This isn't entirely accurate. There are currently 6 long-haired breeds recognized by the American Rabbit Breeders Association: the French Angora, English Angora, Giant Angora, Satin Angora, Jersey Wooly and Fuzzy Lop. There are some breeds, like the German Angora, that some people breed but which aren't recognized by the ARBA, and of course, the "good" Lionheads are at least partly long-haired. The English Angora has a soft, fluffy coat that is mostly wool; the French has a lot more guard hair mixed in with the wool, which gives the coat a more hair-like texture and helps to keep it from matting so badly. The Jersey Wooly and Fuzzy Lop have French-type wool. The Giant Angora has a coat that texture-wise is sort of intermediate between the English and French coats, with a predominance of wavy "awn fluff". The Satin Angora looks a lot like a French Angora, but it has ultra-fine wool that is probably the worst of all when it comes to matting.
Angora rabbit breeders often keep their breeding animals clipped for ease of care - and yes, any clipper that is sold for clipping animals will do. People who breed for wool may never clip their animals; rabbits shed their coats at least once per year, and a well-bred Angora will blow its coat pretty much all at once. When the coat is being shed, the hair can be plucked with basically no effort; one of the favorite displays that fiber breeders will do involves a person sitting at a spinning wheel with a rabbit in their lap, pulling the wool from the rabbit and spinning it into yarn (obviously, this requires a very patient rabbit). Clippers create blunt edges on the fibers; the best quality fiber has the tapered ends of the naturally shed coat (people who buy the fiber pay more for plucked wool than for wool that was clipped). Combing the wool breaks fibers, and the frequent pulling and tugging can make for a grouchy, nippy rabbit; most wool breeders do not ever comb or brush their animals. People who keep wool breeds for show or wool production use a blower (sort of like a hair dryer on a high setting without the heat) on their animals once or twice a week; it allows them to work the coat all the way down to the skin and avoid mats, without the breakage and irritation that combing can cause.
