do judges take into consideration natural inperfection (scars, cowlicks, wavy hair, ect....) or do they hold this against your score?
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It depends on if you are in the amateur/novice/beginners category or the ultimate masters divisions. If in the lower class, take and use what capes you have, you are just learning. Cowlicks and hair patterns are natural, scars can be repaired. You will be marked on how well you make repairs. If you are very good, the judge will not see the repairs. Therefore, you can use a grade B cape and do well if you have a good bag of tricks. In the top classes, yes perfection is the goal to shoot for. However, a perfect flawless cape can be put together wrong also. I would not spend good money on a perfect competition cape unless you can mix quality skills with it to place well with it. You can get a comp cape and cut it to shreds fleshing and turning it if you have marginal skills, and where is the sense in that?
and competed on the professional level in whitetails with a whitetail I took in the 2003 season. Rick Carter judged the piece and it scored a 91. This was a big non-typical with all the natural scars to go with it. Being my deer, I wanted to leave things as natural as possible. So I did and didn't get dinged for it. It could depend on the judge to. Tonto's right, it's not practical to spend a lot of money on a "perfect" cape.
When judging a competition piece a judge is scoring only the taxidermy work, not the condition of the cape. However, it stands to reason that a nice cape is going to be MUCH more pleasing to the eye. If you use a cape with badly damaged brisket hair, torn ears, facial scars, etc. a judge may have that in the back of his mind when scoring the piece and another piece of the same quality with a beautiful cape may get the edge. You want the mount to be pleasing to the eye, I would suggest finding a cape with few flaws if possible.