What are THE places to shop for hair nowadays?

[Fritigern Gothly]

I was never very interested in which store was the one that you would HAVE to go to if you wanted hair.
Granted, back in the day I did go to Curious Kitties, Sirena, Magika, Truth, Cake and others that counted as the greats, but never considered them preferable over some of the "lesser" ones. What mattered to me was that I could find the style that I wanted, who made it was not important.

However, I recently got curious about which store(s) would nowadays be considered to be the best. Just out of curiosity because what still counts to me is that I can find a style that I can feel happy about and a big name does not guarantee that..

So which hair stores are your favorites? Which can you recommend? Which hair store do you consider the creme-de-la-creme of hair creation in SL?

[Mollymews]

i wouldn't say my choice is creme-de-la-creme but I wanted to be a ginger

after trying quite a few from lots of hair stylists I found that I liked the ginger hair texture from eXxEsS the most. I have 9 different hair styles from them now. Their HUDs have a zillion other textures as well but I only wear the ginger

[Janet Voxel]

Doux, Sintilika, and Stealthic are the top of the line right now.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

Unfortunately, a lot of the "to go" places are also named in the "no mod = no buy" threads around here, because a lot of styles have shifted towards styling and colour HUDs.

Truth and Magika are still around. 

[Fritigern Gothly]

54 minutes ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Unfortunately, a lot of the "to go" places are also named in the "no mod = no buy" threads around here

The no mod =- no buy "rule" wouldn't make a difference to me when it comes to hair. It's just that I would like to know the names.
Also, no mod is no issue for me when it comes to hair because the only reason why I would want to edit hair is to adjust its position (remember those good old days? 🙂 ), and since we now have rigged mesh hair, that is rarely a problem anymore. Well, not for me anyway 🙂

So by all means, throw those names at me, I am still very curious!

 

1 hour ago, Lillith Hapmouche said:

Truth and Magika are still around. 

I know, and sorry if my list of stores where I have shopped "in the olden days" came off as a list of stores that I thought were no longer around.

[Lucia Nightfire]

4 hours ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

The no mod =- no buy "rule" wouldn't make a difference to me when it comes to hair. It's just that I would like to know the names.
Also, no mod is no issue for me when it comes to hair because the only reason why I would want to edit hair is to adjust its position (remember those good old days? 🙂 ), and since we now have rigged mesh hair, that is rarely a problem anymore. Well, not for me anyway 🙂

Mod is needed for tinting. Many tint HUDs are either cumbersome, non-intuitive and/or non-existent. Most tint HUD's don't allow highlighting with hair that is multiple mesh strands/faces.

And on the multiple strands note, where applicable, you need mod to mix and match one or more hair styles to create unique styles.

Ayashi/Limerence used to offer mod hair styles that you could mix and match. They could still release mod fat packs, but just choose not to.

Mod is also needed for Animesh characters to "wear" hair.

On the latter note, I primarily buy mod, rigged, low triangle count hair so my Animesh dolls can wear it. This is why it's a shame I can't use Rezology brand styles since its decent quality, really low tri, but no-mod.

Magika used to be low tri and mod, but both facets have changed in recent years.

Wasabi used to be low tri but not much these days. At least it's still mod.

Argrace has always been low tri and mod. Sadly they stopped selling their legacy hair and don't release as often as they used to. Still, probably the best quality, low tri, mod hair you can get.

Knox is a very recent newcomer that makes good quality, low tri, mod hair. I hope to see more work from them.

Most other popular brands today use excessive topology or release multi-style hair that has triangles in the multiple hundreds of thousands range.

[Claireschen Hesten]

Places i buy from:
Elikatira/White River co. 
Truth
Doe
Bon Bon
Astrology 
Besom 
EnVogue

[Raevyn Addams]

My absolute favourite is Stealthic, but Truth is now adopting a similar style in terms of more alpha less "clayified"/playdough hair, and so is Doux (though I still personally find their colours overall too streaky. The promo pics are better than the hair itself in my humble opinion).

A friend and I were discussing not that long ago that once upon a time there was a distinct visual difference between all those listed stores, but now they are starting to appear quite similar especially in more recent styles, and there were even claims in the Stealthic group that the hair had been "ripped off" by another creator (but nothing has been proven either way). It's not inconceivable to expect more of this as more creators get  on board the alpha-texture-and-style-hud wagon. Either way I much prefer the look of what is coming out now compared to what went before for the most part, and Stealthic in my humble opinion leads the way. Just a shame releases are so slow.

Others I like:

Runaway Hair

Kuni

Knox

Mina

Foxy

Dura

Moon

Argrace (though as stated above the old lines have been pulled and releases slow to happen. Loved the "fly away" etc, good for photos).

Edited August 2, 2019 by RaeLeeH
Bold to store names so easier to see.

[kiramanell]

5 hours ago, RaeLeeH said:

My absolute favourite is Stealthic, but Truth is now adopting a similar style in terms of more alpha less "clayified"/playdough hair, and so is Doux (though I still personally find their colours overall too streaky. The promo pics are better than the hair itself in my humble opinion).

 

LOL, I should have read this earlier, as I just bought some Doux hair. 😜 It has some alpha issues I don't like, but looks otherwise okay to me.