Why can't Midlander Hyur have shaved heads?

[SniggleWizard]

I was told before that Highlanders shave their eyebrows to seem more intimidating on the battlefield or something. Totally dumb reason for them to not have eyebrows, but sure fine.

But like, why can't Midlander Hyur have a bald option? Is this also a cultural thing? You're telling me there's not a single Midlander out there suffering from alopecia or a receding hairline and decided to shave their head to give my bad boi Darth Snooki the Dark Knight some inspiration to also have a shaved head?

Wack.

[Cleretic]

I don't think there's a 'lore' reason, but I can tell you that some heads in this game are REALLY designed with the assumption of a full head of hair, and look really weird otherwise.

Some people really noticed that when they got that buzzcut hairstyle a few patches ago. Turns out a lot of characters just have a lot more head than people think.

[Iscah]

This is a character design question, not a lore question, but I do spend a lot of time mucking around with alts and character appearances.

I don't think there's a 'lore' reason, but I can tell you that some heads in this game are REALLY designed with the assumption of a full head of hair, and look really weird otherwise.

Some people really noticed that when they got that buzzcut hairstyle a few patches ago. Turns out a lot of characters just have a lot more head than people think.

It's not as simple as that. The issue with the recent short hairstyle – it's too long to deserve the "close shave" of its official title – wasn't the overall length of it but that it has an extremely high hairline compared to other styles, to the point that it looks receding on some races. (I previously did this comparison picture of what the hairstyle looks like on my Au Ra versus where it should be if the hairline was similar to other hairstyles.)

A few races get shorter race-specific options but they're not as simple as they should be. From memory, male Midlander and male Highlander get a buzzcut with a fancy pattern in it, no plain version; female Elezen and male Lalafell get a different buzzcut that is plain but (IMO, having tried to make it work on an alt) an awkward shape with a very square hairline and an odd shadow to it. For both designs, the way they've tried to put texture into the flat surface results in the hair being a darker shade than the selected colour normally looks. The only models with a fully bald option are male Highlander and male Roegadyn, and there's nothing at all for it to look shaved but with a hint of hair still visible unless you have one of the previously mentioned races and can find a balance of skin and hair colour choices where the hair colour looks convincing without turning the eyebrows super pale.

Beyond this, we may have no real chance of getting updated styles because everything has to work with every race now, and I don't think it is possible to have a fully shaved style work with Miqo'te and Viera ear structures.

Still, there would be ways to work around that – either to give it to them even if it would have to be made looking silly, or else give some kind of substitute option like giving them some updated versions of existing hairstyles to be structured better around their ears. Some people would probably complain either way, but it would be better than not being able to add a simple option for everyone else.

Anyway, with the graphics updates I will be interested to see what they do with the existing styles and whether the hair ends up a bit more natural-looking.