How Would You Look With A New Hair Style? 3 Cool Websites

Now you can see how you'd look with a mullet, dreadlocks or bobby pins before you head to the salon!

A slew of websites allows user to virtually render how they would appear in a variety of hair styles. Unfortunately, most of these sites all charge a subscription fee. Fortunately one of the best among them, The Hair Styler, is now 100% free!!!

Below are reviews of the best two hair style preview sites on the web, plus a third site for the fun of it:

Cost: $14.95 for a one-time payment

Pros: Very user friendly, over 2000 different hair styles to choose from, cost free

Cons: You can only see how the hair style looks from the front

THE HAIR STYLER WEBSITE

The Hair Styler website is wonderfully easy to use. Upload a decent face shot of yourself and you're ready to go. The Hair Styler has over 2000 virtual hair styles, renderable in over 50 colors, to superimpose on top of your photo. And since the website's database will store multiple photos you can see how a hairstyle looks with different outfits and makeup.

The coolest feature of this site might be the constantly updated selection of hair styles, include celebrity styles. Did you catch a glimpse of Kirsten Dunst at the opening gala for her latest movie and wonder how you'd look with her hair? You'll find that exact cut to try on at The Hair Styler.

The downside of such a large database of hair styles is that it can take a long time to look through them for the perfect one. Then again, experimenting with all the different styles can be a lot of fun!

Cost: $19.95 for one month, $29.94 one year, $67 lifetime

Pros: Excellent 3D hair style models

Cons: Long setup time, currently only around 200 hair styles to choose from, expensive

STELLURE WEBSITE

What sets Stellure apart from competitor sites is their 3D hair rendering model, which allows you to see how your virtual hair style would look from various angles. The 3D effect works astonishingly well! However, it also requires quite a bit more set up time than does the simple straight-ahead method used by The Hair Styler (above).

To start, you first have to go to the "Face Shape Wizard" (which is a program on the Stellure website, not some Dumbledore-like old man) and answer some questions on your face and head shape. The questions aren't difficult but, trust us, it's impossible not to feel a little self conscious when answering detailed questions about your facial features. Next you need two photos of your head -- one from the front and one from the side. The process works best if both of these photos are the same size and taken from the same distance. Since you are unlikely to have such photos handy you'll probably need to snap some to send to Stellure with a good digital camera . Then -- and this is the part that's a real bummer -- you have to wait around two working days for Stellure to create your 3D model.

Once your 3D model is complete you are good to go. Stellure will suggest hair styles for you based on your profile (taking into account, surprisingly, your zip code) but it is easy and fun to play around with all their styles. The site currently around 200 hair styles. Sort through them by length or hair density. Choose from their formal and bridal looks, or simply a style that's easy to care for.

Cost: Free

Pros: Fast and fun. And the price is right too.

Cons: You need to start with a photo with the person looking straight ahead, face uncovered. In general, the site works better for men subjects than women.

YEARBOOK YOURSELF WEBSITE

You might find it a little scary to imagine what your yearbook photo would look like if you were in the Class of 1952, or 1974, or 1990. But that doesn't mean it isn't fun to see how other people would look. Yearbook Yourself is a website that let's you upload anyone's pic and gander at their theoretical yearbook photo. The hard part is finding a good photo -- you need one in which the subject is looking straight at the camera without anything obstructing the face. So, if your photo victim has bangs or is wearing glasses you are out of luck. Once the photo is uploaded simply resize it, make some adjustments, click on the class year you want to see and voila! Not useful, perhaps, but lots of fun.

Below are two sets of photos we did, each in about 15 minutes:

Yearbooking Paris Hilton:

Yearbooking Brad Pitt:

_{^{Copyright © 2008, Spotcoolstuff.com, All rights reserved.}}