New: Men’s hair @ FORM
Wow, but last week turned into a total slackfest on my part, at least as far as SL goes. I claim invasion by family as the primary cause. I hope nobody thought I had been abducted by aliens. The good news is, I’m still here; the bad news is, I can’t promise there won’t be further slackery over the upcoming Christmas holidays. We’ll all just have to suck it up and deal. 
An unfortunate side effect of such thorough takeover by RL commitments is the regrettable languishing of certain new items in my inventory, items that when guiltily rediscovered later aren’t quite so new any more. Ah, well–screw it, let’s move on. If you’re familiar with Zabitan Assia’s clothing designs at FORM, the clear anime, manga and tokusatsu influences of his new men’s hair styles, called “Outcast” and “Yaguruma,” will most likely come as no surprise.
“Outcast,” the shorter of the two styles, falls in thick strands that don’t quite hide your eyes or cover your ears. The stylized texture gives the hair a shiny, glossy appearance–I wondered for a minute if the style’s prims were set to shiny, but no, the look is achieved entirely by way of the texture’s carefully executed shading and fading.
“Yagaruma” is longer and perhaps less decidedly masculine, with long, thin strands that fall gracefully, concealing one eye, both ears and in fact much of your face.  Flex is used to good effect, and if anything the look of gloss is even more successful here, with apparent shine and highlighting that actually look like light falling on and through the hair.
Both styles come in five different colors: Coal, a rich black; Mud, a dark brown; Bleach, a not-so-natural blonde; Brick, an almost blood-dark red (shown here); and Midnight, a deep blue. The colors are good complements to the stylized look of these hair designs.
These styles, although intended for men, may be coveted by the ladies, but beware–”Outcast” can be sized up but not down, due to small prims already at minimum size. Priced at L$125 for a single color; demos are free.
Available at FORM (Varado 149, 141, 31).
Form stuff is so great, but the main store is Soooo hard to find (for me at least) in search.
I must say one of the pleasures of Men’s Second Style is not only the articles highlighting things but the ancillary exposure. That bomber jacket looked so great I jumped into The Abyss (Which a fantastic build) just to buy it.
So well done Zabitan and well done Khai as well.
I have to confess that I’ve pretty much given up on trying to find specific shops via Search–there’s just too much clutter. I’ve also pretty much given up keeping landmarks for shops, as many of them simply move around too much to keep track. In the case of FORM, I usually just check Zabitan’s Picks and go from there. Maybe that’s just me being lazy, but it works for the vast majority of designers.
The few pieces I’ve brought home so far from The Abyss are great. I wish it were possible (time, time, time) to give more items like these their own featured spot, but sadly it’s a balancing act. I’m glad people are noticing non-featured designs as well.