How to Create Realistic Hair Clumping in Blender: A Step-by-Step Guide

This guide covers how to create realistic hair clumping in Blender using both the classic hair particle system and the newer Geometry Nodes workflow. It explains the importance of clumping for realism and provides a step-by-step tutorial for beginners and advanced users. The guide includes techniques on procedural textures, weight painting, node setups, and shader tricks to achieve natural-looking hair clumping.

What is Hair Clumping and Why Does It Matter?

Hair clumping, the natural grouping of strands due to factors like moisture or oils, is essential for realism in CGI hair. It creates irregular tuft shapes and small partings, which prevent the hair from looking too perfect or like a cheap wig. Clumping adds thickness and complexity to the hairstyle, making it a key factor in achieving natural-looking hair and elevating Blender renders to a more realistic level.

Blender’s Hair Systems: Particles vs. Geometry Nodes

Blender currently offers two main systems for hair grooming:

• Hair Particle System (Emitter) – The traditional system (pre-3.x) where hair is a type of particle emitted from a mesh. It uses children particles to create multiple strands from a few guide hairs and provides parameters like Clump and Roughness for styling. This system is mature and still widely used for fur and hair, with many tutorials and documentation available.
• Hair with Geometry Nodes (Curves) – Blender’s newer hair system (3.3+) uses curve objects and combines sculpt mode with Geometry Nodes modifiers. It features powerful nodes like Clump Hair Curves for procedural control and supports a flexible, node-based grooming workflow with layered effects. This system is continuously evolving.

Both systems can achieve realistic hair clumping, and we’ll cover workflows for each. Beginners might find the particle system more straightforward initially, while advanced users can harness Geometry Nodes for finer control.

Part 1: Realistic Hair Clumping with Blender’s Hair Particle System

The Blender hair particle system has built-in features to create clumps using child particles. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown:

1. Setting Up a Hair Particle System

1. Prepare the Scalp Mesh: Start with the 3D model (scalp or character head) where hair will grow. Ensure its scale and normals are correct (Apply Scale with Ctrl+A and recalculate normals if needed) because particle hair relies on face orientation.
2. Add a Hair Particle System: In the Particles tab, create a new particle system and set it to Hair. By default, you’ll see hairs emitting from the mesh. Adjust Hair Length as desired for your hairstyle.
3. Adjust Hair Count: Use a manageable number of parent hairs (e.g. a few hundred) for styling. We will rely on children to fill in density, so you don’t need thousands of parents. Too many parents can be hard to groom manually.
4. Viewport vs. Render Amount: To keep viewport responsive, set Display amount lower (e.g. 25%) and Render amount to 100% so full hairs appear in final render. This setting is in the particle system under Children settings.
5. Basic Styling: Switch to Particle Edit mode (or in newer Blender versions, use Particle Edit or Comb tools) to comb the parent strands into the general shape. At this stage, roughly shape the hair (combing, cutting, adding volume) but don’t worry about fine detail – the clumping and children settings will handle much of that.

2. Enabling Children for Hair Clumps

Blender’s hair clumping is achieved by generating child hairs from each parent strand and gathering them together:

• Children Type: In the particle settings, enable Children. Choose Simple or Interpolated.
  • Simple children grow from each parent strand, inheriting its trajectory. They’re good when you want precise control per strand (e.g., parted hair or specific clumps).
  • Interpolated children are evenly distributed between parent hairs, providing uniform coverage, making it ideal for fur or dense hair. It’s great for neat styles, while simple distribution offers more control for messy or parted looks.
• Children Count: Set the number of children (e.g., 5, 10, 20 per parent) to increase hair density. More children = fuller hair but also more computation. Start modestly and increase as needed for final render.
• Clump Parameter: This is the key for clumping. The Clump slider (found under Children > Clumping) controls how child hairs converge:
  • Clump = 1.0 means children meet at their tips – creating a pointed clump where all child hairs converge towards a single point at the ends​docs.blender.org.
  • Clump = -1.0 means children start together at the root and then fan out – i.e., they are tight at the base and spread apart at tips​docs.blender.org.
  • Values in between blend these behaviors. For typical hair clumps (thicker at root, narrower at tip) you’d use a positive Clump near 1.0 so tips come together. For something like a ponytail where strands are tied at the base and then loose at the ends, a negative clump can make roots tight and ends loose​blender.stackexchange.com.
• Clump Shape: The Shape parameter adjusts the clump effect along the strand length. At 0, clumping is constant; positive values (up to 0.99) make an inverse parabolic shape, and negative values (down to -0.99) make it exponential​docs.blender.org. In simpler terms, Shape alters whether the clump is tighter near the tip vs. root:
  • If you want hairs to only really come together at the very end, you might use an exponential shape.
  • If you want a more gradual clump (starting earlier along the strand), tweak this curve.
• Use Clump Curve:For precise control, enable “Use Clump Curve,” which allows you to edit a curve graph. The X-axis represents strand length (root to tip), and the Y-axis controls the clump effect. This lets you customize clumping along the hair, such as having full clumping at the tip and none at the root, or vice versa, for subtle or partial clumping.

• Clump Noise: Blender’s Clump Noise adds randomness to simulate real hair, where some hairs stray from the clump. Enabling Clump Noise and adjusting its size creates mini-breakups in the lock for realism. Use it sparingly, as too much noise can ruin the clumping effect, while a small amount adds a natural, imperfect look..

