Best hair and face mods

[Kaasknaap]

So i'm not that new with fallout 3, but I find it hard to install a good way of mods to make my female (or npcs) look good with smooth skin, hair, eyelashes, make up etc.

When I played TES it was pretty easy with all those races and stuff which had beautiful faces, but I really don't have an idea of to get similiar females.

 

What mods do you use to create beautiful females and in which order? (because I think I'm screwing up with adding random mods in random orders, which delete files that are important)

 

 

I'd like to say sorry if this question has already been posted here.

[csb]

There are a ton of cosmetic-related mods, as well as compilations. The compilations are the best route to go, as compatibility has already been addressed and you don't have to worry about that sort of issue. In order, the "best" hair/eyes/cosmetics mods (and why I think they are) are:

 

1. Anthony Ling's Coiffure 4.0 by Earache42 -- This is the one I use for various reasons. It incorporates a ton of the most popular eye/hair/cosmetic mods and, best of all, they are placed in a BSA. This is a huge disk space saver -- and ultimately, a performance enhancer, as the game is more efficient extracting from a BSA than getting it from folders/files in the Data directory. Secondly, it is modular in its design, so it combines well with Ling's Finer Things (a compilation of Type 3 armor/clothing) and Ling's Pretty Things (an NPC overhaul mod). This modular approach is what edged out Project Beauty in my consideration on what mod to use. Added edit: Another compelling reason is that Coiffure is compatible with HairPack's (see below) FormIDs. So making mods that use that hair collection compatible is simply a matter of using FO3Edit (or FOMM's TESSnip utility) to edit the MASTer record in the mod's Header, changing the reference from Hairpack.esm to Lings.esm.

2. Project Beauty HD by Dracomies -- There's a lot to like about this compilation, including an exclusive hair compilation unique to PB and a step-by-step guide (dummy-proof no less!) on how to create your very own customized hair mod to work with it (and learn something about GECK in the process, I can't even tell you how cool that was to a GECK newbie!). Why isn't it my number 1? It isn't modular ... the approach pretty much forces an all-in-one overhaul not only with individual PC choices, but NPCs as well. Nothing wrong with that, but I like a more modular approach. It is a stellar compilation and many will find its one-install-fulfills-all approach suits them just fine.

3. A Good Hair Day by Tony the Wookie -- Tony does good work and the only reason I don't use his mod in-game (but I do study his approach to its structure and organization for modding) is that Ling's Coiffure ties in nicely with Ling's Finer Things and Ling's Pretty Things. PB edges out Hair Day only because of Draomies' inclusion of the customizable mod portion and the additional hairs.

4. HairPack by Yoshikinakota --This mod was the "grandaddy" of the current permutations, paving the way for the others above . I used this at first, but gave it up for Ling's because until this month (Nov.) it hadn't been updated in a long while. It also has (or maybe now, had) some compatibility issues (that are easily overcome, though). A good compilation that until recently lagged far behind the "top three."

 

Then there are all the individual mods that make up the above compilations, should you want to go through the effort to combine standalone mods by some really talented modelers/texturers.

 

Hope this helps. But no matter which you choose, Fallout3 will be a more beautiful environment for you because of it.