I've had two Silkies for over 3 years and never needed to trim their fluffy crests. For some reason if they free-range they manage to gently nibble "eye tunnels" for each other. It's the funniest thing they do for each other and just gently around the eyes. At first I thought it was aggressive feather-picking but after 3 years I found this is just a nice little thing they do for each other. We had an aggressive Marans that picked our Partridge completely bald before we realized the poor little Silkie wasn't molting but being picked bald by the Marans on the roost. The Marans was re-homed since she was vicious to the Silkies. One of the Silkies manages to get spider webs, straw, and dirt into her crest. Sometimes she looks like a bride wearing a hair wreath of weed strands. Amazingly in a day or so the crest fluffs out again. If a crest gets matted too much I'll use a damp washcloth to clean the stuff out of the fluff. Even after foraging in muddy rain the Silkies manage to look all clean and fluffy again by the following morning. I chose not to have white Silkies because when we had a White Leghorn her beautiful white got stained and yellowed so much from foraging and dust baths so we went with a Partridge and a Black color for our Silkies.
On the last one, the boy, we've had to trim his crest a few times already because I was worried that he couldn't see properly haha. He's used to it now, he closes his eyes and waits patiently for us when I catch him
