A long-haired cat has two coats. The one you can see is the guard coat, which is long, smooth and mostly fine on its own. Underneath it is a dense, soft undercoat, and that is the one that sheds, mats and ends up on your sofa. Brushing the top and calling it done is why a well-brushed cat still mats behind the ears.
Getting at the undercoat is a different job with different tools, and doing it on a schedule is easier than doing it in an emergency.
Why the undercoat is the whole problem
Dead undercoat does not fall out cleanly. It stays trapped in the guard coat, and once it is trapped it starts to felt: a loose tangle becomes a firm mat, and a firm mat pulls on the skin every time the cat moves. Mats form fastest where there is friction, so behind the ears, in the armpits, along the trousers at the back legs and around the base of the tail.
A cat that has started to mat will often stop grooming that area, because grooming it hurts. That is the point where it usually goes from a fifteen minute job to a vet or groomer visit.
The tools, in the order you use them
Start with a comb, not a brush. A curved needle comb gets through a long coat to the skin and tells you where the tangles actually are. This is a survey, not a groom. Two minutes.
Then take the dead undercoat out. An undercoat rake is the tool that does the real work. The teeth are long enough to reach through the guard coat and pull the loose fluff out without cutting the coat you want to keep. Short strokes, in the direction of the hair, and stop the moment it stops coming out easily.
Work the tangles you found. A deshedding and dematting comb handles the small firm ones. Hold the fur at the base with your other hand so you are pulling against your fingers rather than against the cat's skin. Anything larger than a grape or anything close to the skin is a groomer's job. Scissors near a cat's skin is how a cat ends up with stitches.
Finish with something the cat enjoys. A detangling massage brush or an arc self-cleaning brush smooths the guard coat back down and ends the session on a good note, which matters more than it sounds. A grooming glove works well for cats that will not tolerate anything with teeth.
How often
Short-haired cats can go a week. Long-haired cats cannot.
Every day or every other day: a two minute comb through the four friction zones. This is the habit that prevents mats.
Twice a week: a full undercoat rake session, five to ten minutes.
In spring and autumn: daily raking for about three weeks while the coat changes. This is when a cat sheds most and when most mats appear.
Short and frequent beats long and rare. A cat will sit for three minutes far more reliably than it will sit for twenty.
Making the cat tolerate it
Groom when the cat is already settled, not when it has just woken up. Start at the shoulders and along the back, which nearly every cat accepts, and only then move to the belly and the back legs. Stop while the cat is still relaxed rather than at the point it tells you to stop. A session that ends badly makes the next one harder.
If the cat swipes at the rake specifically, go back to the glove for a week and rebuild from there.
The hair that ends up on everything else
Even a well-raked cat sheds. A self-cleaning hair roller lifts it off a sofa or a coat and empties into its own chamber, so there is no roll of sticky tape to run out of. A washing machine hair catcher goes in with the load and takes the fur out of the wash instead of redistributing it, which is the difference between clean bedding and bedding that has been through a cat.
If you are already vacuuming daily, a vacuum grooming attachment combines the rake and the clean-up into one job for cats that do not mind the noise. Plenty do mind. Try it before you rely on it.
When to stop and get help
Book a groomer or a vet if a mat is tight against the skin, if the skin under a mat looks red or broken, if the cat cries when you touch an area, or if the coat has changed suddenly. A sudden greasy or matted coat in a cat that used to groom itself is often the first visible sign of something else, like arthritis or dental pain, and it is worth checking rather than brushing out.
The rest of the coat kit is in grooming and hygiene, and the clean-up half sits in home and clean-up.
