Did we establish whether or not he had guard hairs?

I can tell you how I groom Wooly. I typically use a Hairbuster comb. I’ll set him in my lap, facing away from me. Starting near his tail, I pick up his fur and comb from the inside out and back to front. When he isn’t shedding, I only comb him once a week. If he is shedding, I will comb him just about every day. This is because he will shed all at once (blow his coat). So I have to keep up with it so he doesn’t mat. The reason I don’t have to comb him as much between sheds is because he has guard hairs. They help prevent matting. Now this isn’t to say Wooly doesn’t get mats! There are a few places that I’m not allowed to touch. His chest is a big no-no area. So if I can’t get that area as well and it starts to mat, I don’t sweat it and either shave or cut it off. Sometimes he’ll have a mat here and there too. I prefer to just cut those off as well because it’s less stressful on him.

If your bunny doesn’t have guard hairs, then I would suggest regular trims. I know lots of people with English angoras do that all the time because their wool does not have guard hairs and it becomes matted easily. Now Blossom is still young. If I remember correctly, Wooly had a very soft baby coat that was thinner but fluffier than his adult coat. I don’t think the guard hairs appeared until his adult coat came in.

Yes, Wooly was very black when he was a baby as well. His coloring became diluted in a sense when his adult coat came in because the wool has a grey/silver appearance. He’s a Vienna marked black otter.

There is nothing wrong with shaving down and starting over from scratch. It doesn’t have to look pretty either.

If he is all matted it’s best just to cut him down. I’ve had angoras for years so all I do is deal with tons of fluff ?

Mats hurt they pull on the skin, and brushing pulls them more. Use a metal comb slide it under the mat and then with scissor cut it off. Do it in a number of small sessions and give plenty of treats. Your bun my look choppy for a few weeks but it will even out quickly.

If you search for a groomer to do this make sure they have groomed rabbits and that they have you come in when there are no dogs in the salon. A quiet salon will be easiest on your bun

Definitely agree to shave and start over! I used to shave cats (they were sedated thank the lord, as it was while i was a vet tech at a clinic, we did lion shaves for cats that were unable to be handled by a groomer and had severe enough matting/bad enough tempers that they couldn’t be brushed) and when that sort of fine, fluffy fur gets matted, there’s really no better option in my opinion. I also had to shave my old bunny Sally’s bum when she got some serious matting there, and we were both much happier with that arrangement than me trying to brush out mats