majestic neck floof?

heres my character, leonel

hes a made up species but he most resembles a lion. how do this epic neck floof?




it also has a pain in the ass gradient. i plan on airbrushing the gradient on the rest of the suit but will that work for long fur? how can i make this so voluptuous? i also want to be able to curl it, hopefully just with a curling iron on low to get the right texture.
here are my inspiration pics of the biggest neck poofs i can find