Good Hair at your fingertips!

Hi everybody! Nath again, here to tell you that he's a hairoholic. As someone people think is something of an Authority on men's hair, I often get people coming to me and saying, "Where do I get good hair, Nath?" I find the question very pleasing, honestly! I enjoy helping people find a hairstyle that suits their avatar, and I'm enough of an egotistical jerk to enjoy people giving a nod to my knowledge. I wound up becoming a coiffureista (it's like a fashionista, but with hair) because early on in my SL experience, I bought what was Completely The Best Hair Ever, in my view. It's an oldie but goodie, Naughty's "The Outsider"- currently, Naughty's closed for renovations, but I'm sure Lost Thereian will bring the shop around again. 

It was 4 years ago.

  And in one of those accidental errors a newbie makes, I accidentally deleted it. Oops! Oh well, so I went back to the store to buy it again... and the store had stopped selling it in the lovely blue-black that I loved. Or grey-black. Or red-black. ALL THE BLACK VALUES WERE GONE!!!

NoooooOOOOooo! 
For most of a year then, I went around in SL trying to find a hair I liked as much. I tried many, many hairs at many, many stores... and finally the original shop got a customer support person. I mentioned the problem to her, asking why it wasn't available, and within about 30 hours, the hair was again on the shelf, and I could wear it again! And, within about 20 minutes of that, I decided I was done wearing it. But! There were some important lessons I learned from this experience.



LESSON #1: Not Every Hair Suits Every Style The hairstyle above goes great with a leather jacket. It goes great with a casual suit. Formalwear?

I didn't even know the couple, but hey, I can sit in the back and take photos... 

No, not so much, really. A more carefully coiffed style would've suited a wedding better, just as you'd take extra time making sure your hair looked good if you were going to a good friend's wedding. I've found it very handy to have a few styles that are more formal, a few that are very casual, a few in between. That way, you can dress for a photo shoot, or a day at the beach, or...and not look too odd.

LESSON #2: Not Every Good Hair Suits Your Vision Of Your Avatar
My love of the shaggy hair early on in the post was partly because it tied in wonderfully with the vision I had in mind for my avatar. But would it suit, say, Merrick? Nope, he'd look REALLY REALLY silly in this.

Why do I talk to you, Nath?

It doesn't suit his style, it doesn't suit his face. It's a good hair, sure! Looks great on my avatar! But isn't going to look great on everyone.

LESSON #3: Find A Photo When You're Asking Friends 

A while back, I put together a look from hunt items I liked, and noticed rather quickly that the look had a lot in common with the style of a model I think handsome, Mattias Lauridsen.

My sciencefiction twin

Now, had I been looking for a hair to suit an avatar I wanted to have look like that, and if I were asking friends, wouldn't it be smart to say "Hey- I really wish I could find hair like in this picture?" and throw a URL out? YES. It really does help you to find what you're looking for if you can say to your friends, much as you might say to your hairdresser, "Here's a photo of what I'd like to have my hair look like – doable?" It's really handy to be able to give people an example of what you want when you're hunting for a new hair. 

I'm still not sure where to find this hair, though. 

So what stores would I recommend for men's hair? Here's a few of my favorites.

Atro Patena: Most of these require a hairbase: that is, skull-level hair worn under the prim hair. Atro Patena's work does a delightful job of balancing on the border between being punk-rock and being modish. I can certainly imagine Jean-Paul Gaultier's models wearing these!  I'm planning to buy a LOT more from this shop. My first purchase here, however, is below: the hair's named "Ronald", and gives you a great way to show off your hairbases, if you've got fun ones.

Dura: The hair at Dura is a bit boyish for my taste, sadly; I feel like my avatar is trying to dress too young for himself in these. But if your avatar's boyish-looking, I can't think of a hair shop I'd recommend more strongly to you.  This hair is their "Celebration Gift", and is available to group members for free! It also shows their overall style off well.

WAKA & Yuki (or W&Y, as they more normally style themselves): I love the hair these folks do, too- such a broad variety of very... normal styles. Not that 'normal' is a bad thing, mind you- it just seems to be harder to do in SL than extreme or strange. So I have a lot of respect for these guys.These three hairs are: "Apollo", "Model Hair M-12", and "Agata Model M01 A".

I especially love this one.

Burley These guys only have one style that really suits Nath (pictured below, & named "Ethan"), but I love how they do a layer of transparent prims to give the impression of a few stray locks in a hairstyle, just like happens 10 minutes after you walk away from the mirror, RL.

Gritty Kitty: I enjoy Gritty Kitty's J-Pop sensibility, and it works well with Nathaniel. It might not be your style, though!  These hairs are: "Czech Mate - Black", "Sebastian - Black", and "College Boy "Physical - redblack"

Drot: these guys do a terrific line of straightforward hair: things you'd see in in everyday context. Here's their 'Tommy - Smoke' and their 'Dex - Black Ice'.

 

CheerNo: CheerNo's stuff is not really my style- but it's always beautiful work. An example of rule #2: it doesn't look like ME, but it's a well done hair nonetheless. I especially like the work CheerNo does on hairbases (unfortunately, I don't own one- again, not my bag, but DAMN they're terrific examples of what they are).  Here's "Hair SOLDIER Special (brown)" from Casa CheerNo.

The above is by no means an exhaustive list of Every Good Hair Shop in SL!  These are a variety of styles I've found over the years that suit Nath well, and which I own without a huge sign reading 'DEMO' floating over my head, and/or 'DEMO' as the texture on a couple locks.  As I don't wear long hair, really, there're a whole wealth of other shops I don't have anything from.  Maitreya, Sadistic Hacker, Shag, Uncleweb Studios and Wasabi Pills all come to mind as terrific hair shops that are missing above.  Who knows, there may be another list later! Happy hair hunting, everybody. ;)

Pose: Helamiyo - Fast Fashion Collection