Skyrim’s small vanilla hairstyle selection gets old sooner or later. Modders have long since filled the gap, so here are ten packs, from the huge KS Hairdos and Apachii libraries to custom styles with moving strands. If you want to change more of your character’s look, see the Skyrim mod collections.
KS Hairdos SSE
A classic starting point if you are tired of vanilla hair. KS Hairdos SSE gives you a huge library of styles with clean textures and well-defined edges.
- 1,058 hairstyles: 951 for women and 107 for men
- Fits elves without obvious visual problems
- RaceMenu is needed for normal operation
When opening the character editor for the first time, the game may freeze slightly – give it a couple of seconds to load the entire list of models.
✅ Visual changes: Character creation becomes a proper hair salon, with something for almost any look. Start here if variety is your main priority.
Apachii Sky Hair SSE
Another staple, bringing styles from The Sims and The Witcher into Skyrim. The conversions are carefully done, without the blurry textures.
- 216 new hairstyles for men and women
- Suitable for humans, elves and orcs
- Separate addon with wigs, so as not to remain bald under the helmet
Works as a standalone plugin and does not involve other dependencies.
✅ Visual changes: A distinctive fantasy look that stands out among Skyrim’s weathered Nords. Add the optional wigs too, so covered outfits do not leave your character looking bald.
High Poly Vanilla Hair
For players who like Skyrim’s original style but want less angular models. It rebuilds vanilla hairstyles with more polygons and proper UV mapping.
- Better results from vanilla hair textures
- Braids become full-fledged three-dimensional 3D models
- The style of the game remains untouched
Currently covers human races only, leaving elven hairstyles unchanged.
✅ Visual changes: Cleaner, more modern hair without losing Skyrim’s atmosphere. A good compromise if you do not want your Dragonborn looking like an anime character.
LDD — KS — Male Hairstyle Tweaks
A small but very necessary fix for men’s hairstyles from the KS Hairdos base. Strands floating in the air next to your head are clearly not what you want, and this plugin fixes that.
- Removes the gap between the neck and hair
- Adds new scalp texture for shaved areas
- Elven ears no longer clip into the hair
Installed as a separate lightweight plugin, but requires KS Hairdos SSE installed.
✅ Visual changes: Male haircuts finally sit where they should. Worth installing if badly fitted ports have been bothering you.
HG Male Hairs SMP pack 01
Adds movement to male hairstyles through SMP physics, so strands react to wind and motion instead of sitting like stone.
- About 15 short and medium haircuts
- Full physics of strands in motion
- Works for all playable races
Elves may have minor visual inaccuracies – their skull shape is slightly different.
✅ Visual changes: Hair moves during combat and jumps, making the character look more natural. A good fit for a modlist focused on detailed animation.
Men’s Hair — Wings824 Not Shaved
A variation of the popular hairstyle, but without the shaved temples – the hair retains its natural length on the sides and at the back of the head.
- One, but very well-designed model
- Fixed normal map for proper lighting
- Completely self-contained, no extra dependencies
✅ Visual changes: A rugged hairstyle without anything too outlandish. Particularly suited to a heavily armored character.
HDT-SMP Physics Racemenu Hairs and Wigs Unisex — Male and Female — CBBE 3BA — BHUNP — HIMBO
Removes gender restrictions from more than a hundred SMP hairstyles originally made for female characters, with wearable wig versions too.
- More than 100 hairstyles for both genders
- Wigs occupying slots 31 and 41
- BodySlide files for collision meshes: CBBE 3BA, BHUNP and HIMBO
Build the collision meshes for your preset in BodySlide, or long strands can clip through your armor.
✅ Visual changes: More hairstyle options with believable movement. Useful if the vanilla cuts never quite fit your character.
Koralina’s Aesthetics — Hair Collection — SMP
Custom styles with light, restrained physics, designed to keep the performance cost down.
- Three hairstyles: Wendy, Bae and WolfCut, plus their wig versions
- Clear 4K textures that don’t blur when you move the camera away
- To work you need the Faster HDT-SMP plugin
✅ Visual changes: Hair responds smoothly to head turns, with sharp textures that suit character screenshots.
Hair Collection v2 by Koralina
Koralina’s follow-up adds four unisex styles with SMP physics and carefully rendered colors.
- 4 new hairstyles for men and women
- 4 new wigs for outfitting companions
- High-quality custom textures
Like the previous pack by this author, it requires Faster HDT-SMP installed.
✅ Visual changes: A more refined look, with strands moving smoothly instead of jerking about. Suits mages and archers who stay out of heavy armor.
Wildgirl hairstyle (Hidden eyes) by Koralina
Do you want to play a mysterious character? This hairstyle adds thick bangs that completely cover the eyes and creates a dark, mysterious look.
- Unique styling CK_Button_Hair
- Hair color changes directly in RaceMenu
- There is a ready-made preset for quickly searching for a model in the list
The hairstyle is not tied to physics and works stably with regular vanilla animations.
✅ Visual changes: An easy way to give your character the look of a secretive assassin or a hermit with a dark past. Simple, but effective.
Recommendations for installing mods
Install cosmetic mods carefully to avoid breaking other characters’ face textures. Use a manager such as MO2 or Vortex to keep track of the files.
- Make sure you have SKSE and RaceMenu scripts installed
- Install engine fixes so that the game does not crash when scrolling through hairstyles for a long time
- If you install versions with SMP physics, do not forget to generate collision models via BodySlide
Which hairstyle should you choose for your Skyrim build?
For the widest choice, start with KS Hairdos and Apachii. For moving hair with a modest performance cost, look at Koralina’s packs and HDT-SMP options. High Poly Vanilla Hair keeps the original style, while Wildgirl Hairstyle suits a darker wanderer.
Do you know a cool hair mod that didn’t make it onto this list? Write to me and I’ll test it and maybe add it here.
