Skell Dagger

The best shape is the one that you've customised yourself from your mesh head's starting shape, as it will be unique to you. If you want to purchase a ready-made male shape then you will probably struggle to find one that comes with a demo for you to try, since so few creators of male shapes offer demos these days. They will tell you (if you ask) that - if you wear the same head that's in their ad - you will look the same as they do, but many people have found to their cost that this isn't always the case. Lelutka's Guy head already has a pronounced jawline, but I did find it a little too pronounced. However, with some shape slider editing it's possible to change it enough that it could be considered 'not too thick'. Even then, when I created this image (skin: 'Charles' by Vendetta) I still felt I needed to cover half the jawline with long hair, as said jaw was just a little too in-yer-face for Skell. As to the Andrea head, I tend to use that for more androgynous looks, so I've not searched for Lelutka skin appliers that feature a pronounced jaw. Catwa's Daniel head is more versatile when it comes to shaping, as it's what I call (without being disparaging) a 'generic head'. By that I mean that it doesn't have any particularly strong features built into the mesh model of it that cannot be overcome by sliders, so it can be moulded into a larger variety of shapes. Examples of strong features would be the very square jawline on the Stanley head (no way to shape that into a pointed chin if your life depended on it) or the thin upper bridge width on the Shaheen head (can be edited thicker to a point, but no further). Other Catwa heads with a more shaped jawline are Victor and Skell, so if you're considering heads as well as skins those might be ones to try demos of. Without knowing which of those main popular places you've been to, I've no idea where to begin recommending! I would guess that Stray Dog is one of them, as that's who everyone recommends (and they are indeed fantastic; their new Jay skin at Man Cave is beyond brilliant), but who else? For shading and full-on Blue Steel jaw and cheekbones, I'm very fond of L'Etre's skins, particularly the 'Toni' one. Shown here on the Catwa Skell head (makeup is an addition by me). Mentioned a moment ago, Stray Dog's new Jay skin (shown here, again on Catwa Skell) works very well, but you have to be willing to accept nose shading that has been deliberately done to mimic Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's nose, as it's a skin intended to look like Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones). As stated, I can't help much with the Lelutka heads, as I rarely wear mine these days. But for Catwa heads there is a huge list of skin appliers on her website - here - that will get you started.

You're just asking for a great number of people to spend many months sifting through 16 years of patched and re-patched code, rewriting it to change one of the most fundamental parts of it that has fingers in many other parts of the code, to create a major update that doesn't break any other existing content... because you can't/don't want to create a filing system of your own? I have spent probably close to hundreds of thousands of real life dollars in Second Life in the 12 years that I've been here. I've organised my own inventory by creating folders just like Mollymews described, and because of that I know where to find just about everything in my 180,000-ish inventory. If you want a folder for "stuff I bought today" you can create one. Drag everything into there as you go around shopping (do it before you teleport out of each place; that way if you crash you'll know everything is safe in that folder) and then sort it when you get home and have time to unpack and try everything on.

Before Linden Lab will consider sales on their currency they will want real life examples that an on-demand variable exchange rate will work. I'll use Euros and US dollars for my example below, but this should work with most non-devalued currencies. I suggest going to your nearest Bureau de Change or other currency conversion facility and asking them to give you 50 Euros in exchange for 50 US dollars. Then - to prove the second part of your hypothesis - immediately hand the 50 Euros back to them (add another 50 of your own Euros to make it up to 100) and ask for those 100 Euros to be changed to 100,000 US dollars. If they protest, then - by your own admission - you have millions of people to back you up, but - more importantly - you will also have your proof that the exchange rate varies when you ask for more. However, if they willingly do this for you, you then have evidence to support your request that Linden Lab introduces the same option into Second Life. When you have empirical evidence that a regulated currency conversion facility will willingly do this for you, you can then file a new JIRA requesting that Second Life switches to a variable, on-demand currency exchange rate.

