My current cat is a short hair. She's been with us over 2 years and has barfed up exactly 2 hair balls. Her diet is
%95 Welness canned chicken...with a little Royal Canin Rabbit/green pea kibble for snacking. When we first got her from the ASPCA she was shedding like crazy...now you would not know that there is a cat lying on the furniture.

Having said that, the 'nuclear option' for HB control is a total lion cut. Looks kind of wierd to begin with, but you get used to it. One of our late cats was a long hair and this is what we ended up doing. The process was quite expensive because of the general aenesthesia involved (Max was starting to have kidney issues...injected anesthesia would have been a bit less expensive), but it did stop the hairballs. It has to be done ~ every 6 months. My vet told me that some cats put up with the shaving without being put under.

I'm right there with you, it's a struggle! My long hair kitty throws up about three times a week. I trimmed her mane off, brush her daily and have been administering laxatone and salmon oil to her. She rejected the Hartz hairball remedy, but will accept the laxatone from my finger. I put one pump squirt of salmon oil in her wet food. So far, only one hairball in the last week. I hope this is helpful...

I have one long hair and she doesn't barf up many hairballs at all. I usually feed one of those weight control hairball formulas - dry - but I'm not sure that has anything to do with it. She is such a shedder - gobs of hair - that I finally resorted to taking her to a groomer. I brush her but she needs to be combed and will not tolerate that from me. She gets bathed and combed twice a year - and sometimes an extra combing job if needed. I've known a few people who do the lion shave thing but she's just beautiful with her long hair so I can't bring myself to do that. Pretty much no hairballs - barfed up or otherwise. The only hairballs are the ones I pull out of the cat brush - which she pulls out of the wastebasket and uses as a cat toy......