Heads-Shapes-Originality. Question

[Juliviere]

So I've had my avatar up for awhile and I'm actually enjoying the look of it! My girlfriend does too- So all's good on that. But since I'm a curious thing I'm interested to know other peoples opinions... Not about the avatar! But about originality. So I have a Catwa head, not Catya a different one... I edited the shape a bit so the face is edited to my liking, nothing incredibly different but it's certainly different from the base shape you have to wear for the head. + Modified some of the body a bit to my liking. Certainly enjoying it! Now.. here's where my question comes in.

There's a ton of heads on Second Life, and a ton of skin combo's... But is it generally looked down upon if you don't edit heavily upon the shape to make your bought head look totally different? I see all these shape vendors for certain heads that have a variety of shapes that make the certain head you have look really different than the base. But is that necessary? There's a ton of different heads as I said above so how often will you really come across a person and say "Oh the head they have looks totally like the default facial structure of it. Total noob."... Or am I just naive in thinking that? 

Honestly, it's stupid because I really think my avatars pretty. But I just have to know! Is it noobing it up if my head looks near how it looked when I bought it?

[Rolig Loon]

When I arrived in SL in 2007, the public motto was "Your Life ... Your Imagination," which appeals to me as a general way of looking at most things in world.  You can do anything you want here, as long as you don't slam into the TOS.  You can change your appearance, or leave it totally unchanged, as often as you like.  It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. (I know one Linden who hasn't changed his avatar appearance since he was hired, well before I came here.)  If you like the way you look, don't change a thing.  If you don't, get out your pen knife and start carving that pumpkin.

[Lindal Kidd]

I know a couple of really successful people in SL (monetarily and socially) who haven't bothered to change their appearance in over a decade.  Not quite a noob avatar, but certainly way out of date.  They just don't care.

Personally, I would customize my shape and face, rather than leave them "stock off the shelf".  Because I want to look like ME...not the RL me, but my own mental image of myself, not because I want to meet anyone else's expectations. 

[Nalates Urriah]

It is almost impossible to know what a majority of people in SL think on any subject.  

What we do know is back in the day mesh clothes required one change their shape to fit into the clothes. Those were the days of Standard Sizes... clothes made for an avatar of a standard size. It didn't go over well. Many people were not willing to change their SHAPE to fit into clothes. Fitted Mesh was added and the mesh body & clothing market exploded.

We can infer a good number of residents prefer their individual look.

There is a bit of a snobbish side to SL users... we tend to be leery of new users. Helpful... sure. But, many of us have had bad or tedious experiences with the new people. So, new people are avoided a bit. I think new users pick up on that and quickly move away from the new avatar look. 

I think to some degree that influences how much we customize our mesh heads. It is probably fair to say a significant number of SL residents do NOT want an out of the can look. So, many will customize their look away from the default appearance of a head.

BUT... if you buy a head because you think it is gorgeous... why change it? The point of SL is to have fun and enjoy it. So, do whatever works for you. There is more freedom in SL than in many countries and certainly more than most college campuses. Enjoy it.