Rehairing for personal collection

[LadyMoondancer]

Are you a fan of long pony hair?  If so you could rehair Powder and leave her mane, like, down to her hooves.  That would make it very obvious she's a rehair without any need to mark her up.

Personally the idea of people writing on ponies to indicate it's a rehair does not sit well with me, or writing on a pony period.  Man, I wouldn't even let my mom write my name on my ponies as a kid, I certainly don't want to encourage people to write on their ponies now!

[Baby Sugarberry]

It is a doublestandard to be happy to take the original hair out but not happy to write on the hoof. To me these are the same thing, honestly.

They may be the same thing to you, but definitely not to me.  I would not knowingly buy a pony with writing on its hooves, regardless of who did it.  I am perfectly happy with (an appropriately priced and honestly listed) rehair, assuming it was done in such a way to look original - correct colour, style, length and fullness.  That is my personal preference, so it's unfair to say it's a double-standard unless you're willing to apply the same to your own preferences. 

If you don't accept or like a certain condition in your collectibles, you ask about it before you buy. 

[Zapper]

It is a doublestandard to be happy to take the original hair out but not happy to write on the hoof. To me these are the same thing, honestly.

They may be the same thing to you, but definitely not to me.  I would not knowingly buy a pony with writing on its hooves, regardless of who did it.  I am perfectly happy with (an appropriately priced and honestly listed) rehair, assuming it was done in such a way to look original - correct colour, style, length and fullness.  That is my personal preference, so it's unfair to say it's a double-standard unless you're willing to apply the same to your own preferences. 

If you don't accept or like a certain condition in your collectibles, you ask about it before you buy.

Plus, any kind of mark on the pony can seep into the plastic and damage the pony. Rehairing can only do damage if you use the wrong type of glue.
Rehairs can be done professionally to resemble the old hair 100%. Permanent marking is always a damage no matter how you do it. Even recoloring the symbols can cause permanent stains on the plastic over time.

[Noasar]

Personally the idea of people writing on ponies to indicate it's a rehair does not sit well with me, or writing on a pony period.  Man, I wouldn't even let my mom write my name on my ponies as a kid, I certainly don't want to encourage people to write on their ponies now!

I’m glad it’s not just me that has a problem with writing on feet, I thought I was just being really picky!

The thing for me is, rehairing is improving the pony, it’s not damaging and I s designed to look as close to the original as possible. What about a hair ‘transplant’ from a donor pony? I think most picky collectors just want the pony to look as mint and original as possible, so writing on the hooves is a big no-no. I only have one rehair in my collection as I prefer original hair, but if it was a very htf Pony whose body was perfect I would compromise for a rehair. I would be very sad if that lovely, mint pony body was was then drawn on

[MerryAnvil]

You know, I actually had an idea about this whole thing awhile ago; why couldn't people put the mark on the inside of the pony, like maybe on the neck plug, with some sort of acrylic paint? Then it wouldn't be visible, and it wouldn't seep into the plastic. You'd need to open the pony up anyways to rehair it so you'd definitely have access to the plug. And if you really wanted it on the hoof, you could definitely still use acrylics, right? Then you wouldn't have the risk of staining! Or maybe even use pencil so it wouldn't be a permanent mark.

IMO I definitely would prefer acrylics or graphite to having pen or marker, as it stains very easily and looks just awful.

But that's just me of course!

[BlackCurtains]

Pfffft. I've rehaired over a dozen G1s in my personal collection and a few G3s too. Didn't mark 'em.

[Taffeta]

I find this debate actually quite interesting because of how different people see the whole big restoration thing. It's especially interesting because it's quite a new debate. Back when ponies were much more common I don't think we thought so much about it - also ponies age and get damaged even without us doing much to them because of how much time has passed.

The most important thing to remember is that everyone has their own personal views on this, and none of them are absolutely right or wrong.

I am also not saying people should not restore their ponies. Nor am I saying they should write on them if they are unhappy about it. I am saying that somehow the restoration work has to be clearly and openly acknowledged in such a way that, if the owner were to (heaven forbid) die and someone unconnnected to them or their collection sold the ponies, a future owner would not be scammed.

