Free Virtual Hair Styles Tour
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If you're wondering about virtual hair styles, virtual hair salons and online virtual hair editors, this page is for you.
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor |
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| Old and New - The Hair Style Editor's Home Pages | |
The Hair Style Editor used to be called Hair Styles, Cuts, and Do's. It's one of the oldest and best known sites for online virtual hair makeovers.
It's not free, but it is one of the cheapest.
Every virtual hair styling site will charge you a fee to use its software.
But virtual hair cuts can actually save you money, when you reflect that real hair salons will charge the same whether you get a bad hair cut or a good one.
And with a bad hair cut, you have to pay someone all over again to fix the damage.
The stress and disappointment are something else, and they take their own toll.
If you've ever left a hair salon in tears you'll recognize the advantage of virtual hair styling - you get the look right before the scissors make their first snip.
Effectively, an online hair styling site is your own virtual hair salon.
You log in, relax, and experiment with a new look - or hundreds of new looks - in privacy, safety and comfort.
You'll never have to go near a real hair salon until you're ready, and when you do you can show the stylist exactly what you want.
And virtual hair styling is fun! It's like a hair makeover game.
Anyway, let's start our walkthrough of The Hair Style Editor's virtual hairstyles wonderland.
Virtual Hair Styles at The Hair Style Editor
Either way you land on different versions of the same page, but here is the section you need -
It's the same on both pages. Enter your user name and password and press "Login".
Again, your landing page depends on where you started -
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Here you can download an ebook of hair styling tips, browse hundreds of hair style photographs or, as we're about to do, proceed to the Hair Style Editor for some fun with virtual hair styles.
Click on Hair Editor Login and you'll come to another login page:
Enter your username and password again and you arrive at the Hair Style Editor's photo upload page.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Uploading Your Photo
The blank spaces are for your own saved pictures.
You can try the editor straight away with one of the models in the top row, just by clicking on a photo.
But it's more fun to use your own photograph.
And isn't that the point of a virtual hairstyles account anyway - finding hair styles exactly suited to your own face?
Or a friend's.
Or if your boss has given you a really bad day, maybe you want to give your boss a makeover.
To do any of this you have to upload a photo you want to use.
Now uploading a photograph to use with an online virtual hairstyles website is easy to do ...
... in theory ...
But The Hair Style Editor has some bizarre quirks that transform this simple task into something of a challenge.
At least, I found it challenging.
So I'll walk you through what happened to me, with screen shots documenting my journey from uploading and preparing my picture to successfully creating my own virtual hair styles.
As a virtual hair designer, you'll get the best results by starting with a head-and-shoulders photograph.
If you have one already, that's great.
But if you don't have a decent head-and-shoulders picture it's worth having one taken. Your virtual hair cuts adventure will be far more rewarding if you embark with the right equipment.
At the bottom of the Hair Style Editor's page is a panel with "Browse" and "Upload" buttons.
Click on "Browse".
This opens a new window so you can locate your head and shoulders photo.
Select the picture and click "Choose". Your screen will return to the Editor's photo upload page.
Click "Upload".
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
The Vanishing Instructions
It disappears before you realise you're meant to read anything, but it contains the Hair Style Editor's rules ...
Such as they are.
The instructions disappear with the screen and they don't come back.
This is what the instructions say:
We'll come back to the rules later, but as they vanish, a second screen flashes up briefly.
After a few moments this page also vanishes, and finally the third screen presents you with your uploaded picture and the tools to make it ready for virtual hair styling.
I chose a picture of actress Christina Ricci, but hopefully by now you're looking at a head-and-shoulders photo of yourself ... or a friend ... or your boss ...
It's on this screen that the "Rules" should have appeared. Here they are again.
1. Target with 'OVAL' on Face you want to HairStyle.
2. After submit of Face, image will be resized and Engine will take only area around 'OVAL' of proper size.
3. After submit, resized Face appear in Your FACE list, ready for HairStyle.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Trimming your Photograph
By "OVAL", they mean to choose one of the three shapes outlined in red.
The Hair Style Editor offers a diamond, oval and round (or square?) face shape.
You have to start somewhere, so pick the shape that looks most likely to match the face you've uploaded.
And don't be surprised if you end up using a different shape altogether, as I did!
Click on a shape and the Editor will superimpose that shape on the picture you've uploaded.
If you change your mind, just click on a different shape and it will replace the one you had.
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| Diamond | Oval | Round |
The trick now is to make the red shape fit round your face - more or less.
You probably won't get a perfect fit, however much you fiddle, but it doesn't matter.
The object here is not to select a face shape as such, but to remove the background around the face so you can view your virtual haircuts without clutter.
Anything outside the red shape will be removed, except for a section below the chin and along the shoulders.
I started with the round (or square) outline because Christina Ricci has such a broad face.
Beneath the picture are the tools you can use to match the shape to your face.
All of these tools work directly on the red outline you've selected.
With the top row of tools you can make the outline bigger or smaller, tilt it clockwise or anti-clockwise, and move it up, down, left or right.
