I found when the plants are dried just right instead of cutting the sugar leaves I’m able to cinch them with the trimming blades and twist the scissors and it actually pulls more of the sugar leaf out of the bud than just directly trimming them flush with the bud surface. I also don’t remove all the buds at once fromt the plant
I found I prefer to hang the whole plant, and as the interior of the plant takes a bit longer to dry when whole, I spin the plant while hanging and remove the outer branches first, and trim, usually by the time my hand is cramping I’m hitting buds that a shade more moist than the outside buds (usually about a day) I take a break for a day come back and finish the trim on the interior buds, kinda helps break up the process as well lol
This is my go to for checking moisture content, when I stick the prongs into the center of a bud when it reads between 12-14% is when I begin the trim, my cure jars rarely spike over 62% and usually settle at 58-60% after the initial 2-3 weeks
Basically took the guessing out of the equation.