Sneak Peek: SL Hair Fair Benefit for RL Charity Wigs for Kids

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

This weekend is going to be truly epic for shopaholics in SL, not only because of the One Voice fundraiser (which I wrote about yesterday), but also because Hair Fair 2012 will be opening its doors to the public tonight at Midnight. Once the event is open, complete SLurl listings will be posted on their website for your navigational enjoyment -- so Saturday 12:01am SLT, click here for the SLurl to the Hair Fair site in SL!

Hair Fair is one of the SL fashion community's biggest and longest standing annual events, check out my coverage of last year's fair to see what I mean. In a lot of ways it's like a second Christmas, with fashionistas in footie jammies rushing into the sim at the crack of dawn to see what Santa has brought them... except instead of being just one wonderful day, Hair Fair is running until July 29th. Brands mingle together--new and old, big and small--to show their latest and greatest works while raising funds for the incredibly worthy Wigs for Kids charity. And, of course, there are always plenty of fabulous freebies to snap up if you're on a budget. I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in the blogger preview day, and although a lot of my favourite brands still haven't finished setting up their stalls, I want to share some of the cute cuts that I've picked up so far. Keep reading for the details!

Sayaka2 from D!va

I've become very fond of D!va this past year, and their Hair Fair offerings didn't disappoint me at all. My favourite style was Sayaka2, gleefully pictured above. D!va's hair designs are usually full of wisps and wefts that make them more casual and realistic, and each style usually has two variations of fringe depending on your tastes (hence the 2 in the name). Sometimes (in my experience) their styles can have a bit of a bulky fit on the avatar head, so always remember to try before you buy. There's nothing worse than finding an absolutely gorgeous hairstyle that only looks like a mess on you!

Brigitte from Wasabi Pills

It seems like just yesterday that I gushed about this brand's playful and inventive rigged mesh hairstyles (oh wait, it totally was just yesterday) so I'll spare you my usual florid praise. Suffice it to say that Wasabi Pills' Hair Fair styles are absolutely adorable, and everything that I've come to expect from this respected brand. Brigitte stole my heart (much like another of their designs, Yumi, did at last year's fair). Mark their booth on your map, because it's a must visit.

Sophie from pr!tty, and Candy Bow from LaViere

I'm curiously drawn to teased out ultra-fluffy styles, especially in pastel colours, so this pretty pink pouf from pr!tty practically leapt off the shelf and into my inventory. While it may not be as technically impressive as the mesh marvels from Wasabi Pills, this whimsical style won me over. I've paired it with the glossy Candy Bow freebies from LaViere, inspired by the hyper-kawaii jpop trendsetter Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. Here's hoping these bows don't vanish after the fair, because they're definitely an essential for every sugary-sweet pop-crazy fashionista's wardrobe.

Be sure to visit the official Hair Fair blog, which is a truly formidable fairgoer ressource. You can get more info about the fair, the cause, and even a ton of brilliant tech tips for making the normally lagtastic experience of a large event like this go a lot smoother. Gosh, it's like they've done this before or something!

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Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[foneco zuzu]

So far, visited 3 sims, got some great gifts and could not resist to get 1 mesh hair that i really found unique!

[foneco zuzu]

and about lag, as since i start using Niran i always go with ultra settings and shadows, high precision rendering, ultra gamma and tone mapping enabled since latest release, with a draw distance of 128.
Despite all, fps where steady around 20!
And i manage to edit, adust and try all the gifts i got at the fair!
All this using 41 scripts and 1000 prims on my outfit!
So blame your old computer, your old viewer but not scripts or prims, that is what the Lab is trying to make us think,to stack more sims on a server reduce costs at our expense and then tell, don't use scripts nor attachments!

[foneco zuzu]

and about lag, as since i start using Niran i always go with ultra settings and shadows, high precision rendering, ultra gamma and tone mapping enabled since latest release, with a draw distance of 128.
Despite all, fps where steady around 20!
And i manage to edit, adust and try all the gifts i got at the fair!
All this using 41 scripts and 1000 prims on my outfit!
So blame your old computer, your old viewer but not scripts or prims, that is what the Lab is trying to make us think,to stack more sims on a server reduce costs at our expense and then tell, don't use scripts nor attachments!

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I have a piece at Hair Fair, by one of my legion of alts. I won't say what it is, but the bloggers like it :)

I love digging through the Hair Fair demos. Some are brilliant, some are promising, and some are awful. But somewhere in the pile is something you're going to love... well... unless you're vehemently opposed to the entire concept of hair, in which case there are some very nice bandanas available.

[foneco zuzu]

And i will not deny, Wasabi is amazing;)

[Softpaw Sommer]

I'm pondering not even bothering with Hair faire this year.

As a fur, I can NOT in in way shape or form, wear rigged mess hair. I have to be able to resize and fidget with the prims. That so many hair makers are going over to making rigged mess exclusively is a sore point.

I'd LOVE to be able to wear rigged mesh hair but I can't. Yes I've tried an alpha on my head and resizing my head shape, but there is only one slider that effects hair size and it doesn't do enough.

Pretty soon I'm gonna be stuck with nothing but old hair and not able to BUY new ones unless hair designers make a mix of rigged mesh and Flexi hair styles.

[foneco zuzu]

I can easy rezz mesh hair in world, mod it, recize it and wear it again!

[Ibukun]

Thanks for sharing. I love the hairdo. The pics also make me want to play the sims 3 again.