The Unofficial Second Life® Fashion and Shopping Blog

Prim hair is an addiction that most of us female type creatures have in SL. But, even with our favorite designers, there are many styles that suffer from “if only” issues:

If only the tint were slightly darker…
If only that one strand wasn’t in my eyes…
If only I could shrink the whole damn thing just a smidge…

With most hair, this kind of minimal editing is possible. It’s detail work, but with a few simple precautions and some close attention, you can have your perfect hairstyle, and wear it too.

This is a long and detailed guide, so to prim and primp your way to salon perfect hair, click here for the full post.

Most hair comes in Mod/Copy/No Trans. This gives you the permissions you need to edit and copy hair for yourself, but doesn’t allow you to pass your groovy new ‘do onto friends. This is for the designer’s protection and is a good thing, indeed. If you really want to pass on an edited style, take detailed notes to hand off to others, or, better yet, just be content with your own unique spin.

Important Safety Tip: When dealing with scripted and/or ornamented hair take extra care and always read any notes provided from the designer. Most prim hair is complex and the devil can be firmly entwined in the details.

Step I: Fitting (Moving/Adjusting Entire Wig While Worn)

Pose stands are your friends. Always have one They can be picked up at nearly any store or hair shop in SL. A posing stand aligns your avatar with the invisible grid that positions all in-game objects and will allow you to fit the wig cleanly to your head without fussy complicated angle problems.

Once your avatar is posed on the stand (arms out, face forward, etc) right-click the wig and select “Edit.” This will outline all the wig’s prims in blue and the root prim in yellow, while also providing you with the X, Y, Z axis arrows that appear as Red, Green, and Blue. You’re likely dealing with 40 - 80 prims depending on the complexity of the style, so if it looks like a glowing mess, that’s normal, but it means you’ll want to zoom in to see as much detail as possible.

In the Edit box, the tools for Position are selected by default. To adjust the wig up, down, left, right, forward or back, simply drag the arrows in the proper direction:

The big glowing mess will stop glowing when you select a directional arrow, and you can see the wig and its position on your avatar clearly. To make sure you’re selecting the proper arrow, mouse over it until it highlights slightly, then hold down your left mouse button and drag in the proper direction. This will take a bit of tinkering if you’re not familiar with it. The trick is to use a very light hand. Most adjustment are tiny little nudges one way or the other.

To rotate (tilt) the wig on your avatar, remain on the stand and keep the wig in Edit mode. In the Edit box, change the radio button from Position to Rotate:

You’ll see the X, Y, Z axis arrows turn into circular outlines on a global axis. Choose the up and down (green) outline, the side to side (blue) outline, or the left and right (red) outline. Click on the outline and drag gently to rotate the wig in the direction you indicate.

If this is the first time you’ve ever adjusted a wig, you should practice while wearing a COPY or DEMO and not an ORIGINAL. There is no way to move a wig back to its original position - the last position is saved when you detach, and it will be in the same place when you put it back on. Working with a copy provides you with a safety net so that you can always go back to the start just in case things get (forgive me) hairy. If you don’t know how to take a copy, detailed instructions are found in Step II. Using hair demos for movement and adjustment practice on the basics is also a good trick for the newbie short on pocket funds. You’ll be using these same techniques to position jewelry, glasses, etc, and many of those type of products don’t come with demos.

Step II: Rez and Copy

Before you edit any hairstyle, you really need to take a copy. This gives you a pristine back-up so you can create multiple edited versions (and have a backup of the original in case you royally botch the whole thing).

To take a copy, Rez the wig by dragging it from your inventory into the world. In most cases, just rezzing the wig will create a copy. The original will remain in your inventory, and the one now rezzed is a copy. If this is the case, simply rename the one now in-world and begin your editing. If the original wig came out of your inventory, rather than a copy, take it back into inventory, find it in your inventory list, right-click the wig you wish to edit and choose Copy. Then right-click and choose Paste to drop your duplicate in the same folder. You will now have two copies of the hair style: one for editing, and one for back-up. If you can’t do either of these actions, verify that the hair is copy-enabled and contact the creator for instructions.

Finally, you should always rename the copy ASAP to avoid confusion. Do this under the “General” tab in the Edit box (if you don’t see the General, Object, Content, and Texture tabs, then you likely need to press the More>> button to reveal the advanced editing features.) In situations where you have multiple edited copies, this will also help to keep them straight.

I also like to take advantage of the Description Field to track the edits of the style I’m working on. So Hairstyle X - Edit Two might have a description that says “Edited Bangs, Re-tinted Wig.”

