My characters are 50/50 when looking at manes or no manes! It really depends on the kind of character. Sometimes I have more lean characters, which I then give no manes to make them look skinnier I guess? I do this with, for example, siamese cats or any other short furred animals. But when I do long furred cats I prefer to take a mane, sometimes even a full mane for Norwegian forest cats, Maine coons, etc