Then you search for the outfit that you did want, in exactly the same manner. Quite why you felt the need to negate my post because you posted misleading information in the first place is beyond me. My recommendation still stands. Second Life is not the kind of 'aggressive capitalist videogame' that you find on Steam. There's no additional paid DLC or sneaky microtransactions that you must shell out for if you want to progress past a certain level. LL are not EA, out to screw you for as much as they can get from you with expansion and game packs every few weeks. Don't like having to pay for one outfit that you desperately need and is only available in a gacha? Then don't pay for it. Exercise that amazing thing that we all have - choice - and choose to walk away and find a more amazing outfit that is not in a gacha. Stunning concept, I know, but it's worked for most of us for many years.

There is a reason why demos of some mesh heads have strips of missing pixels. Fox was likely talking about something like that, or defacement of the demo in part by different textures (such as seen in many demo hairstyles), not the permissions you're using.

If you'd bothered to search Marketplace for it first you could have had it for almost half what you paid, and without the unwanted spares. The pink and white set is this 'Blossom' one: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/products/search?utf8=✓&search[category_id]=&search[maturity_level]=G&search[keywords]=horntail+AND+noumi+AND+blossom Cheapest prices there (as of Jun 8th) are: Skirt & Szorty = L$249 Leggings = L$200 Boots = L$222 Total cost = L$671. Sell the spares and you'll more than cover that. (Currently 8 search results at that link. As they sell, they will disappear, so if you don't come back to this thread for a few days don't expect those items to still be there.)

In addition, right now in the group's notices there is a notecard containing links to some very useful YouTube videos explaining how to use the head and its various HUDs. There is also a free makeup layer clearing HUD for the head currently near the top of group notices, too.

I've discovered, from over a year of working as a CSR for a major mesh head brand, that some people learn better with step-by-step hand-holding and illustrations. To that end... @Sandra8675 Behind the spoiler tag is a fully screencapped and annotated tutorial showing how to get your Cleo head to match your Lara body. I have used tone 2 on the Cleo head in this example, since you mentioned you wanted "a few shades above porcelain".

I tried to keep mine clean... "How do I get rid of the seam on my neck?" "Which body/head are you wearing?" "I put on a dress and it removed my hands." "I tried a new skin and now I have writing on my face." "Try moving the sun position." Oh who am I trying to kid... "Your knob doesn't match your skin." "Is this bed Adult or just PG?" "You forgot your nipples."

It is indeed part of the mesh on the Slink Male body. I wore that body almost exclusively from its release up until a few months ago. Most guys use the HUD to hide the built-in genitalia, mainly because... well... let's just say I enabled it once to check it out right after I purchased the body, took one look at it, went "Oh hell no" and hid the damn thing. If it were an attachment, believe me I would have detached it! However, I appreciate what the creator was trying to do in adding it. The show/hide controls for it are highlighted on the HUD image below:

Gimp: https://www.gimp.org/ Pixlr: https://pixlr.com/ Photoscape: http://www.photoscape.org/ Paint.net: https://www.getpaint.net/index.html All free.

"Oh, indeed?"

It's not a Second Life image. It's a still from the videogame "Death Stranding" by Hideo Kojima, which features appearances from (among others) Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen. The release date trailer can be viewed here.

Seconding dokitten's suggestion that the length is fine, but I think what's causing you to question it is the width. Do you have a good-sized mirror that you can place near you while you work on your shape? If so, take a look at the width of your neck compared to the width of your jaw (bearing in mind the shape of your jaw) and you'll get an idea of where it should more realistically be. Yes, some women do have thin necks, but a quick trawl through Google for random images of women gives a very similar width to the neck, as below: If you hold a straight edge against those (tilting it as required by the angle of the image) you'll see that on all four of them the side of the neck corresponds roughly with the outer corner of the eye. It's the jaw shape that can change how the neck looks.The neck of the woman at the top-left looks thinner because she has a wide, square jaw, whereas the neck of the woman at the top-right looks thicker because her face is longer and narrower. The woman on the lower-left has a heart-shaped face, so her neck appears in-between those sizes, and the woman on the lower-right has her head tilted back to show the width of the neck as it joins the skull.