I don't really care how that comes about. I just think it's important that there is a way - whatever that way is - to ensure nobody gets scammed. Bottom line is that we have had several scams or incidents over rehairs not being marked or acknowledged. I've never heard of a scam involving writing on hooves.

On a personal note, I don't like rehairs. I don't mind ink on the hooves because I wrote my name on pony hooves as a kid and because I did, I didn't lose any of my ponies (even though a couple of them strayed). I don't mind knowing they had a life before me or another child who owned them. I would object to ink everywhere else on the pony, of course - but the hoof base doesn't bother me. So I would buy a pony with a name on the hoof. I would not buy a rehair. That's just my personal preference, but if I bought a pony and it turned out to have undisclosed hoof base ink I would not care too much. If I bought a pony and it turned out to be an undisclosed rehair, I would raise hell.

It's not about restoration as a problem. It's about making sure any restoration work is clearly identified. And as ponies age and time passes, this is probably only going to be an increasing problems.

As for donor ponies - again, it depends on whether the donor pony is in bad enough shape to be justifiably sacrificed. Otherwise you are damaging 2 ponies rather than one :/

I don't really do replica anything in my collection - no replica accessories, replica wings, rehairs, or customs of rare ponies. If I can't afford the real things I do without them. It's not wrong to buy those things. It's just my personal preference not to. Rehairing for me is a part of that.

I have issue with the "its someone else's problem" attitude, because the moment someone gets scammed, then it becomes everyone's problem and it's all over the TF forum and people want help resolving it. It should be our problem from the start to stop mistakes happening, so it doesn't need to be on the TF forum at all.

Prevention is better than cure.

[Noasar]

I've never heard of a scam involving writing on hooves.

Yes it would be a pointless scam. It would just lower the value and appeal of the pony.

[BlackCurtains]

Meh. You keep using the word scammed, but if it's unintentional it's not a scam. It's a buyer beware situation - comes with collecting *shrug*

[Taffeta]

Meh. You keep using the word scammed, but if it's unintentional it's not a scam. It's a buyer beware situation - comes with collecting *shrug*

Does it matter if it's intentional if it leads to someone getting hurt?

If it were a buyer beware situation, you would not end up with sellers who acquired a pony in good faith having to refund a buyer over a rehair they didn't know about.

Ultimately, it is still a scam - if someone knew it was a rehair somewhere in the process but didn't convey that information, that person is the scammer. It doesn't matter if they're not the seller, or even if it was ten trades ago. The person who didn't disclose the rehair is the one who committed the scam. And unintentional stuff like this only happens if someone, somewhere in the process, is not honest and doesn't bother to state it's a rehair.

I think the attitude you have is a really sad and disappointing one. I am not saying don't rehair. I am saying rehair responsibly. I am pretty sure if it came to an actual incident, the "it's buyer beware, your problem' defense wouldn't stand up to community scrutiny.

[BlackCurtains]

Then don't buy ponies from me

[Taffeta]

Then don't buy ponies from me

I think you completely missed my point, but never mind...

[SparkleSkye]

I'm not a rich collector, and all but a rare few of my ponies have come to me from 'bait lots' in extremely poor condition. I personally quite like rehairs, and sometimes even prefer 'alternate rehairs' to 100% original ponies. That being said I would never sacrifice a mint, excellent, or even very good condition pony just for a rehair.
The trouble with Powder is that her hair is right on the line of what I usually consider needing a rehair. It's not unfixably frizzy (or even frizzy at all), which would normally put a pony in the 'keep the hair' category for me, but it is faded and translucent and very dry feeling even after conditioner and overall makes Powder look to be worse condition than she actually is.
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At this point, I'm leaning more towards keeping the original hair. I don't think it's quite worthy of a rehair, even if I would like a properly white haired Powder in my collection. I'm sure a buzz cut Powder will come to me eventually.

[Taffeta]

...I think your Powder is in better condition than mine is. Her hair looks ok to me. Did Powder ever have stark white hair? She wasn't sold here so I don't really know...?

[SparkleSkye]

I've seen some pictures where her hair looks white?? But it is hard to tell, since most pictures were taken in the last decade or so, after the white would have mostly faded anyway. These ponies are all older than I am, so I never got to see them in their prime.