Hair! It’s what we love to touch; it’s what we hate to find on the sofa. The hard fact that all animal lovers must accept is that animals shed their hair. Just as humans have periods of hair growth and shedding of hair, so do animals.
This is a normal event in the life of a cat and it is largely influenced by daylight. There is a word for this phenomenon: photoperiod. The number of hours a cat is exposed to sunlight in a day (photoperiod) triggers the shedding process. It is more noticeable in outdoor cats in the spring and fall.
Indoor cats shed more consistently but in lesser amounts because of the artificial light inside the house. This cyclic shedding is made up of three periods: active growth (anagen), transition (catagen) and rest (telogen). Cats tend to have heavier coats in the winter months than they do in the summer.
Stress and illness can cause excessive shedding. A chronically ill cat that is shedding may also suffer skin lesions, as well as thin and abnormally wrinkled skin and scaling. In cases of excessive shedding a veterinarian should examine the cat.
Brushing and Combing
Shorthaired cats shed as much as longhaired cats. The difference is that with shorthairs the hair is less noticeable until someone sits down on one of your chairs. Longhairs tend to leave little “hair tufts” positioned on the rug or a favorite lounging area. The best way to combat shedding in both longhaired and shorthaired cats is to be consistent in grooming. By brushing or combing your cat regularly you can remove the dead hair that has worked its way from the undercoat to the surface coat. If this hair is not removed it will start to tangle with the healthy new hair and begin to form mats.
Cats with a very close coat such as Burmese, Siamese, cornish rex and ocicats benefit from a “Grooming Glove.” This is a glove equipped with fine rubberized nubs over the palm. Other tools that work well with close-coated breeds are a soft chamois rubbed gently over the coat, and a soft rubber brush like “Zoom Groom Soft Bristles.”
One of the best brushes to remove hair from medium-coated cats like American shorthairs, Scottish folds, and British shorthairs is a round boar’s hair bristle brush. This brush can get to the dead hair without irritating the cat’s skin.
For longhaired cats, a comb is a must-have tool. The best type of comb is a “Greyhound Style Comb,” which is hand-polished steel. “Peak” combs are comparable to the Belgian-made greyhound combs. The best size to have is a 7 1/2-inch long comb with 1 1/8-inch teeth. Half of the comb should be coarse and half should have fine teeth. Pin brushes are also good as grooming tools as they separate the hair, are gentle on sensitive skin and remove snarls.
A handled flea comb works well to groom the face of a cat no matter what the length of the coat.
source: http://www.petplace.com/cats/what-to-do-if-your-cat-is-shedding-2/page1.aspx
