Banding manes?

Can someone tell me the proper way to band a mane?

and what do you do for a very thick mane? its too long to not pull, and I am afraid it will stand up if I do..... how do I get it to lay down, and not be so thick?

I use those thinning shears like for humans.. When I band and trim then go through and thin.. I also moose the heck out of it when I am done and put on a tight sleazy. Next morning is lays flat and looks great.. practice makes perfect.. The more you do it the better it gets..

One important tip when banding is to always pull down while wrapping the band around and don't band right at the top of the mane but a slight ways down if htat makes sense. The way to get the bands down instead of sticking straight up is after you have put on the band, take a small bit of hair from either side of the back of the band and pull each side away from the band . That sounds confusing the way I explain it but it's definitely the trick! Maybe someone can explain better. And of course Blujay is right mousse and a slinky are also necessary. My horses all have thin manes already so I have no experience with thinning.

My horse has the world's thickest mane, and I can usually get them to lay down without pulling.
I just band as normal, don't use too thick of hair sections. Then after, take the hair that's under in the band, and pull one little piece to the left and one to the right, thereby tightening the band. But you've got to pull from underneath, otherwise you're just exacering the problem!

My trainer swears by some product called Dippity Do, but I've never tried it...

LovingLoping, you are cracking me up! Do you have any idea how long dippety do has been around? Well, I'm 47, and it's been around longer than me. So funny, I haven't heard of dippety do in forever... but it'll work!

LovingLoping wrote:

My trainer swears by some product called Dippity Do, but I've never tried it...

LOL, you find it in the...ummm...African American section of the hair products aisle. (Trying to be PC here, don't want to get suspended like Don Imus - what a joke - if Chris Rock had said the same thing, nobody would have made a peep. Sorry - OT.)

Remember those bee-hive hairdos of the '50s and '60s... well, that was all done with Dippety Do and teasing.

Some of you are probably too young to remember this... remember those gosh-darned pink rollers that we rolled our hair up with, and you had to sleep with 'em... HA! Well, you put a little dippety-do in your hair, roll it up on those pink rollers, and I'm telling ya, you'd keep your curl, by gosh... no wind or hurricane was going to break that! HA!

With the new change in halter with not putting up long hair, but having "curled" long hair, I'm seriously thinking about getting me some more of those rollers, and putting them before we leave for the show, sleep on 'em, and then take 'em out the next morning... I just don't know if I can sleep in those danged things anymore.

Ha, leave it to *my* trainer to use the cultural products. The way she referred to it, I just assumed it was horse-related. HA.

And the Don Imus thing...absurd. I mean, no he shouldn't have said it, but yes he's entitled to his own opinion. Why is it so danged important?

Even my thick maned horses i don't pull I just band smaller sections, my general rule of thumb is the thicker the mane the smaller the section.

Dippity Doo is the GREATEST. I swear by it I use it on all my horses. My gelding has the wildest forelock and it even tames that.
BTW I am 17 so Dippity Do is still pretty common

Merikle, did you get it figured out?

Yeah! Dippity Do! Love it!

Guess the new word is Styling Gel! The thick gel. Same thing. My mom use to curl my hair with Dippity Do, Every Saturday Night, for Church, unless I was at my Grandmas then it was rags in my hair, and let me tell you, rags in your hair and electric barb wire fences do not mix!

Its a real shocker.


DO NOT DO THIS... I have seen folks that on thick manes GET THIS NOW, take clippers and cut the under part of the mane, so there mane is only 1/2 as thick. I was thinking are you crazy! What happens when the under part of the mane grows out. Well, guess they didn't have to pull it.

7cedars wrote:

Merikle, did you get it figured out?

LOL I will try it this weekend when I give him a bath... By geebers its going to be PLUS 17!! lol I am going to get my best friend to do it... She is way better with hair than I am... I'm more inclined to throw my 15 inches of hair into a pony, or just leave it down... Provided it doesnt bug me! lol

Oh and by the way 7 Cedars.... my colts a Tovero.... LOL very WHITE! hence why I won't show any of you pictures until I bathe him!!! haha

He is tucking up a bit, just like you said... i am so happy with him lately, being such a good boy... I hope we kick toosh in those classes (by the way, I am entering him in like 7 halter classes in the same show!).

We will see how we do... if we dont do well.... please tell us LOL

You know, when I had all the paints I swore by this one product and still use it. It's by Premier Products, think that's right. I've got the phone # and everything, and I can probably pull the website up, but anyhoo.... you talking about whitening of those white horses. It's purple stuff. I won't use anything but that. You get that on there and get you a rice brush and get it going and you won't have a gray spot anywhere!

I have another friend that swears by the silver something or another, too.

Just make sure when you go to the show you have some baby wipes or some alcohol, etc. with ya, just in case you need to do some spot wiping there.

You'll do fine!

I bought Quicksilver by the gallon when I showed my paints.

Quicksilver is great stuff...but, word to the wise, don't let it sit on your horse for very long before scrubbing it in. A friend of mine years ago had a grey Arab (he had completely greyed out, so his coat was completely white). Well, before a show, she bathed him - we were goofing off while bathing, and she wrote his name, Aanthem, on his side in Quicksilver. LOL, in the halter class the next day, the judge said, "So, your horse's name must be Aanthem." LOL, she tried and tried to get it off, but it had to WEAR off!!

Merikle Waters
Pratice on a broodmare (s). When you do the pulling and cutting. Someone that it doesn't matter is you mess up. Do those before you get the one that matters. If you make a mistake on those it doesn't matter. But time you get threw your bunch. You would be ready to take on the one that really matters.

Triple J Quarter Horses wrote:

DO NOT DO THIS... I have seen folks that on thick manes GET THIS NOW, take clippers and cut the under part of the mane, so there mane is only 1/2 as thick. I was thinking are you crazy! What happens when the under part of the mane grows out. Well, guess they didn't have to pull it.

I do this with Parker, and it works miracles. His mane is about 2 inches thick, and if i tried to pull it, i would kill him. When i clip him, i just do his mane. I do it about once a month, and it doesn't grow out too much. The first time was kinda bad since i didn't know what i was doing. But, now, it turns out really good. When i band him, it lays down really nice. I have never had it turn out bad. I do it for all of my shows. and, since it stays trimmed, it stays laying down all the time, even in the pasture. different strokes for differnt folks i guess.

Jordan

See there ya go a you just never know! Hee hee.

Where can you go to color match the mane with the bands? I can only find white and black and rainbow bands in the tack stores!

You use black on your darker manes; white on your lighter manes, red on your sorrels.

I thought you were supposed to match the mane color. Cool, this is gonna be easy!

You should be able to get some brown ones.. I think if a horse has a light colored mane and really nice long thin neck that white looks good.. I use black on bay and brown on all the brown horses.. You might have to order them. Or, i can get you some and mail them to you?

Thanks, Bluejay, for that... I slap forgot about the brown ones!!!!

Triple J- I have pulled a mane before... did a good job, but his mane was so thick, it stood up like a brush cut (didn't band it or put in any products..). But, I will probably pull the old mans mane LOL, I'll need a very large step ladder though.... he's 17.2!

We are going to bathe him (his first bathe ever.... should be interesting! LOL), band his mane, black his hooves, clip where we need to clip if we can..... (i think I need a different twitch to do it properly!), and take pictures for you all! Then you can approve or dissaprove! LOL

We are still waiting for our yearling show halter to show up.... so he will be in a normal halter as our adult one will be way to big! lol

he's 17.2 OH my word! Glad it's you and not me. 17.2 Gosh!