Once a week, gently, and often a cloth is better than a brush
The Cornish Rex coat is unlike any other breed's: only the soft downy undercoat is present, arranged in tight, uniform waves, with none of the tougher guard hairs that protect an ordinary coat. A Cornish Rex needs at most one light grooming session a week, and for many individuals a grooming glove, a chamois, or a soft damp cloth run over the coat does the job better and more safely than any brush.
If you do use a brush, choose the softest available, work only in the direction the waves lie, and use almost no pressure. Shedding in this breed is minimal precisely because there is so little coat, so grooming is about removing skin oils and loose down and checking the skin, not about controlling volumes of hair.
Oils, skin, and why Rex grooming includes a wipe-down
Without guard hairs to distribute and absorb them, skin oils sit differently on a Cornish Rex, and the coat can feel slightly greasy along the back between washes while the skin itself stays exposed to dust and friction from furniture and clothing.
Many Cornish Rex also need an occasional bath, and grooming and bathing work as a pair in this breed, but the brush is never the tool for working out anything stuck in the coat. If something is worked into the waves, tease it out with your fingers or wash it out. Keep sessions short and warm; a Rex has almost no insulation, gets cold quickly, and will enjoy grooming far more on a warm lap with a blanket than on a cool counter.
Handling a high-energy cat who may not want to sit still
Cornish Rex are athletic, playful, and famously busy, and a grooming session that requires long stillness will fail with most of them. Build the weekly wipe-down into a calm moment the cat already enjoys, such as settling after play, and keep it to a couple of minutes. A Rex who learns that grooming means brief, gentle contact and then release will cooperate for years; one who is pinned and brushed will become an expert at vanishing when the glove appears.
Use the session to feel the body as well as the coat. With so little fur, you can feel ribs, muscle condition, and any new lump or tender spot with unusual clarity, which makes this light weekly routine one of the best health checks available in any breed, provided you actually pay attention while your hands move over her.
Coat thinning and skin signs that need a vet
Because a Cornish Rex coat is naturally sparse in places, especially over the temples, learn what is normal for your own cat before deciding something is wrong, ideally with baseline photos. New bald patches, waves that break off in a distinct pattern, or skin that becomes flaky, red, or greasy very quickly are different from the breed's normal fineness and deserve a veterinary opinion rather than a change of brush.
Also see your vet if your Rex begins scratching persistently, develops bumps or sores on the exposed skin, or if ear wax becomes dark, heavy, or smelly despite regular surface cleaning. A breed with this little coat protection shows skin disease early and clearly, which is an advantage if you act on what you see instead of grooming over it.
For a routine this light, the risk is not overwork but well-meaning helpers brushing too often or too hard, and KinsLe Care Teams lets you record the once-a-week gentle session and its cloth-not-brush note on your Cornish Rex's profile so everyone handles those waves the same careful way.