A Biologically Inspired Hair Aging Model

Abstract

Hair rendering has been a focal point of attention in computer graphics for the last couple of decades. However, there have been few contributions to the modeling and rendering of the natural hair aging phenomenon. We present a new technique that simulates the process of hair graying and hair thinning on digital models due to aging. Given a 3D human head model with hair, we first compute a segmentation of the head using K-means since hair aging occurs at different rates in distinct head parts. Hair graying is simulated according to recent biological knowledge on aging factors for hairs, and hair thinning decreases hair diameters linearly with time. Our system is biologically inspired, supports facial hair, both genders and many ethnicities, and is compatible with different lengths of hair strands. Our real-time results resemble real-life hair aging, accomplished by simulating the stochastic nature of the process and the gradual decrease of melanin.