermatophytosis and affects your kitty’s skin, nails, and hair. Ringworm is, in fact, not a worm at all but a fungus. The common name refers to the characteristic ring-shaped lesions caused by the fungus feeding on dead cells on the outer layer of the skin.
The infestation can cause thickened skin, hair loss, and nail deformities, and the lesions may invite bacterial infections if you leave the fungus untreated. Ringworm is also highly contagious to other pets and humans. The fungus can lurk in your home and environment for up to a year, so intensive cleaning is essential if your MC is infected.
Your Vet may suggest that shaving your cat is the best option for long-haired cats, such as the Maine Coon, if they have a widespread infection. The thick hair may obstruct the application of topical medications and make the fungus more challenging to treat. When you shave your MC, applying medication to affect the infected wound is more manageable.
2. Your MC Has Acutely Matted Fur
If your Maine Coon has acutely matted fur and you cannot rectify it by regular grooming, then shaving may be an option. Matted fur can cause discomfort, pain, and even sepsis if you leave the condition unaddressed.
Over time, matted fur tightens and becomes itchy, causing your MC significant discomfort. The lack of airflow to the skin and the matt may become a breeding ground for fungal infections. If your MC is severely matted, you may shave off the mats rather than the painful and laborious process of combing out an acutely matted coat.
3. Shaving as a Form of Hairball Control
Cats with long hair, such as Persians and Maine Coons may be particularly susceptible to developing hairballs. As your MC grooms themselves, the hooked projections on their tongues sometimes pass the hair down their throats and into their stomachs. The cat hair follicle is primarily keratin, a protein cats cannot digest.
While your cat may pass most of the hair safely through their feces, some hair may remain behind in the stomach and collect into a soggy clump called a trichobezoar or hairball. Some suggest shaving as a preventive measure, but most experts agree that attentive grooming is the best solution to excessive hairballs.
4. Old Age and Grooming Difficulty
If your Maine Coon is in their senior years, they may no longer have the flexibility or energy to groom themselves adequately. Hip dysplasia is a common ailment in Maine Coon seniors, which can lead to arthritis and impaired mobility.
You may opt for shaving should your Main Coon struggle to groom themselves—particularly if they may soil themselves due to medical issues. However, a regular grooming and washing routine may still be safer and less distressing.
Step-by-Step Procedure to the Lion Cut
If your Maine Coon has a good reason for you to opt for a lion cut, you should approach a professional groomer. Although you might want to attempt the procedure yourself, the complexity of the shaving may require more expertise. Professionals have experience with such procedures and can make the process quicker and less distressing than a DIY attempt.
They will often conduct a rough cut before bathing the kitty and finish off with a perfecting trim after your kitty is clean. The groomer will typically follow this process.
1. The initial Shave
Your groomer typically opts for a #10 blade and begins from the base of your cat’s tail. They then shave the fur upwards toward your Maine Coons head, pulling the skin taught and working against the grain of the fur.
2. The Chin and Chest
They will shave until the line of the ruff and create an edge, moving the ruff forward while shaving to make a definite line. They will work around the chin to chest area. They will then carefully shave your kitty’s underarm areas and the top of their legs. Most groomers will not shave the lower leg areas as these areas are particularly sensitive.
3. Belly Time
Once they have shaved your kitty’s back, your groomer will work toward your MC’s belly. They will typically stand your kitty firmly on the grooming counter with their hind feet in contact with the surface. This position eliminates the stress response of turning a nervous kitty belly up.
They will shave downward for visibility, then finish against the grain. Then, they will gently lift the tail and shave the delicate areas.
4. The Lions Tall
The groomer will then shave the tail downwards with the grain either to the top of the tail or down the shaft to leave a pompom effect on the end. I would suggest you keep Maine Coon’s tail intact, as it is their crowning glory after all.
5. Wash and Blow Dry
Once your groomer completes the shaving, they will wash your kitty to eliminate loose or sharp, pointed hair that can irritate. When your kitty is washed and dried, your groomer will touch up any rough areas to complete a sleek finished look.
Look at this matted MC beauty going through the lion cut grooming process:
Closing Thoughts
Our gentle giants are complex and beautiful creatures who deserve all our love and care. Treating a deep-thinking and feeling creature as a fashion object denies them the autonomy and respect they deserve from their humans. If your kitty has a medical issue, ensure that shaving is the only option before stripping them of the vital protection of their glorious coat.
