Sorry I didn't follow much guides when learning how to make my hair cosmetics it was mostly (and still is) trials and errors, but my suggestion for making TF2 hair would be to sculpt them first, you can use either Zbrush or Blender for example, I use Zbrush.

(for references, check out your favorite hair cosmetics from the game and see how it looks in all angles)

My other suggestion would be to try to make as little amount of sculpting detail, try to keep the shapes simple with a mix of blocky & soft shapes, since most base mercenaries don't have a lot of 3D details on their character models, it can look out of place fairly quickly if you do too much when it comes to the model/ sculpting by itself, texturing on the other hand is more subjective, finding the right balance between detailed overly-detailed, and not detailed at all is tricky, especially for hair, I still face this issue, best of luck !

Any guides you can recommend for getting into making hair/beards? (0 experience btw)

did i hear a rock and stone?

WE TOTALLY NEED A DWARF ENGIE!!, HOW HAVE WE NOT GOT A COSMETIC FOR THIS? also the appron is cool af. hoping ur cosmetic gets added to the game

Goggleless style and I'd be all for it

@Zeugziumy most of the time when you have to make something paintable, you use a grayscale texture for it, not obligatory, but most people prefer having painted item that actually looks like the paint can's color hues, to end up having matching colors items combos

And grayscale colors doesn't translate too well into certain hair colors in my (completely subjective) opinion, which is why I prefer to ditch paintability sometimes when it comes to hair

https://imgur.com/a/A9t4GxL I'm sorry, I gave it a try,and even included a multiply phongtint to match the default look of the item, but the contrast with the brass/ gold parts isn't great on most paints I looked into, not the biggest fan of it, and since the item already include a haircut in the base style, I feel like it's fair to keep it unpaintable in this specific case

@Zeugziumy
In the event that the diffuse texture's alpha is used for a paint mask, the game instead pulls specular information from the alpha of the normal map! So you can still keep all the detailing

@GalaxyGoober
With how TF2 textures work, if a cosmetic item has paintability, the creator can no longer use the alpha mask to add certain details used on the item's material files (.VMT), or maybe not to its full extent.

For instance, while the Quadwrangler isn't paintable, it still uses an alpha mask to add certain details by loading proxies from the .VMT files.

Cosmetics can accept up to two separate materials (four if counting both teams). Sometimes creators may use the other material for details and keep the main material for paintability.

It may be the reason here, I'm not sure.

Alright I will try it tomorrow, and update the pictures if I like the result

I think making it paintable would be a great idea, but it's all up to you.

yeahhh exactly! the engineer does have brown, blonde and grayish white hair cosmetics so having variety in beard colors does sacrifice the ability of making it a out place color, but it also doesnt at the same time, its an annoying loophole but its worth it in the end cuz of how many people will use it if it does get in game

You've got a point regarding the hair color not suiting other hair cosmetics nonetheless, I will think about it and see how it goes

It's honestly a personal preference when it comes to hair textures, I know that most hair cosmetics are already paintable, and that colorful hair with different hues are maybe a little bit farfetched for TF2 style, but it's really a personal taste of why I make most of my hair items unpaintable, not an private grudge, having paint on doesn't allow for colorful textures if you follow the standards

And one more thing I want to add, having a paintable beard gives players the opportunity to fit it on their current loadouts. sure it means you can paint it lime green or hot pink, but it also means you can make it the same color as a hair cosmetic the player is currently wearing, making it not look out of place

I know you probably want to keep with the tf2 artstyle and not make this a crazy cosmetic, but please make this paintable. I know theirs a small grudge with items being paintable but the All Father and The Viking Braider exists, both valve made items that are paintable. so technically having this paintable is the tf2 artstyle!