Your current avatar looks wonderful, Yussuf. I can see why you want to keep it; it very much has the look of Madiba about it. However, you might struggle to find a skin that will allow you to keep the age of it. There are many fantastic black skin appliers for men out there, but most of them are youthful in appearance. I did find one on a deep dig through Marketplace, and it's specifically for the Adam head by Absolut Creation. As far as I can see the applier doesn't come with the shape, so you'll probably need to find the shape in the store and edit the sliders until it more closely resembles your system face and body. Together with an add-on applier such as this tintable Pores & Blemishes set by Izzie's you might be able to recreate your elderly look fairly closely. Izzies also has age line appliers that you can add to your face if needed, but I don't believe the Adam head allows layering of appliers, so you'd need to choose either the pores set or the lines set. That skin, though, will ONLY work on the Adam head and body, so if you choose another body then you'll need to look at a different applier set. As already mentioned, Stray Dog have some fantastic ones, and while they tend toward more youthful male looks, many of their skins come with optional age lines such as furrows between the eyebrows. (Note that Stray Dog only create head appliers for Catwa and Lelutka heads.) For the body I would have initially suggested Adam, since you're guaranteed a near perfect match with the head from the same brand (and also, the above-mentioned head applier comes complete with a body applier for the Adam body). However, there is nowhere near the same amount of clothing rigged for the Adam body as for others, so my suggestions would be: Slink Physique Male - Probably your best option. While this has lost some of its clothing support in recent months (in favour of the more muscular bodies) there is still a huge amount of great clothing already created for it, and many creators are still including it in their packs. Signature Geralt - Slimmer than Signature's Gianni body, but there isn't as much clothing created for it as yet. Belleza Jake - The second best option, as it's slimmer than the Gianni body and wouldn't require much slider work to slim it down if you wished to. There's a lot of clothing created for this body. Be aware, though, that it does have some more youthful muscle and tone built into the mesh (arm vein and light muscle, plus a deep inguinal crease above the hip, and what could only be called a 'bubble butt' that you might want to pull in a tad!) Signature Gianni - Probably the most created-for body at the moment (with Jake a close second) but it does have fairly heavy muscles around the upper arms. It responds well to some time spent with the sliders to bring down the musculature, though. My tips for that would be to zero all sliders for pectorals, shoulders, and torso muscles, then nudge each one back up slowly one after the other, keeping an eye on your overall shape. All that said: if you always wear elegant suits then your choice of body probably doesn't matter much. If you're buttoned up to the neck then only your hands are visible, so you might be able to use the Adam body just for the hands and wear suits rigged for other bodies. I would suggest picking up demos (please ALWAYS try free demos first!) of the following: Absolut Creation "Adam" head and body Absolut Creation "Bill" skin applier (look in the inworld store for a demo, as I can't find the demo on Marketplace) Izzie's "Pores & Blemishes" Omega (to get this to work you will also need the Omega relay for Absolut Creations body parts, which is L$199 on Marketplace and L$99 inworld at the Omega store) Give those a try first of all and see how you get along with them. Pick up some demo suits (Deadwool are a favourite of mine, and you might also try Lapointe & Bastchild) and check how well they fit on the Adam body. Others have recommended Catwa's "Stanley" head, but that has a very pronounced square jaw that I'm not seeing in your avatar photo here. I might also suggest her most recent "Gac" head, but - if you were going to opt for any Catwa head - you would probably get closest to your current face shape if you start with the "Daniel" head.

To the best of my knowledge, only Signature (male) and Slink (both male and female) bodies have the ability to wear asymmetrical tattoos. However, the hands on Slink are mirrored (I haven't checked Signature's hands, but I suspect those are the same). Some creators have made mesh tattoos, as I recall having one prior to getting a mesh body, although I'm not sure how well they would work with a mesh body.

The most 'normal' I've looked in months

Once again - as when you told us that we all hated Linden Lab - you speak only for yourself and maybe your buddies (you know the ones: the millions of Russian users). You cannot presume to speak for anyone else, and you sure as hell don't speak for me. Stop with this this 'ALL' business. Better yet: go outside and get some fresh air. It might calm you down.