Step III: Edit (Resize Entire Wig)

If your avatar has a head size larger or smaller than the wig will accomodate, you’ll need to resize the whole thing. Depending on the wig, there may not be a lot of leniency in this department. No prim can be reduced to under .010 or enlarged to over 10. In cases where the wig can’t be made smaller or larger, you can try resizing your head, but with all the hair out there, you’re probably going to be able to find something that will work.

To resize, the wig may need to be rezzed, but you can also try it while wearing a copy. I find that resizing while wearing can be hit or miss, but it is worth trying it worn first as this helps provide better perspective/size input when you can view it on your head.

While Worn: Put on a COPY of the hairstyle and pose your avatar on your trusty posing stand. Right-click the wig and select “Edit.” Select the Stretch radio button:

In most cases the cubes might look like they’re hovering inches from the wig, but this involves explaining how the perimeter of a prim is affected by different settings (cut, twist, shear, etc.) and life is just too short. Please just trust that the cubes are placed at important positions along the dimensions of the wig. In-world, the cubes are white and hard to see; we’ve recoloured them here for visiability.

To enlarge or reduce the wig size as a whole, hover your mouse over one of the corner white cubes. When the cube highlights, click and hold your left mouse button and drag outward to enlarge or inward to reduce. Making the wig larger or smaller will also shift the center, so be ready to refit the wig as necessary. Please note that the different cubes have different purposes. Some make the wig wider, others taller. Only the corner cubes enlarge the wig as a whole wile maintaining its three-dimensional aspect ratio (all dimensions enlarge at the same rate).

While Rezzed: With a copy of the wig rezzed in-world, follow the same procedure as with when the wig is worn. The only difference is you’ll have to keep trying on and detaching the wig to judge the sizing (thus why it is easier to do this while the wig is worn whenever possible).

Resizing doesn’t always work when worn - the resizing might appear to work at first, but then the wig will snap back to its original size when you release it. Your best bet is to try it worn first and then resize in-world if you must.

Step IV: Edit Linked Parts (Moving or Resizing Strands)

Sometimes adjusting the fit or size of a wig simply isn’t enough. In these cases, there are generally a few strands that need to be addressed, whether through moving or resizing or removal (removal of strands is discussed in Step V). Again, you can TRY this step while the wig is worn, but you’re likely to have better luck with the wig rezzed in-world.

While Worn: Put on a COPY of the hairstyle and deal with any resizing or positioning issues first. Take a few minutes and target the individual strands you want to deal with and decide what you want to do with them.

Now put the wig in edit mode and take note of the radio buttons at the top left of the Edit box. I’ve mentioned them in previous steps, but now they become important. You should see radio buttons marked “Position,” “Rotate,” “Stretch,” and “Select Texture.” Only one of these can be selected at a time. Beneath them is a check-box labeled Edit Linked Parts and this is a crucial element of editing individual strands.

Important note: Selecting the Edit Linked Parts box by itself does not isolate an individual strand — with the box selected, you must then CLICK on the strand you wish to edit. If you have the box checked, the individual strand will be highlighted in blue and all the other prims should cease glowing. If the entire wig is still highlighted in blue and yellow you haven’t selected the individual strand properly, any edits you make will affect the entire wig.

With the individual strand selected, you can now edit by using the radio buttons to position, rotate or stretch/shrink individual strands.

While Rezzed: With a copy of the wig rezzed in-world, follow the same procedure as with when the wig is worn; the only difference is, again, that you’ll have to keep trying on and detaching the wig to judge the repositioning, resizing, and/or rotating of the strands (thus why it is easier to do this while the wig is worn whenever possible). The only benefit to editing in-world is that it is easier to take copies at different stages so you can easily revert back to a previous edit. To best take advantage of this trick, label your copies immediately.

Step V: Unlinking Linked Parts (Removing Individual Strands)

In my experience, unlinking and removing individual strands from a wig can ONLY be done while the hairstyle is rezzed in-world. Always use copies while attempting this type of edit and pay particular care to your procedures.

To delete a single strand from a wig, you must first unlink that strand from the rest of the hair. Rezz a COPY. Copy is important here because this is the step where you can royally make a mess of things.

Follow the steps to select an individual strand (Edit Linked Parts box checked, click on individual strand). Take an extra second to VERIFY that only one individual strand is highlighted in blue. Now, isolate the strand from the rest of the wig by depressing and holding down the Control and Shift keys. With both keys held down, press and release the “L” key once (on occasion you will have to press “L” twice, but generally once is enough). The outlining glow of the strand should change from blue to yellow, indicating it is no longer part of a multi-prim object, but is now its own seperate object.

