Haha, yeah. I don't know what happened with G4 hair these past few years, but I really hope they make an effort to improve it when G5 starts up. There's some newer ponies here and there with nice hair (such as the ones in that 12 pack Movie set from TRU), but the overwhelming majority lately (even some from before the reboot/4.5 molds) are just.... bad. It's really hard making my more recent G4s look nice on display when their hair goes out all over place. It's like it's trying to spread out and consume the ponies.
What I've noticed from thrifting is that a lot of G4s have tails made of a different material than their manes. Their manes style in the "normal" way with conditioner and washing, but their tails just won't unfrizz. Not sure when this change occurred, but it seems to have been quite early.
The biggest problem is that it's hit and miss.
twirly treats is the baby, right? with a white and blue mane? she ALWAYS has horrible hair when i see her, i have no idea what it is with that set.
twirly treats is the baby, right? with a white and blue mane? she ALWAYS has horrible hair when i see her, i have no idea what it is with that set.
I must have gotten lucky with my set. I was just photographing mine for my sales and she has a nice silky mane with a nice curl. I haven't bought any ponies since like 2013, so I didn't know the new ones were so bad. I was tempted to get a new style Fluttershy for my army, but if the quality is that bad, I'll probably just pass.
The worst hair is on the Build A Bear ponies. If one of them has been played with, then her hair will be a tangled mess. And their hair is almost impossible to untangle. It took me two hours and half a bottle of conditioner to get Starlight Glimmer looking decent, and she doesn't even have that much hair. But it just keeps retangling as you try to comb it out.Perspective, you're right. Could you imagine if they used that hair on the ponies themselves. The hair isn't even snuggly...
I bought the new set with Minty and despite the title of being "the big holiday Thing" this year, the hair is still trash. Luna and Cadence take the title of worst hair I've ever felt. With the other ponies, there's some okay-ness in there (even if its 1/4 of it) but there are no "decent" spots here. Everything top to bottom is as dry as can be. It's awful. I haven't felt Celestia's hair yet but I suspect it will be the same.
I'm going to take better pictures later, including comparing my two Mintys.