You can also drag the outline directly around your photograph with the mouse.
The bottom row of tools lets you widen or narrow the outline, and make it taller or shorter.
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| Here I arranged the shape more or less round Christina Ricci's face. | Then I tilted the shape clockwise a couple of clicks to match the angle of her head. |
When you're happy with the shape, size and position of the red outline, click the "Submit" button beneath the tool panel.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Trimmed Photo Version 1
The Hair Style Editor had moved the border sideways, cutting off a large part of Christina Ricci's face and including some of the green background I didn't want.
I don't know.
Beneath the trimmed picture is a button panel where you can save, print or email the image ... or start over.
I clicked on "Start Over", and was taken back to the opening editor screen, which now proudly displayed the unsatisfactory result as a saved picture.
Here's a sad fact about this otherwise excellent virtual hairstyles website:
If The Hair Style Editor's background removal goes wrong, you can't just undo it. You have to upload your original picture all over again.
Sigh ...
It's at this point that your virtual hair styling adventure starts to get tedious.
But don't give up!
There is fun and excitement further down the track. You just have to ... well, get past this photo preparation hurdle.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Trimmed Photo Version 2
This time, however, I didn't tilt it. I left it as it was.
I clicked the "Submit" button and ...
The result was better ...
But it still wasn't right.
Christina Ricci has a high, broad forehead, and too much of it had been cut off by the Editor.
I clicked on "Start Over" again, and for the third time uploaded Christina's picture.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Trimmed Photo Version 3
I submitted.
I held my breath.
I got the same result as before.
Exactly the same result!
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Trimmed Photo Version 4
You'd think that would make a difference.
But no.
The picture I had after submitting was exactly the same.
This was getting weird.
The world of virtual hair styles is wonderful, but it has a long way to go before it can claim to present a smooth, seamless user experience.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Trimmed Photo Version 5
Yes! A different result!
And finally something I could work with.
It still wasn't perfect, but sometimes you just have to go with what you have.
Okay.
Up until this point it's been a long and tedious road to virtual hairstyle heaven.
Uploading and preparing your photo has been a bewildering, frustrating, exhausting experience.
But now we're at the fun part.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Selecting a Virtual Hair Style
This is where you can try on as many virtual hair styles as you like.
On the right of the page you have two panels -
The first contains six virtual hair styles draped carelessly over mini versions of the head that you and The Hair Style Editor have finally agreed to work with.
The arrows at either end move you back and forth through the Editor's panels of virtual hair styles, six at a time.
Above the hair style pictures is a link labeled "All".
Clicking here drops down a a hair style category menu. The Hair Style Editor has several categories of women's hairstyles, but also includes a selection of men's and a handful of children's virtual hair styles.
Already in this first group you can see five virtual hairstyles that probably won't suit Christina Ricci's face. But there is one, the very first, which looks promising.
All styles appear in a default colour, which you can change in the second panel. Hair colour changes only affect the hair style currently applied to your photograph.
Click on a hair style. The editor applies it to your photo.
Hmm! Not bad!
You might be thrilled already with what you see.
You might be horrified.
But you can adjust each virtual hair style endlessly, using the tools below the picture.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Positioning Your Virtual Hair Style
With a hair style in place you can
move the hair style up
move the hair style down
move the hair style right
move the hair style left
You can even flip it horizontally, to see how the hair style looks the other way round.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Sizing Your Virtual Hair Style
It's just as easy to
make your virtual hair style bigger
make your virtual hair style smaller
make your virtual hair style wider
or make your virtual hair style narrower
make your virtual hair style taller
or make your virtual hair style shorter
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Angling Your Virtual Hair Style
You can tilt your virtual hair style clockwise
or anti-clockwise
And you can, of course, use any number of these moves in combination.
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Changing Your Virtual Hair Color
Blonde
Red
Brown
or Black
and select the specific shade you want to try.
Your virtual hair style changes to the color you've chosen.
Plus the default color, which is light brown.
| The Hair Style Editor's 8 Virtual Hair Colors Christina Ricci Virtual Hair Styles |
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| Click on the Virtual Hair Styles Below to See Larger Versions | |||
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| Medium Blonde | Light Blonde | Ultra Light Natural Blonde |
Light Auburn Red |
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| Medium Brown | Dark Brown | Bright Black | Light Brown |
Virtual Hair Styles Tour
Number 1 - The Hair Style Editor
Your Finished Virtual Hair Style
Here's what a virtual hair style emailed from The Hair Style Editor looks like:
Well this is it!
You've made it!
The photo upload hurdle is behind you. You've created a working picture, and discovered how easy, relaxing and enjoyable it is to create your own virtual hair styles.
It's all good from here on in.
You've got your own virtual hair salon, and you can try on hundreds of hair styles at the click of a button!
Gotta go ...
Christina's checking out the next panel already ...
Go to The Hair Style Editor
Virtual Hair Styles at The Hair Style EditorWant to know more about virtual hair styles?Don't miss the link at the end of the page! |
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