Galeongirl
Galeonbroad
We have had this issue with Keto fairly regularly. He's got so much long hair that stuff just gets tangled up in there. If we try to clean him with a cloth or paper towel, he gets pretty aggresive and will claw or attempt to bite so our best solution is to pick him up and take him straight into the bath tub. We have that flexible shower head which is on a chain so you can move it about and we use that to hose him down and 99.9% of the time the soaking does the trick. anything that's stuck to his fur just washes away.
Of course Keto has been getting baths since he was a baby so he's quite used to the experience. I assume it would be fairly traumatic for a cat that has never been under the shower before, so proceed with caution.
Baths. I've thought about it. Then thought against it. But now it's becoming more and more a solution.
Miep has never had a shower, she fell into the garden pond once when she was chasing a bug, it looked hilarious but she was not amused. So I don't think she'll approve of a shower. If she won't clean herself for a while it might be the only solution though.