Ask THIS OLD HOUSE
When I have to work on prickly shrubs, I wear leather gloves because they're pretty thorn resistant and I like the way they feel. You can get rose gloves with gauntlets to protect your forearms, but I just wear long-sleeve denim shirts. And to minimize the chance of being pricked, I grab stalks at their ends, where there are fewer thorns, and use 4to 6-foot long-reach pruners to make the cuts from a distance.