Home / Haircut and Grooming Styles
Every roundup shows the same four photos. This page adds the brushing schedule, the professional visit interval, and the real cost, then sends you to the day-to-day care guide instead of repeating it.
Our own day-to-day care guide mentions the puppy cut in a single line: it trims grooming down to a weekly comb-through and a trim every six to eight weeks. This page is the deeper version. Havanese owners really keep four cuts, not the ten Instagram variations a photo gallery will show you, and each one trades a different amount of brushing time and grooming-bill money for a different look. Here is what each one actually costs to maintain, plus the one thing about the breed standard that most haircut roundups skip entirely.
The differences below come down to two things: how many minutes you spend brushing at home each week, and how often, and how expensively, you pay a groomer. Multiply a visit's typical cost by how many times a year you need one and the four options land in noticeably different annual ranges, something a photo alone will not show you. These are planning ranges built from 2026 small-breed grooming-cost surveys and this breed's own trim intervals, not a quote from any one groomer, your area and your groomer will vary.
Swipe sideways on a phone to see every column.
| Style | Coat length | Home brushing | Professional visit | Rough annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural or show-length coat | Full length, can reach the floor | Daily to every 2 to 3 days, 10 to 15 minutes of sectioned brushing | Bath and blow-dry every 4 to 6 weeks, no cutting involved | Roughly $250 to $500 a year (8 to 10 bath-and-blowout visits, no haircut to pay for) |
| Puppy cut | 1 to 2 inches all over | A weekly comb-through | Trim every 6 to 8 weeks | Roughly $450 to $700 a year (7 to 8 visits) |
| Teddy bear cut | Up to 3 inches, with a rounded, fluffy head shape | A weekly comb-through, with extra care around the face | Trim every 6 to 8 weeks, more scissor time for the rounded head | Roughly $500 to $750 a year (7 to 8 visits, scissor work costs more than a straight clipper pass) |
| Kennel or summer cut | 3/8 to 1/2 inch on the body, sometimes left a bit longer on the ears, face, and tail | A quick weekly check, plus a DIY clipper touch-up roughly every 2 weeks if you keep it fully short | Professional visit every 6 to 8 weeks for the bath, ears, and nails | Roughly $350 to $550 a year (a single guard-length clip costs less per visit than scissor detailing) |
The closest look to the breed standard: no cutting, a soft double coat left to grow, brushed daily or every couple of days with a pin brush and metal comb to keep it tangle-free. It is the highest home-brushing commitment of the four, and the one most likely to mat if you skip a session, but the professional bill stays lower since there is no haircut to pay for, just a bath and a blow-dry.
Clippers keep the coat one to two inches long all over, close to what a young puppy's coat looks like before it grows out. It is the style most owners land on because it is genuinely easy to maintain at home, a weekly comb-through instead of a daily one, and simple for a groomer to repeat visit after visit.
Close to a puppy cut in length, kept a little longer, up to three inches, with the head shaped into a rounded, fluffy silhouette instead of a flat clipper pass. That head shaping is scissor work, not a straight clipper guard, which is why it usually costs more per visit than a plain puppy cut.
The lowest-upkeep option: half an inch or less on the body, sometimes with a bit more length left on the ears, face, and tail. Some owners buzz it fully short everywhere, in which case expect to run the clippers yourself every couple of weeks to keep the length even between professional visits, others keep the modified version with longer furnishings and stretch the whole routine out further.
This is the part almost no haircut roundup mentions, because they are writing for pet owners, not for the show ring. The AKC's and the Havanese Club of America's own breed standard calls for the coat to be shown brushed or corded, clean and well conditioned, and specifically says trimming is not permitted except at the feet and for sanitary purposes, with a small amount of hair at the inner corner of the eye also allowed to be trimmed for hygiene. Keeping a Havanese in that full, untrimmed show coat takes grooming several times a week, by the standard's own description.
None of that applies if your Havanese is a companion, not a conformation dog. A puppy cut, teddy bear cut, or kennel cut is a completely normal choice for a pet, it is just a different look from what a judge is scoring in the ring. Worth knowing before you assume the glossy, floor-length photos in a breed profile are the only "correct" Havanese.
A Havanese's double coat does not shed the way a short-haired dog's does. Loose hair from both layers gets caught in the surrounding coat instead of falling away, which is why groomers sometimes call an ungroomed Havanese a walking mat factory, individual hairs constantly catch on each other during normal movement. A clean coat resists mats better than a dirty one, so regular bathing helps, but wet hair tangles more easily than dry hair, always brush a coat completely mat-free before a bath, and dry it fully afterward rather than letting it air-dry damp.
If a mat does form, do not bathe over it, water tightens a mat into something close to felt. Small, fresh tangles can often be worked out by hand, from the outer edge of the mat inward and from the tip of the hair toward the skin, never the reverse. A mat pressed tight against the skin, or a coat with mats over a large area, is a job for a professional groomer, who has clippers built to work safely underneath a mat, cutting one out yourself with scissors risks nicking skin you cannot see under the tangle.
A puppy cut or a kennel cut is realistic to do yourself with a decent clipper kit and a set of guard combs, most of the cost is the one-time tool purchase rather than an ongoing bill. The risk is concentrated in a few specific spots: the ears, the paw pads, and the loose skin folds near the groin, all easy places to nick if you move the clippers too fast. A teddy bear cut's rounded head shaping and de-matting a coat that has gotten away from you both take more scissor skill than most owners have picked up, which is where handing it to a professional stops being a luxury and starts being the safer call. A routine professional visit also catches things a DIY session can miss, an early mat close to the skin, a hot spot hiding under the coat, before either turns into a bigger problem.
Whichever cut you land on, the day-to-day routine underneath it does not change: our full care guide covers the brushing tools, bathing frequency, and when a coat or skin issue is worth a call to your vet instead of a groomer.
Every 4 to 8 weeks depending on the cut. A full natural coat needs a bath and blow-dry every 4 to 6 weeks even with no cutting involved, a puppy or teddy bear cut needs a trim every 6 to 8 weeks, and a kennel or summer cut can stretch closer to 8 weeks for the professional visit itself.
Yes, for a puppy cut or a kennel cut, with a decent set of clippers and guard combs. Go slowly around the ears, paw pads, and the skin folds near the groin, those are the easiest spots to nick. A teddy bear cut's rounded head shaping and de-matting a long, tangled coat both take more scissor skill, that is where most owners hand it to a professional.
For the show ring, yes. The AKC and Havanese Club of America standard calls for a natural or corded coat, brushed or corded, with trimming allowed only at the feet, for sanitary purposes, and a small amount at the inner corner of the eye. That standard is written for conformation showing, not pet ownership, so a puppy cut, teddy bear cut, or kennel cut on a companion Havanese is completely fine. It is just not the look judges are scoring.
No. Dog allergies come from proteins in dander, saliva, and urine, not hair length. A shorter cut means less visible loose hair to clean up. It does not change how much dander a specific dog produces.
Do not bathe over mats, water tightens them further. Small, fresh tangles can sometimes be worked out by hand, working from the outer edge of the mat inward and from the tip of the hair toward the skin, never the reverse. A coat that is pelted, or mats pressed tight against the skin with no room to get a comb underneath, is safer left to a professional groomer, who has clippers built to work under a mat without cutting skin.
More on that last one: our full allergy explainer covers why dander, not hair, is the real trigger, and how to test your own reaction before you commit to a puppy.
Every cut above works on a Havanese from health-tested lines. See what to check before you commit to a breeder, then decide on the look together.
About the breedRead the full breeder-vetting checklist