Thanks for getting back to me, Arianna, and apologies for wondering if you were an alt. You'd be surprised what we encounter in the Catwa group! I won't be able to respond inworld until I log in later today, but will make sure that I do so.

Body hair options are always part of the skin applier for the body, so whether you get them depends on which skin applier that you purchased for the body. Some skin creators include them, whereas others do not. I can't remember offhand whether the default skins in the Jake HUD contain body hair options or not, since I don't use that one very often, and I can't log in to check until later today. You state that you purchased Omega appliers with the body. Do you mean you went to another store and purchased actual skin appliers (since Belleza does not sell male skin appliers at all, except those in the Jake body's HUD) or did you buy the below item, which is on the wall beside the Jake body in the Belleza store? If you bought that, then you only purchased the installer for Omega compatibility into the Jake body. It does not contain skins, although it's useful if you want to apply Omega body skins to the Jake body. To answer your head/body skin matching question, the folder for the Jake body contains a Catwa head applier called 'Daniel' (it will work on any Catwa head, not just on the Daniel one). This is the only head applier that will match the ones in the Jake body's HUD. (You'll also need to add the included HUD for it, to change the head's skin tone to the same one that you're using on the body, if the Jake default skins are the ones you're wearing.) You could use that included Daniel applier, which should result in a better match at the neck, or you can shop around and pick up some demos for other skins. If you decide to shop around, be aware that you will need the following: A head applier for Catwa A body applier for Belleza OR An Omega-compatible head applier (there are very very few skin creators who offer these) An Omega-compatible body applier OR a combination of the two, which is usually: A head applier for Catwa An Omega-compatible body applier, together with the Omega installer for Belleza (shown above) For both of the Omega skin options you will also need the Omega installer for Belleza (already shown in this post) and the Omega relay for Catwa. The Belleza one is an installer (add the HUD from inventory, click it, and it will install Omega compatibility into the body; you can detach the HUD after that and won't need it again unless you either update, redeliver, or make a copy of the body). The Catwa one is a relay, and it will need to be worn any time that you want to apply an Omega item to your Catwa head. Both head and body skins will need to be in the same skin tone and from the same designer in order to get a decent match at the neck. Some designers do match their head appliers to body appliers from another designer (eg: Insol head appliers match to Bold & Beauty body appliers) but this should be noted prominently either on each ad or somewhere in the store, so that you know where to get the matching body appliers. This next bit is going in big, bold, red letters: ALWAYS TRY A DEMO BEFORE BUYING! If you're noticing a very prominent colour change at the neck, then you might also have one of the neck fixes/neck sheaths enabled. There is one both on the Jake body and on the Catwa head. If you're wearing both head and body appliers in the same skintone and from the same designer then you shouldn't need a neck fix. On the Jake body HUD, look for that option and disable it. On the Catwa Master HUD, look for the Body Type/Neck Fix option and set it to 'off'. Lastly, even if you're wearing matching head and body skins, the lighting that you're using inworld can affect whether you see a line or not. The default SL lighting is not kind to mesh avatars, so try switching to a brighter Windlight to see if that makes a difference. For my personal recommendations regarding body hair, I would suggest trying demos of skins by Birth and also by Vendetta. Both have really great body hair options (Vendetta's are superb - the best body hair I've seen in SL - but their head skins tend to be a little more youthful, whereas Birth's skins often tend toward a more mature look.) And both have multiple options for how much body hair you have. (In Birth's case the HUD for it is huge and contains multiple colour options, and there's a separate tintable body hair overlay HUD in the skin's folder - screenshot of the Omega-compatible HUD is here - and has many many options.) Examples below: Birth on the left and Vendetta on the right:

It's usually the matter of one click on a HUD to hide genitalia. What I would rather see is more co-operation between those creators and skin creators. Give us appliers for them so we don't have to spend ages trying to tint our bits as close to our skintone as possible

I remember getting a cake from LL on both my main and an alt. And here is Daniel Voyager's blog post about the one he received for his 6th rezday.

...unless it's no-mod. I've had that happen with far too many accessories Case in point, from an old pre-mesh head shoot: And you can never get the shot framed exactly right the second time around!