HairCS: Reconstructing Strand-Based Hair from Hair Cards

Abstract

We present an automated pipeline that converts hair-card models into high-quality strand-based hairstyles. Given a collection of textured triangular or quad strips as input, our method produces a strand-based representation that preserves the original hairstyle while enriching it with fine-scale geometric detail and adhering to standard production requirements: strands originate from the scalp, roots are uniformly distributed, and the hair volume is plausibly filled. The resulting assets are directly compatible with strand-based rendering, physics-based simulation, and common grooming modifiers (e.g., clumping, curling, noise) for enhanced realism and artistic control. We validate our approach on a large and diverse set of hairstyles, including short and long hair, curly styles, and complex styles such as buns and ponytails.