IMPORTANT: If you press Control-Shift-L while the entire wig is selected, you will unlink every prim in the wig at once. This leaves you with 40+ individual prims that you now have to delete one at a time (or select and re-link — good luck with that). Taking the extra second to verify that you have only a single prim selected can save you A LOT of time cleaning up the mess you might have to deal with otherwise. I cannot stress enough how much extra care should be taken at this stage.

At this point, the strand is now separate from the rest of the wig and can be deleted. To remove it, right-click and choose Delete or, select it and press and release the Delete key and it should disappear (the Backspace key will not work; you must use Delete). If you’re not sure the delete took, select the wig and move it aside. If the strand didn’t delete, it will still be in the place where it was separated from the wig and you can just right-click and delete it.

Step VI: Tinting (Entire Wig or Individual Strands)

Tinting and Texturing can generally be done while the wig is worn, but can also take place with the wig rezzed in-world; it’s a preference call. It is worth noting that blonde or light brunette hair will tint to other shades best; dark reds and blacks will not reflect tints well. A wig can only be tinted darker than its base shade; you cannot make a wig lighter.

Tint editing involves the Texture tab located on the advanced portion of the Edit box (these are the tabs labeled “General,” “Object,” “Content,” and “Texture”). On this tab are two small square boxes labeled “Texture” and “Color” respectively. This step deals with the Color box.

Tinting the Entire Wig: Tinting the entire wig at once is the easiest way to get an all-over color change. First, place the wig COPY into Edit mode by right-clicking it and selecting Edit (the entire wig will be highlighted in blue with the root prim glowing yellow).

Next, on the “Texture” tab, click in the “Color” box. This will bring up the Color Picker. You can then:1. Select from one of the pre-set 32 colors at the bottom; or
2. Fiddle manually with the color settings (Red, Green, Blue, Hue, Saturation, Luminescence); or
3. Click in the spectrum color chart to select a base color and then use the slider on the right to make it gradually lighter or darker.

When the color you desire appears in the “Current Color” box press “Select” and the tint will be applied globally across every strand in the wig. This will close the Color Picker and return you to the Texture Tab; the new color will be displayed in the Color box. If you don’t want to apply the selected color, click “Cancel” and you’ll be returned to the Texture Tab without any changes applied.

Note: Choosing white doesn’t tint the prims white; it resets the prim tint to the true color of the texture(s).

Tinting Individual Strands: In some instances (especially those with hair flowers, barettes, or bands) you may need to tint an individual strand (or a group of them) of the wig. This can be done after, or in leiu of tinting the entire wig. To do this, follow the steps for selecting an individual strand indicated in Step IV.

With the individual strand selected, follow the same steps as above for tinting the entire wig. Changes will be applied to the single strand only.

Step VII: Texturing (Entire Wig or Individual Strands)

Tinting and Texturing can generally be done while the wig is worn, but can also take place with the wig rezzed in-world; there isn’t a lot of difference in either case as there’s no major benefit either way, so it’s a preference call. This type of editing involves the “Texture” tab located on the bottom portion of the Edit box (these are the tabs labeled “General,” “Object,” “Content,” and “Texture”). On this tab are two small square boxes labeled “Texture” and “Color” respectively. This step deals with the Texture box.

Entire Wig: Retexturing the entire wig at once is the easiest way to get an all-over texture change. First, place the wig COPY into Edit mode by right-clicking it and selecting Edit (the entire wig will be highlighted in blue with the root prim glowing yellow). Next, on the “Texture” tab, click in the “Texture” box. This will open up the Texture Picker and allow you to search or navigate your inventory for the correct texture.

When you click on a texture from your inventory it will appear in the Current Texture box. Press “Select” and the texture will be applied globally across every strand in the wig. This will close the Texture Picker and return you to the Texture Tab; the new texture will now be displayed in the Texture box. If you don’t want to apply the selected texture, click “Cancel” and you’ll be returned to the Texture Tab without any changes applied.

Individual Strands: In some instances (especially those with hair flowers, barettes, or bands) you may need to re-texture an individual strand, or a group of them. This can be done after or in leiu of texturing the entire wig:

To do this, follow the steps for selecting an individual strand indicated in Step IV. With the individual strand selected, follow the same steps as above for texturing the entire wig. Changes will be applied to the single strand only.

You may only learn these steps one by one as you need them, but with the full arsenal at your disposal you can tailor virtually any hair by any creator to your personal style. As long as the hair you buy is both mod and copy, you can remove, retexture and recolur your way to “salon beautiful hair” in minutes.