BASICS
We’re going to go over the salon basics. You have the three main channels: base, bright shading, and dark shading. My default hair color (set under the Avatar tab in the wardrobe) is set to black, so when I first enter the salon it looks like this.
Although every style has its own shading, I find that the shading on Hime translates best to other styles, and that’s what I usually start with.
Okay, so the avatar has hair now. We’re done here, right? Not at all. The default hair color is a good example of greasy looking hair. You do not want this. As you can see, it’s mostly the bright shading causing the hair to look funky. Leaving the base and dark shading alone, I’m going to adjust the bright shading to give us a nice shine that doesn’t overdo it.
Notice the difference between these hex codes and the hex codes for the default black? The bright shading is dramatically different in the default than it is in the edited version. As a general rule, you don’t want your hex codes to be too similar.
When your codes are too similar, the hair looks flat. Flat hair is not a good thing to have; it’s boring and, in my opinion, a bit sloppy. Before you click to finalize your salon style, take a look at your style and the hex codes/color preview next to them. Does it look shiny but not greasy? Are the hex codes and color blocks noticeably different from one another? If it doesn’t look right, make whatever adjustments you need and ta-da! Your avatar is complete.
MATCHING HAIR TO CLOTHES
This is easily the most common use for salon hair. It requires the use of an eyedropper tool to be as accurate as possible (whether it’s an add-on to your browser or one in paint or photoshop is up to you). I’m going to demonstrate with the Android Assassin Discreet Sleeves.
I’m going to start by grabbing one of the more in-betweeen colors for the base (it helps to zoom in, but I don’t always do it because ain’t nobody got time fo dat).
See how weird it looks with the default shading? I’m going to go ahead and pick out both the darkest and lightest colors I can see on the sleeves.
Uh oh! We’ve run into a problem- the hair is flat. There isn’t enough contrast, and now the hair looks like it was molded from Play-Doh. We can fix this though. I’ll start by making my dark shading darker. Click on the block of color next to Dark Shading, and drag the little circle down to a more saturated part of the gradient map (tip: for the most part, I try to move down and slightly to the right to avoid the grayer areas of the left).
Before / After (shading map)
See, even with just that change it already looks much better. Now to deal with the bright shading. It’s just like changing the dark shading, except that you almost always want to drag it up instead of down.
Before / After(shading map)
To really see the difference between just changing the base and changing all of the shading, compare both sets of codes.
Do you see how they changed?
Always remember: when you change from the style you originally worked on, check to make sure it still looks nice. If you need to make adjustments, go ahead and do that
A word on streaks: do NOT use streaks as a way to get every color up on the hair. It might work every once in a blue moon, but it generally looks tacky. If you insist on using streaks, try to use them subtlely to enhance your shading. If you absolutely want to use them for color, do NOT use all of the streaks or all of the colors; opt instead for a one or two colors clustered together (this is the best example of it imo).
SALON/WIG COMBOS
Salon/wig combos can end up looking amazing, but they can also look like this.
The basics to matching salon hair to wigs are just like matching it to other items, so get those eyedropper tools ready.
I’ll use the most overused and abused combo wig for the sake of ease. Follow the same color grab/adjustment process from before.
Our hair is close, but that’s not the biggest problem. The two styles do not mesh well at all. Illogical hair combos are just as bad as getting the color wrong. When you have a combo, your goal is to make it look seamless and natural like it’s its own item. You also want to pick similar styles (ie. don’t try to use something spiky with something long and flowy).
Here we have a tried and true combo that exemplifies how they should work together. The styles blend well and could translate easily into a real hairstyle
CONCLUSION
As I've said, the salon can be a fun tool to use. An avatar can go from good to amazing with just the right hair. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but eventually it becomes less formulaic and more natural.
Any general questions/concerns/comments are welcome, and I'll gladly help with more specific issues if you comment/sMail me on subeta.
![:]](./images/smilies/smile.gif "sweetsmile")
