You can read more about caring for long-haired guinea pigs in the article on caring for long-haired guinea pigs .

Papillots are usually pieces of rubber and balsa paper or a piece of plain kitchen towel that holds strands of wool and is secured with an elastic band. Young pigs (up to three months old) need only one papillote on the train (hair around the priests). Older pigs also need lateral papillotes. They are a necessary part of your show success as they keep the coat from damage and drying out. The only thing that cannot be said about them is that they are cruel! This is much better than running around, dragging luxurious strands over the sawdust, trampling and dirtying them. Most pigs do not mind having their coats constantly twisted and unwound, in any case they could always pluck or comb them if they did not like it very much.Some gilts take a long time to get used to this operation, but either way, sooner or later they will get used to it anyway. Below are the diagrams of how to properly remove wool in papillotes:

Heather J. Henshaw, England

Velcro is sewn onto a cloth (or a towel, about which the author of this article wrote). This is done from one end of the sheet along its width (Fig. 1, 2). Further, the sheet is bent, as shown in Fig. 2. That is, there should be two folds and three faces. Then the structure is folded up and one long edge is obtained and then it is also compressed along the entire length with an accordion (Fig. 4). Then the whole sheet is unfolded and therefore it turns out so many folds on it! (Fig. 5). Then they unfold everything, remove the wool there, on one side of the sheet of Velcro so that the hair does not come out. The sheet is folded first along, as if long flaps are slamming, and then, so that it is convenient to put on an elastic band, it is folded along the width along the prepared folds. At the end, a compact pocket is obtained and it is tied with an elastic band (Fig. 6).

I will share my own experience on how to make papillotes.

In this short article, I will try to tell you about how to make papillotes for pigs, based on numerous articles and drawings provided by our English colleagues, as well as on my own experience.

First, a little about what the English breeders have to say about this. When winding the papillotes, they use paper or an ordinary towel, which is folded according to a certain system.

For a long time I tried to use available tools for winding papillotes, however, slightly different from those proposed in the article. Instead of plain paper, I took a sheet of specially designed papillote paper for dogs. This is rice paper, which is much softer and stronger than regular paper, and can be used more than once. To make rubber bands, you can use a regular balloon by cutting it into many small strips, and if necessary, you can cut them again, since this material stretches very well. But you can also buy special small rubber bands for papillotes, which, like rice paper, are sold at dog shows. It is possible to change the paper folding pattern depending on the length of the pig’s hair, as well as change the size of the sheet used,and for the hygienic preservation of regrown wool, you can use ordinary human hair ties, however, the smallest ones. Wool can be collected in tails on different parts of the body, or tied one at the back. But provided that you want to grow a real show pig, then you must use the first proposed option, since others are very unreliable and cannot guarantee excellent preservation of the coat.

I wish you success in this difficult task!

Due to the fact that very many have difficulties in caring for long-haired pigs, as well as because very few people have the practice of using papillotes, and the pictures and diagrams presented on our website cannot convey all the nuances, in view of all this we decided to try to write another supporting article on how to properly care for the luxurious wool of the Sheltie, Peruvian pigs, texels, coronets, etc. In order to make the whole procedure easier to imagine, we decided to take a series of photographs that will clearly demonstrate all the stages of removing wool into papillotes. So let’s get started!

1. In order to learn how to tie papillotes correctly, it is necessary to prepare all the necessary things – a long-haired pig (preferably older than three months, since at a younger age the wool is not long enough), a sheet or two of thin soft paper (you can use rice paper or plain white paper of the A4), several thin rubber bands (if there are no special papillotes, you can cut them from a regular balloon), as well as a lot of patience!

1. It is necessary to cut a not very wide strip of paper (about 6 cm wide). The length of the strip should be equal to the length of the hair on the part of the body where this papillote will be located. If, for example, the length of the wool on the side is 10 cm, then the strip of paper should be 10-11 cm.If the back is 15 cm long, then the back papillote should also be 15-16 cm long. Subsequently, the length of the paper strips should be increased in proportion to the growth of the coat.

Next, the cut strip of paper must be folded along, forming three equal edges (each 3 cm wide).

1. After the paper papillote is prepared, it is necessary to select a small strand from the entire mass of the pig’s hair, separate it from the rest of the wool, tangled unnecessary hairs and smooth it.

Take the prepared strip of paper in your hand and carefully place the selected strand of hair in the middle (on the middle edge), then wrap one side edge, making sure that not a single hair breaks out.

Then wrap up the second side edge. Thus, it turns out that all the wool is placed in a kind of paper pocket. Be careful and careful – each papillote should adhere to the body of the pig as much as possible, should begin (if possible) from the very root of the hair. As a result, the papillote will be tight and the hair will not be knocked out or tangled.

Then you need to try to fold the resulting pocket with wool several times in width. There can be as many revolutions as you like, it all depends on the length of the wool – if it is short, then it will turn out no more than one or two revolutions, if long – five, ten, fifteen …

To make the sheet of paper easier to fold, it is best if you fold your blank sheet of paper in the required sequence before removing the wool, since directly during the winding procedure, the paper (especially if it is ordinary writing paper) may not obey, and in as a result, the proper ordering of the wool inside the papillote will be violated.

This is how a completely rolled papillote looks like. It should be as tight as possible and fit snugly against the body of the pig.

Next, on the resulting paper pocket, you need to put on the prepared rubber band, making a few turns. The elastic should be wound very tightly so that the papillote cannot slip off.

Repeat the procedure several times, so that a papillote is worn on each strand of hair. As a rule, one is worn at the back, and one, two or three on each side. You can also wear a papillote on the neck, if the length of the hair allows.

Provided that everything was done correctly, the pig will not try to rip off the pieces of paper, but will sit quite calmly in the cage and go about his pigs. And the owner at this time may not worry at all that his pig will stain his luxurious coat.

But it must be remembered that the effect of using papillotes will only be if they are changed DAILY !!!

Patience to you, patience and patience again!