Advice on cutting hair?

[Sunshine]

Hi all!

I was hoping to get a little advice about cutting and styling rehaired ponies... Right now about 99% of my customs have SUPER LONG hair because I just can't seem to cut it... "right". The ones I have cut just aren't what I want, so I don't cut it too short...

I was hoping to get advice about cutting like - short bobs like you'd see on ponies like Applejack, Bowtie, etc etc... And also, how to cut them longer...
Should I lay the pony flat and make the hair even and cut a straight line? Or, should I wrap it around the body and try to cut it? How can I make it look a bit more natural looking and not like a straight edge cut?

Those are my major issues, so, any advice would be HIGHLY appreciated!

Thanks!

[Sarahlacewing]

I usually cut at a bit of an angle since its going to lay differently up at the top of the head than down at the base of the skull. But hair styling is something I struggle with too so mostly I'm just posting so I can stalk this thread. The boiling water technique really does help to set alternative hairstyles though depending on what material you are using.

[Sunshine]

Boiling Water... you mean like dipping in them in it to set their hair? Oooh yeah I do that sometimes too!  Haven't really branched into many alternate styles quite yet but...
 I just... you know I can't figure out how to make the hair look... NOT STRAIGHT LINE - kinda thing, when I cut it. Like, even the tails, you know, that's a lot easier to cut, and then it looks like just a flat line... Maybe if I cut it like that and then try and style it you wouldn't notice...?

I've even tried a "model" pony to mimic how it's hair is cut and stuff, and it just didn't... come out looking the same. The strands at the bottom of the neck are SO LONG, I guess I need to cut more severe of an angle? AHHH I just get nervous, but thank you so much for the input!!

[PaintedHooves]

I cut my pony's hair when it's dry and kind of do tiny snips at it until they're mostly uniform but not super duper straight cuts.  It's hard to describe, but I don't use the entire face of the scissors to cut, just the tips of the blade.  Just make sure you aren't snipping too much hair at once or you'll end up with a jagged edge instead. 

My suggestion is to practice on your bait's hair before you scalp it to tear it out.  That way you don't have to be so nervous about trimming your brand new custom's pretty hair

[spookysage]

Just look up regular hair cutting tips - the trick is the tiny tip-snip method, but instead of cutting horizontally, you should work your way across and make those little cuts vertically, so the hair isn't all the same length and it looks natural. It's a little hard to explain... And if you look it up and practice and you're still not sure you're getting it right, maybe thinning shears would help? I'm not sure how you use those, honestly.

[kezrob23]

I get another pony whose hair is the right length, pull the hair straight and see whereabouts on the pony it ends. Then I cut it at the same point on the other pony. Works great for g3, but not so much g1, as their hair has that nice curl under. Still figuring out how to achieve that look

[Sunshine]

Thanks all! I will definitely try all of these tips and look up some regular hair cutting tips online for my ponies!

[Aednatia]

After trying and failing to cut hair after a rehair, I've decided to make sure the plug is the length I want before rehair. A 36in hank I cut into 9 inch sections. unless I want the tail a little longer then I do mane- 9,9,8 and tail-10.