Even though we’ve seen some evolution over the past few years with Bento, the still fairly new Animesh and bake-on-mesh, not much has changed with hair on Second Life. Flexi hairstyles are still around. There is a dedicated Flexi Hair category on the Marketplace but I don’t come across people sporting them often, if ever.
Frankly there’s a little part of me who misses flexi hair. I do like the non-static effect of flexi hair. It also reminded me of Lelutka Swish Hair which added a slight windblown effect which I thought was pretty cool at the time and bought three hairstyles which I had completely forgot until I decided to write this post.
The biggest change with Second Life hair, if you can call it a change, was the addition of styles in the HUD. You can choose to have your fringe on the left, or the right. Want baby hair? Hit that button to turn them on and off. Hair pushed at the back, or at the front. It’s practical for dressing up, and taking pics.
Stealthic is pushing it further by adding an automated cycle through the hairstyles, and I love this option.
For the purpose of the video, I set it to change every 10 seconds, but usually have it set on one minute between each style. You can also exclude some of the hairstyles.
Then the pose fair happened (can’t remember which round), and I was interested in some Bento animated hair from (яed)Mint, an unknown brand to me which I had to check out. I wasn’t impressed with the texture and the animation, so I gave animated hair a rest. There are a few brands that have “Bento” hair, but never looked into them.
Until Vista Animesh Verge Braid.
Stealthic and Vista Animations collaborated to bring us an Animesh hairstyle.
When Animesh hair was announced, I rushed to the launch.
Stealthic Variety pack cost 350L and the Vista AO cost 900L. Stealthic has the colour HUD and if you’re looking for just a braid hairstyle, you can buy the hair. The Animesh braid is sold with the AO pack from Vista, but you need Stealthic to get the colours.
I’m not a particular fan of that hairstyle, but it does suit the sporty style, so I went for a jog. Running looks great. Walking looks great.
The AO is limited, and not worth the 900l for what it offers at the moment, but I think we’re paying for the innovation of the product at this point which is fine.
Dancing with the AO is very limited.
I’m totally happy to support something that has the potential of being absolutely fantastic.
Here are the two issues I came across:
- The Animesh braid seems to override everything: I wanted to go horse riding, but it didn’t let me sit on my horse even though I wasn’t wearing the AO. I wanted to take a pic with my friend, but as long as I was wearing the Animesh braid, I couldn’t pose.
- The AO doesn’t offer much, but that’s probably because it’s new and they’re still working on the idea. I do hope though we won’t have to buy an AO each time a new hairstyle is coming out, rather the current AO will be improved/updated free of charge, and instead we will be paying for the hairstyle.
Though I suppose, each hair brand might come up with their own AO, therefore it could become expensive, but I’m not what other options Second Life environment could offer for a non-static hair. The other option is to stick to Flexi Hair, or Bento hair.
Overall, I like the idea of Animesh hair, and can’t wait to see a new hairstyle with some improvements. I hope this project hasn’t been pushed aside and we can see an update soon.
What do you think of Animesh hair? What would you like to see in the future for hair, or are you happy as they are now?
