I recently got back my deer from the taxidermist. there are a few places on the base of the neck, where his hair is sticking up. The taxidermist blamed it on his long hair. Is this typical, or is there something I can do to make this hair sit down nice and smooth? Or should I leave it be? I can post some pics later if necessary. Please advise.

I would wet the problem area with a misting bottle and then comb in some hair mousse and let it dry, once dry, then comb it again. Be careful not to get too carried away wetting the hair, just get it wet enough so the hair will relax when you add the mousse. Give it a try!

same thing happened with one of my mounts...that probably means he did a crappy job stitching up the hide in that spot.

take a smallthin dab of clear silicone on your finger and wipe the hair down and it will lay down and stick to flat hair. use a very thin layer on finger

can you post some pics??

im leaning towards a bad stitch job like shuballs said, but pics might help...

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I'll post them this evening. Thanks to you all.

dt

yeah i got an 8 pt mounted and had the same thing right where the neck meets the shoulder on top. taxedermist is very good and i dont think it was a mistake. my dad said it was on there when i shot it but i cant remember. the taxerdermist said that it was a cowlick and that it was one of about three that he had seen.

Enclosed are pictures of what I'm talking about.

oh...well mine looks a little different than that. ill try to get a picture. was it like that when you killed it?

I would guess that maybe it is from the epidermis becoming a little loose during tanning. I've seen this before on an "iffy" cape I had a couple of years ago. You don't want to re-hydrate the leather, because if that is what is causing the hair to lift it could fall out. I would use a warm/hot damp cloth and just dampen the hair itself, then put a liberal amount of hair gel on it and try to "re-train" the hair back to normal. You may have to apply the gel a couple of times to get all of the hair to lay down, but this should work. It is NOT however, from the hair being longer!!!!!!!