TheMeshProject Head

I wanted a mesh head. Yep. I set out to find some. I am okay with changing my look, so long as I still think I'm beautiful. I've had my shape since the first week I joined SL, it was literally the first thing I bought once I purchased linden dollars. After 8 years, yes, I have grown attached to it, but in the changing world of SecondLife, I really started to long for a change. I hunted down every mesh head I could find, from the Snow Rabbit one, TheMeshProject (TMP), Lelutka's many heads, Logo, Slink... I've probably tried them all! I grabbed every demo I could find as appliers for these heads. Each one had it's pros, and every one had cons to it. I like the teeth on TMP head, I liked the expressions of Slink, I like the lips on Letluka. But, I don't like the cost of TMP (for what you receive), I didn't like the eye shape of Slink, and I could not, for the life of me, find a skin that looked at all good with Letlutka. Keep in mind, all this is my opinion.

I quickly trashed all but TMP head. I had huge issues with this head, but I still kept it, because it was the most appealing one to me, out of all that I tried. Combined with a Pink Fuel demo applier that I tried, it really felt more like "Sai". A more squint-eyed, grumpy looking Sai, but still had a feel that I could live with.


This is a picture I snapped while trying TMP mesh head demo. It is a HORRIBLE demo!! The huge spinning text takes away any focus I had in trying to look at the skin. And what the heck, no back of the head? No neck? No eyelashes? No ears? I can't see how it looks with my Maitreya body? I had actually messaged the help avatar they suggested in their notecard - because not being able to see the most important parts of the head, how am I supposed to make a decision? I thought I was doing something wrong! (The picture I am posting here is the exact one I sent to them, too) Well, I'm STILL waiting to hear back from their shoddy support! Is it so hard to message me back with a simple - "Working as intended"? This alone should have forced me to run away. Their terrible "shopping experience", the terrible matching support... But nope, I allowed it to sit in my inventory and I continued to think about it.


In the end, I decided to to take the gamble and purchase it. Yep. L$5,000 for the head, and then L$2,000 for the skin from Pink Fuel. At this point, better to go all out, right? The skin from Pink Fuel, however, came with the actual system skin, Maitreya appliers, Slink appliers - and every other applier I can possibly think of. It has several makeup options, lip glosses... and so much more. The skin pack, was actually a rather good deal, all things aside! The Maitreya appliers were actually a nice surprise in the pack as well, because the vendors didn't list them! I was actually walking over to buy the Maitreya appliers when I noticed they were included.

So, I'm going to list out my feelings on this mesh head.

• Very expensive for what you get! L$5000 for the animated head, which isn't really very animated. It blinks, you can close the eyes, and the mouth can be opened or closed. Worth the extra L$2,000? You decide.
• The demo! Why can't I view the ENTIRE head? 
• My existing hair doesn't fit! All my favorite Truth, Letlutka, or little bones hair does not fit! Which, unfortunately, I did not know until after I purchased - because the demo does not have the back of the head! Another reason the demo sucks. I had to go out and find new hair that fits it. I've had really good luck with hairs from Tableau Vivant, and Exile fitting it well. I'm going to have to change favorite hair stores now.
• A took a lot of figuring out how to make it look good with my Maitreya body. Have to wear the Retrofit head, with no neck blending... have to fiddle with the "fit" to get no seam gaps. It's a disaster.
• Absolutely no expressions. For the less linden, I could have gotten a head that has expressions, and does A LOT more.
• The shopping HUD. I hate it. I've done a lot of shopping in my day, and this was - without a doubt, the worst I have encountered.
• You also do not get to demo the eyelashes. It's hard for me to look at a skin, and enjoy it without eyelashes. I feel like eyelashes really complete the skin and make it easier to envision myself in it. That being said, once purchased, the perfectionist in me took over, and made it just as difficult to fit these as it is to fit prim ones. Which is rather unbelievable on a static, mesh head. Why are they not connected to the head in the first place?
• Perhaps it's from my previous experiences with running a store in SL, that I feel like customer service inquires need to be handled with a little more importance. 
• I feel like there should be some kind of alpha system for the head. The FAQ on TMP website says to contact the hair creators to make hair for the head. Probably not possible, but would it hurt to even put a different version in the folder with no scalp? Maybe a way to hide it? *Sigh*
• There are many heads to choose from, however. There's several different face styles to decide on with this series of heads. Which is really a good thing, I hear a lot of people saying that mesh heads take away your individuality, that everyone looks the same. But there's different heads, and different skins make them all different! 
• It appears more and more skin designers are making for these heads, which will make it better with time. I was filled with glee when I saw the logo on a vendor in Pink Fuel's store. It made me so happy, my favorite skin creator, embracing mesh heads!

Do I regret my purchase? I did at first, yes. I purchased it, and went into a complete panic mode when I couldn't match it up with my body as easily as I thought. Once I got that situated, a huge, much larger panic set in when I put my hair on and found my scalp coming through the top and back of my hair. I went through all the hair in my inventory, trying it all on, while muttering obscenities in my RL. All of this, could have been avoided with a proper demo, instead of some freaky, floating mask.

However, I am much happier now that I found a couple great hair shops that fit this head, and my head and body match well! I will definitely not be purchasing another one, however!