Long haired cats and bathing?

Hi, just out of curiosity, those of you with long haired cats...aside from grooming, do you bath them to help keep them from getting matted? ...or would that make the matting worse? I'm just curious what everyone here does...my cat doesnt particularly like to be groomed...for maybe a few minutes at a time...i was just wondering if a bath now and then ( oddly enough, he likes water), would that help keep the mats from coming...cleaner fur??

Is there some sort of spray conditoner to put on longhaired cats to help keep the mats to a minimal?

Thanks in advance for any comments/suggetions.

-robyn

You couldn't PAY me to bathe Kylie.
:D She doesn't mind being brushed so we do that.

But a friend of mine has a Persian/Angora mix that gets bathed about once a week. And when they lived in the apt where cats weren't allowed she would drop him off at her mom's house every morning on her way to work, her mom bathed him every day for her.

Maxx is a short hair but she sheds like crazy! I bathe her about once a month and it really helps to keep the hair to a minimum. She hates to have a bath, but she has learned that if she just behaves, it will be over quickly. I find it easier to bathe her in the kitchen sink because we have one of those pull-out sprayers that makes the bath faster.:)

Both of my cats are long-hair. I don't bathe them at all unless there is a problem with fleas (that has only happened once in 6 years because they don't go outside) :)
One of them NEVER has had a matt, the other does all the time- I don't know if bathing helps with matts :confused:

I don't bathe mine but I do groom them once a week. I also use a leave in conditioner on them. I don't know if this helps matted fur or not since they rarely have that problem but it does make their coats shiny and it also helps their dry skin.

KAK. Leave in conditioner? That's a great idea! I bet it WOULD work- going to try it. :)