In-progress Custom Mane 3.5 Applejack

Rarity doing heavy industrial work on AJ's mane. I'll post the final too, when she's done.
Edit: here's the final AJ, as well as a second Rarity with a "crystal" hair style [link].

(Joke also inspired by: [link], my favorite RariJack artist, which is honestly the only 'ship that doesn't make go "yeeeehhhk, no thanks".)

Following countschlick's hair tutorial at [link], who's technique I also used for the Rarity shown here.

And yes, after months and months of searching local stores, I *finally* found a 3.5" Applejack (flutter-squee). Not one, but three in the store at once. I almost didn't see them behind all the Pinkies and Twilights, until I had a hunch to go double check one last time.

They even gave her a hat! Though it sits on her head funny, even after cutting the ear-holes bigger to make it sit back farther. So I'll probably also use count's pattern for making a hat out of a cardboard tube.

It was a "crystal empire" edition of AJ though, so she had all this gold tinsel in her hair. Rarity was jealous -- until it came time to actually work with styling the stuff.... so it had to go. After trying a few things, I found that just using tweesers and grabbing right at the scalp was the cleanest way of removing it. Tedious since it needed to be done one strand at a time, but it worked. I was willing to give the stuff a chance, but then it made setting the hair impossible while it was wet.