We have three long-hairs, two of which are Himalayan Persians. We had a dickens of a time at first with Cindy, one of the Himmies. She wouldn't let us NEAR her with a comb or brush, except a little bit around her head. Needless to say, she got all matted. We had to take her in to get her partially shaved.

Our vet told us NOT to use scissors, because the skin can actually kind of grow into the mat, and once they get nipped it can get infected.

For some reason, she now lets me (only me) comb her, but ONLY on the bed, nowhere else.

The other Himalayan, Peach, does a pretty good job keeping herself mat free. We do keep her combed, even though she's not always in the mood.

Ivy, our old cat, has a hard time grooming her tail area and "hips", but I can usually catch her on a good day and get the small mats with a comb.

There's a way that you can actually work the mats sort of loose and then just pull them out. The first time I tried it on Cindy, I thought "I'm pulling her hair out by the roots, she is so going to bite me", but of course, I wasn't pulling the rooted hair, just the mat.

As I'm typing, she's purring and mushing against my shoulder. Guess she heard her name invoked.
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