Noob here. How do I enable symmetrical hair combing?

Support Particles and Physics Simulations
1

I am trying to enable the X-axis symmetry mode while combing hair,
using Blender 2.79 on Linux.

The online manual says this:

If you want to create an X axis symmetrical haircut you have to do following steps:

  1. Select all particles with A.
  2. Mirror the particles with Ctrl-M, or use the Particle ‣ Mirror menu.
  3. Turn on X Mirror in the Brush panel.

After doing all that, combing is still not mirrored. The only way I could find to select the particles was to click on their entry in the Object Hierarchy, then type A in the viewport while in Particle Edit mode. (The wording in the manual is too vague for a noob like me.)

I have tried combing with “Use Modifer Stack” clicked and unclicked in the Particle Systems panel, but it makes no difference. I have also tried combing with Children set to “None” and set to “Interpolated”, but it made no difference.

I only have about 3 weeks experience with blender, so may well be missing something obvious.

Thanks.

2

I can confirm the issue. Really would like to know the answer, too.