Spring shedding in a curly coat hides in plain sight. A straight-coated cat leaves visible drifts on the furniture, but a curly coat traps its shed hair inside the curls, where it builds quietly into tangles and mats while the surface still looks tidy. The answer is not longer grooming — it is the same gentle sessions, run more often, for the few weeks the shed is at its peak.
Why spring changes a curly coat
As the winter undercoat lets go, loose hair works into the curl structure and felts if it is left to accumulate, especially behind the ears, in the armpits and along the belly where curls rub together. Part the coat with your fingers as you comb and look at what is happening at the roots, not the surface: a coat that parts cleanly to the skin is coping, while webbing between the curls means the frequency needs to rise again. Tease forming tangles apart by hand while they are small, because a mat cut out of a curly coat leaves a hole in the pattern that takes months to grow back evenly.
Frequency up, sessions unchanged
Keep each session the short, familiar length she already accepts, and add days instead — a brief daily pass during the worst fortnight, easing back to once or twice a week as the comb starts coming away cleaner. Continue to work with fingers or a wide comb rather than a brush, which would shred the curls precisely when they are full of loose hair waiting to snag. When the coat feels congested despite the combing, a bath followed by air-drying releases shed hair and lets the curl regroup. While you work, use the contact for the weekly once-over: claws, ears, and any spot where shed hair has hidden a skin change.
Hairballs, carpets and the rota
Shed hair that is not combed out is mostly swallowed, so the combing is also hairball management, and the house benefits in passing — hair removed to the bin is hair that never reaches carpets and bedding. The heavier rota is temporary but real, and it lands in the busiest weeks of spring, which is how it gets skipped or doubled. Split the extra sessions deliberately: one person takes weekday mornings, another the weekend bath, and each notes what came out, because a comb suddenly filling again after a quiet week can be the first sign the shed has a second wave.
With Care Teams in KinsLe holding the rota, the extra shed-season sessions land on different shoulders, and timestamps show when the coat was last cleared.