Long haired cat fur styles

[rrrrrreatt]

I had great success when I asked about cat grooming before so I thought I’d ask again!

If you have a long haired cat that goes outdoors, what trim do they have?

We have two beautiful long haired boys and one doesn’t really groom himself. I get it, his fur is very thick so it must be a lot but he’s also resistant to being groomed. I have an array of brushes and combs, only do it when he’s relaxed, try to do little sections, etc and we get by.

Recently though he’s been getting little mats on his tummy and under arms and I’m debating getting his belly and under arms trimmed/shaved. He has to have eye drops quite often and I have to clean his bum, despite regular hygiene trims, so I don’t want all our time together to be me doing things to him that he hates.

Is this a good idea? Does removing cats belly fur affect them at all?

Adding a picture of the mucky pup in my raised flower bed as I meant to include it in my original post!

What a magnificent beast. My late long haired girls didn’t have a cut. Just very short hair round their bums and trousers. I just used to de garden them as required. They had a professional groom every few months. I don’t like lion cuts so they never had them.

I did also get the groomer to trim their tummies short. And shave their pits.

My ginger boy regularly gets mats on his chest and belly. I find it most therapeutic to carefully unravel these mats while he’s sprawled on his back. He seems to enjoy it too, unless I accidentally give his fur too sharp a tug, which leads him to try to gnaw my arm off. It’s so enjoyable for both of us so I have no wish to lose this pleasure by trimming his under fur.

I think this is probably what I want, I definitely don’t want a lion cut or anything extreme! He’s a beautiful boy as he is - I just want to make sure he doesn’t end up matted throughout the summer.