The tedious part of a slicker brush is not the brushing, it is what comes afterwards: picking a felted grey mat of hair out of a hundred bent wire pins with your fingernails. One press of the button here retracts the pins back into the head and the whole pad of fur lifts off in one piece, straight into the bin. That sounds trivial until you have done it twice a day through a moult.

The pins are fine and bent at the tip, which is what lets a slicker reach past the topcoat and pull out the dead undercoat a comb slides straight over. Bent pins also mean the tips lie against the skin rather than digging into it, though a slicker used too hard still causes brush burn, so the technique is short light strokes rather than pressure. The head rinses under the tap once the fur is out, and the bee-shaped body sits in the palm rather than being gripped like a handle.

• One-button pin retraction to release trapped fur
• Fine bent pins that reach the undercoat
• Rounded tips to reduce scratching
• Palm-shaped bee grip for longer sessions
• Head rinses clean under the tap
• Two colours: yellow or black
• Suits cats and dogs of most coat types

On pressure, and on mats. Slickers work on light strokes, and leaning on one drags the pins across the skin and leaves the red patches groomers call brush burn, which is the usual reason a cat starts hiding from the brush. A slicker will also not clear a solid mat. Those need cutting out or a groomer, and working at one is painful enough to lose your pet's cooperation entirely.

Who it's for: Owners of moderately fluffy cats and dogs doing short regular grooming sessions, particularly through a spring moult.