⚠️ Status: COMPATIBLE with the May 21, 2026 Patch (PC/Mac: 1.124.63).

Hair Control

by deadlystingnyc

You're deep in a gameplay session when a townie walks by with truly catastrophic hair. Do you ignore it? You can't ignore it. Do you stop everything, open CAS, fix it, and try to remember what you were doing? Not anymore. Hair Control adds a click menu to every Sim that lets you change styles, dye hair, and — most powerfully — manage which hairstyles are allowed to appear on NPCs across your entire game.

Why You Need This

NPC hair in The Sims 4 is famously chaotic — but Hair Control isn't just a spawn fixer. It gives you precise, surgical control over any Sim's hair at any time: change the style while keeping the exact color, swap the color while keeping the style, with separate options for natural and fantasy tones, or change both color and style. No more opening CAS just to tweak one thing.

Spawn Control runs quietly in the background — enabled by default — automatically correcting NPC hair on spawn to only use styles from your whitelist. If you'd rather manage hair manually and skip the automation entirely, just toggle it off.

Getting Started

Do this first before anything else works.

1. Install the mod (see Installation below)
2. Launch the game and click any Sim
3. Go to Hair Control → Build Hair Config

This scans your game and generates your hair whitelist. You only need to do this once. All menu options unlock after the first build. If you later install new packs or CC, run dsn_build_hair_list in the cheat console to rebuild without losing your blacklist.

⚠️ The scan can only detect hair for age and gender combinations present in the zone at build time. If your whitelist seems incomplete, make sure Sims of each age and gender are on the lot before rebuilding — or use dsn_build_hair_list with a full household present. When in doubt, run the build again.

What You Can Do

Click any Sim to open the Hair Control submenu:

Spawn Control

When enabled, NPCs that spawn wearing a non-whitelisted hairstyle are automatically switched to a whitelisted style that matches their current hair color. Sims in any player-managed household — including non-active households in rotational play — are never touched.

Blacklisting

Blacklisted styles are excluded from all randomization and spawn control, for all genders or a specific one. Blacklists are saved to your config file and persist across sessions and game restarts. Blacklisting works on a per-style basis, capturing all swatches for that style.

CC Hair

If you have custom content hair installed, you can choose whether it's included in the randomization pool and spawn control. CC hair is off by default — toggle it on if you want your custom content in the mix.

⚠️ CC hair may produce unexpected results. The mod relies on swatch tags to identify natural vs. unnatural colors, but CC creators don't always tag their swatches correctly or consistently. If you enable CC hair, you may see fantasy-colored hair appear where you expected natural tones, or vice versa. Use with that in mind — and when in doubt, leave CC hair disabled.

Requirements

• The Sims 4 — base game only
• Compatible with all packs — more packs installed means more hair variety

Installation

1. Download and unzip deadlystingnyc_hair_control.zip
2. Drop the unzipped folder into your Mods folder: Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods/
3. In-game, go to Game Options → Other and make sure Script Mods are enabled
4. Click any Sim and choose Hair Control → Build Hair Config to finish setup

Config Files

The mod creates two files in your Mods folder alongside the .ts4script:

deadlystingnyc_hair_control.cfg — your whitelist and blacklist. You can edit this manually if needed. Format:

WF,0x000000000004c9c1   ← whitelisted for females
WM,0x000000000004c9c2   ← whitelisted for males
B,0x000000000004c9c3    ← blacklisted (all genders)
BM,0x000000000004c9c4   ← blacklisted for males only
BF,0x000000000004c9c5   ← blacklisted for females only
SPAWN_CONTROL=1         ← 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled

Unisex styles appear as both a WF, and WM, line. Blacklisting a style for females removes its WF, lines; the WM, lines remain.

deadlystingnyc_hair_control_catalog.dat — auto-generated color and age cache. Do not edit. Safe to delete if needed — it rebuilds automatically on the next zone load.

Troubleshooting

Open the cheat console with Ctrl+Shift+C, enter testingcheats true, then use:

Menu options missing? Make sure you've run Build Hair Config first — nothing else works until that step is complete.

Updated the mod or whitelist seems incomplete? Run dsn_build_hair_list with Sims of each age and gender present in the zone, then reload with dsn_hair_reload.

Having an issue? Leave a comment below with your setup and I'll help troubleshoot.

Compatibility

• No tuning overrides — patches Python directly, making conflicts with other mods unlikely
• Compatible with CC hair (toggle it on or off from the menu)
• Safe for rotational play — player-managed households are not affected by spawn control

🌐 Supported Translations:

Polish: Polish Translation by Aarathiel

About This Mod

One of a growing set of mods I'm making for The Sims 4 — ranging from small quality-of-life fixes to more fully featured tools like this one. If Hair Control helps make your game look the way you've always wanted, a rating helps other players find it — thanks for the support!

If you enjoy my mods, consider supporting me on Patreon.

© 2026 deadlystingnyc. Free for personal use. Do not redistribute or reupload without permission.