Maltese Haircut Styles & Grooming Tips

A Maltese is one of the few small dogs whose haircut is really a maintenance decision, not a style one. That long, silky, single coat barely sheds, but it tangles by the day, and the cut you choose decides how many minutes you spend with a comb every morning. Get the Maltese haircut right and grooming becomes a ten-minute job. Get it wrong – pick the floor-length show coat with a full-time job and a toddler – and you’ll be back at the salon paying to shave out mats within a month.

A Maltese has a single, silky coat that doesn’t shed but mats fast, so it needs daily brushing and a professional groom every 4 to 6 weeks. Most owners pick a short puppy cut or teddy bear cut for easy upkeep; a long show coat looks stunning but wants 20 to 30 minutes of brushing a day. Tear stains and matting are the two things to stay on top of.

The Maltese coat, and why it drives everything

Unlike most breeds, the Maltese has a single coat with no woolly undercoat – fine, dead-straight and pure white, closer to human hair than to dog fur. It sheds very little, which is part of the breed’s appeal, but every hair that would have dropped out instead stays in the coat and works its way into a tangle. That’s why a Maltese mats faster than a heavier-coated dog, and why a cross like a maltipoo often carries a slightly easier, wavier coat. Left long, a Maltese coat grows almost to the floor; kept short, it’s one of the lowest-fuss little dogs going. The texture barely changes through the year, so unlike a double-coated breed there’s no seasonal blow to plan around.

Maltese haircut styles, from puppy cut to show coat

There’s no single right answer here. Every style below is a trade-off between how much coat you keep and how much brushing you’re signing up for. The common ones, shortest upkeep first:

The puppy cut

The most popular and most practical Maltese haircut. The coat is clipped to one even length all over – usually somewhere between 6 and 25mm – so the dog looks tidy and round without the daily wrestling match. It’s the cut we put most pet Maltese in, and the one to ask for if you want the breed’s charm without the maintenance. It pairs well with a small top knot or a tidied fringe if the head hair is left a little longer.

The teddy bear cut

A close cousin of the puppy cut, with the body taken short and the face scissored round and full so the dog looks like a soft toy. It’s the same idea as the teddy bear look on a cavoodle, just on a finer coat. Lovely on a Maltese, but the rounded face needs scissor skill and regular tidying to hold its shape.

The top knot and the show coat

Left in full length, the Maltese carries the long, straight, parted coat the breed standard describes, with the head hair tied up in a top knot to keep it out of the eyes. It’s genuinely beautiful and genuinely demanding – think 20 to 30 minutes of brushing a day, wrapping for show dogs, plus a real risk of mats if you skip even a couple of days. Stunning for the ring; a lot for a pet.

The summer or short cut

A very short all-over clip, shorter than a puppy cut, for owners who want the lowest possible upkeep through the warm months. It’s practical, but go too short on a white dog and you expose pale skin – more on that under the climate section below.

The Maltese bob and the face trim

The bob keeps the body short while leaving the ears and tail a little longer, for a softer outline. Separate from any full style, a regular face and sanitary trim – hair tidied around the eyes, the bum and the paw pads – keeps a long-coated Maltese comfortable and clean between full grooms.

The daily and weekly routine

Whatever style you choose, the rule is the same: comb first, then brush. Run a stainless-steel comb right down to the skin to find tangles forming underneath, then work them loose with a pin or slicker brush – brushing only the top layer pushes mats down towards the skin and makes them worse. A short-clipped Maltese needs a few minutes most days; a long coat needs a thorough 20 to 30 minutes daily. Get your dog used to it early; a little cooperative care training, rewarding the dog for lying still while you handle the face and feet, turns brushing from a fight into a routine.

If your Maltese already hates being handled, slow right down and work through a desensitise your puppy routine before you push on. Forcing a frightened dog through a long brush-out teaches it to dread the whole business, and a Maltese needs handling for life.

Bathing and drying

Bath a Maltese every couple of weeks or so with a gentle dog shampoo and a conditioner – the conditioner matters, because it helps the comb glide and cuts down on tangles. Detangle the dry coat first; water tightens an existing mat like a knot. Use warm water, never hot, and dry the coat fully with a dryer on low or no heat, brushing as you go to keep it straight. The AKC puts daily brushing and regular bathing at the centre of Maltese coat care for good reason: a clean, conditioned coat simply mats less.

Tear stains and keeping the white coat white

Tear stains are the issue almost every Maltese owner asks about – those reddish-brown tracks under the eyes. They come from porphyrins, iron-rich pigments in tears that stain pale hair wherever the face stays damp. On a white dog they show badly. The practical fix is boring but it works: wipe the eye area daily with a damp cloth or a pet-safe wipe, keep the hair around the eyes trimmed short so tears don’t wick along it, then dry the face after meals and drinks. Heavy, sudden or weepy staining with redness is worth a vet visit, though – blocked tear ducts, eye irritation and some infections look the same from the outside, and no amount of wiping fixes those.

Adjusting for the Australian climate

It’s tempting to clip a Maltese right down for an Australian summer, and a shorter coat does help on hot, humid days. But there’s a catch unique to white dogs: the skin underneath is pale and thin, and a very short clip leaves it open to sunburn on our high-UV days, especially on the nose, the ears and the parting along the back. Leave a little length for shade, keep walks to the cooler ends of the day and use shade rather than a buzz cut to keep your dog comfortable. Humidity in the north matters too – a damp coat that never fully dries is a fast track to mats and skin irritation, so drying properly after a bath counts double up there.

Salon vs DIY: cost and how often

Most Maltese need a full professional groom every 4 to 6 weeks, and it’s worth not stretching past about 8. As a 2026 guide, a salon groom for a Maltese sits around $70 to $120 depending on coat condition and your city, with mobile groomers a little higher at roughly $90 to $150. A matted coat costs more, because it has to be clipped off before anything else. You can absolutely maintain the coat at home between visits – brushing, face wiping, the odd tidy – but the full scissor styles are hard to do well, so many owners leave the actual haircut to an accredited groomer and just keep on top of the brushing.

When to call a groomer or vet

Some jobs aren’t a home fix. Book a professional – or a vet – if you hit any of these:

• Mats that are tight against the skin. They have to be clipped out carefully, not brushed; pulling at them hurts.
• Red, weepy or smelly skin under the coat, or sudden heavy tear staining with eye redness. That’s a vet visit.
• A dog who won’t settle for brushing no matter how slowly you go.
• Hair matted right over the eyes, in the ears or around the bum that you’re not confident trimming.
• A coat you’ve let grow long that’s now beyond a home brush-out – a reset groom is cheaper than weeks of fighting it.

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