Where Winds Meet’s immersive open world lets you customize almost every part of your character, from their facial features to their in-game outfits, but one of the most common requests new players have is figuring out where winds meet how to change hair color after they’ve already finished the initial character creation screen. A lot of players rush through the first customization step to get to the gameplay faster, only to realize they hate their bright neon green hair when they see it in story cutscenes a few hours in. You don’t have to restart your entire save file to fix a bad hair color choice, and this guide will walk you through every part of the process with no guesswork required.
Where Winds Meet: How to Change Hair Color for New Players
You won’t be able to edit your character’s hair color during the opening prologue, even if you immediately regret the shade you picked in the character creator. The prologue is a linear, story-driven section that locks all customization options until you complete the first village rescue quest and gain access to Jiankang City, the first major open world hub in the game. Most players unlock this hub within the first 90 minutes of playtime, so you won’t be stuck with a bad hair color for too long even if you make a rushed choice at the start.
The first place you can change your hair color is at the barber shop in the southern district of Jiankang City. The shop is marked with a small scissor icon on your map once you enter the city, so you won’t have to hunt for it for long. You don’t need to complete any side quests to unlock the first barber, and a basic hair color change only costs 30 copper coins, which you’ll easily earn from selling extra loot you collect during the prologue.
If you’re not sure what color you want, you can test every base shade for free before you pay the fee. The barber’s interface lets you spin your character around to see how the color looks in natural sunlight and shaded indoor lighting, so you won’t end up with a shade that looks totally different than it did in the preview window.
Step-by-Step Process to Adjust Your Character’s Hair Color
Once you reach Jiankang City, changing your hair color only takes a minute if you know the right steps to follow. We’ve broken the process down into simple, easy to follow steps so you don’t waste time clicking through random menus:
If you want to use a custom RGB color instead of the pre-made base shades, you’ll need to reach level 15 first. Custom RGB hair colors are only unlocked after you reach level 15, and you can adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness sliders to make almost any shade you can think of, from soft pastel pink to deep metallic purple. There’s no extra fee for using custom colors, so you can experiment as much as you want once you unlock the feature.
Hidden Hair Color Unlocks You Might Have Missed
The 24 base hair colors are available to all players as soon as they unlock the barber shop, but there are 12 rare, hidden hair colors you can unlock by completing side content and exploring the open world. These rare shades include options like silver white, jet black, iridescent blue, and burnt orange, and most of them don’t cost any extra copper coins to use once you unlock them. You’ll have to complete small side quests for the barber, collect rare dye plants from remote areas of the map, or beat limited-time event bosses to unlock these shades.
If you’re working to unlock all the rare hair color options, you’ll likely have to spend a few hours farming dye plants or completing small side quests for the barber NPC. Long grinding sessions can get tiring fast, so most players split their farming into 20 or 30 minute chunks with short breaks in between to reset their focus. A lot of casual players use these short gaps to play low-stakes, quick-round games that don’t require a huge time investment. Many players in the community enjoy playing INR Rummy during these short breaks, as its fast-paced rounds fit perfectly into 5 to 10 minute gaps without pulling you away from your game session for too long. Once you’re refreshed, you can jump right back into farming for that rare silver or pastel purple hair color you’ve had your eye on.
Dye plants you collect in the wild can be traded to the barber for free hair color changes, no copper coins required. Each dye plant corresponds to a specific color family: red dye comes from wild poppies that grow in the meadows east of Jiankang City, blue dye comes from cornflowers that grow in the northern mountain regions, and green dye comes from ferns that grow in the southern forest areas. You only need two of the same dye plant to get a free permanent hair color change, so it’s worth collecting any plants you see while you’re exploring the map.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Changing Your Hair Color
Changing your hair color is a simple process, but there are a few common mistakes new players make that can waste their time or resources. The first mistake is changing your hair color right before a pre-rendered story cutscene. A small number of early story cutscenes use your initial character model, so your new hair color won’t show up in these cutscenes even if you changed it right before starting the quest. Wait until after you finish a main story quest to change your hair color if you want the new shade to show up in all your cutscenes.
Another common mistake is wasting rare dye plants on temporary hair color changes. The barber offers temporary color changes that only last 7 in-game days for 1 dye plant, but permanent changes only cost 2 dye plants, so the temporary option is almost never worth the cost. You’re far better off saving your rare dye plants for permanent color changes that will stay on your character for your entire playthrough.
You can preview your new hair color in different lighting settings before confirming, so take advantage of that feature to avoid surprises. A shade that looks bright and vibrant in the barber shop’s indoor lighting might look dull and washed out in the open world sunlight, so click the lighting toggle button in the top right corner of the customization menu to see how the color looks in different environments before you pay the fee. If you end up hating the color after you confirm it, you can revert back to your original hair color for free at any time, since the barber saves a record of your initial character creation choices.
Changing up your character’s hair color is one of the easiest ways to make your playthrough of Where Winds Meet feel more personal and unique. The process is far simpler than many new players assume, and you don’t have to stick with the first color you picked during character creation for your entire run. Even if you’re gunning for a rare hidden shade, a little bit of grinding and a few quick side quests are all you need to unlock every color option available in the game. Next time you’re tired of your character’s default look, just head to the nearest barber shop and try out something new — you might be surprised how much a small change can refresh your whole experience with the game. Now that you know where winds meet how to change hair color, you can spend less time hunting for customization options and more time exploring everything the game’s massive open world has to offer.