3. Adding Roughness and Variation

Roughness settings further randomize child hairs so they’re not laser-straight clones. In the Children > Roughness panel, Blender offers:

• Uniform: Applies a consistent noise along the children.
• Endpoint: Adds a random wave or kink towards the end of strands (great for fuzzy, split-end effects). It’s like a random negative clumping – scattering the tips slightly.
• Random: Fully randomizes paths per hair, affecting each child independently.
• Threshold: The Random setting applies randomness to a fraction of hairs based on the threshold. For example, a threshold of 0.5 makes 50% of hairs random, creating flyaways or stray strands in otherwise clumped hair, similar to real hairdos.

By tweaking Roughness and Clump Noise, you introduce natural variation so that each clump doesn’t look identical blender.stackexchange.com.​

Even nicely combed hair should have slight chaos – a concept artists often use multiple particle systems to emulate. We’ll touch on multiple systems shortly.

4. Using Textures and Weight Painting for Clump Control

Sometimes you need non-uniform clumping across the scalp – for example, hair at the nape might clump differently than bangs. Blender allows you to drive clump parameters with vertex groups or textures:

• Vertex Groups: in the Vertex Groups rollout, assign a group to control the Clump factor with weights (0.0 to 1.0). Use 0 for no clumping and 1 for full clumping, allowing region-specific control over hair clumping.
• Procedural Texture (Particle Texture): Blender’s old particle system allows using a texture slot to control Clump with a grayscale texture (e.g., Cloud noise). This randomizes clump strength across the surface, creating variation in clump size and tightness, preventing a uniform look.
• Weight Painting Tips: Weight painting for clump uses 1.0 for full effect and 0.0 for none. You can animate weights or use multiple groups, but only one per attribute in the UI. Watch for stray weights causing odd clumps.

5. Best Practices for Particle Hair Clumping

Now that the basic settings are covered, here are some pro tips for realistic hair clumping using particles:

• Use Multiple Hair Systems for Complex Styles:Realistic hair often has layers, like tight clumps at the roots and loose flyaways. To achieve this, use multiple particle systems on the same mesh. One system can provide moderate clumping for the base layer, while another adds secondary clumps or messy strands. Blender experts often separate hair into parts (e.g., main hair, ponytail, bangs) with different clump settings, allowing for organic, varied clumping and sub-clumping.
• Example – Ponytail with Strays: Imagine a ponytail: you want the gathered hair to form distinct clumps (because hair pulled together by a band forms groupings), but you also want some random stray hairs around it for realism. You could have:
  • System A (Scalp Base): Cover the scalp with dense short hairs, slight clump at tips to avoid penetration through the headband and some roughness so it’s not uniformly slick.
  • System B (Ponytail Bulk): For long hair, set children to clump at the root where the hair is tight, and have loose ends. Use a high Clump value (near 1) and shape it to have the strongest clump at the root, reducing towards the tips. Add Random roughness with a Threshold of around 0.5 to make half of the hairs deviate slightly, giving an imperfect, natural look.
  • System C (Strays/Messy Overlay):Use a few parents with many children, high Roughness, and lower clump to simulate stray hairs escaping a ponytail or small groups out of place. Apply “Endpoint” roughness to scatter the tips. Since System C has few parents, you can manually place these stray locks where desired.
• Clump Curve for Tapered Clumps: Use that clump curve! A typical setting is to have clump strong at tip but zero at root for freely hanging hair – this prevents the “hair glued together from root” look and instead makes strands separate near scalp but converge at the ends, as often seen in slightly damp or styled hair.
• Avoid Perfect Symmetry: Even with all these settings, be mindful to introduce some asymmetry. Use different random seeds (the Seed value in children settings) if you duplicate systems, so they don’t coincide. Comb some parent strands a bit differently even if they ultimately clump – e.g., one parent might be slightly off to the side so its children clump forms at a slightly different angle than its neighbor’s.
• Test with Lighting: Sometimes clumping won’t be obvious until you render with proper lighting. Clumped hair often casts subtle shadows within the clump. Do quick test renders: if the hair still looks too uniform, increase the clump or roughness until you see definition.

Now that we’ve tackled the particle system approach, let’s move to Blender’s Geometry Nodes hair system, which provides another powerful way to achieve hair clumping.

Part 2: Realistic Hair Clumping with Blender’s Hair Geometry Nodes

Blender’s Geometry Nodes hair workflow (available in versions 3.3 and above) treats hair as curve data and uses node-based modifiers to generate and style hair. This system is more technical but extremely powerful for creating layered effects like clumping and sub-clumping (clumps within clumps) akin to high-end grooming systems. Here’s how to use it:

1. Setting Up Hair Curves and Guides

1. Add Hair to the Mesh:In Object Mode, select the scalp mesh and add a Hair object via the Add menu or Particle Properties. In Blender 3.5+, hair is a separate object that can be attached to a mesh, or use Curve -> Empty Hair with a node.
2. Guide Hairs (Parents): Enter Sculpt Mode on the hair object to style guide hairs using tools like Add, Comb, and Smooth. Place enough guides to define the hairstyle’s shape, using fewer guides than the final hair count.
3. Hair Curves Geometry Nodes Modifier: Blender’s default Geometry Nodes modifier handles hair generation. If missing, add it to the hair object and create a new node tree for clumping and effects.

2. Interpolating Children Hairs in Nodes

Before clumping, you need to spawn children hairs from the guides:

• Use the Interpolate Hair Curves node to generate child curves between guide hairs, ensuring uniform coverage of the scalp. This node specifies the density or number of child hairs and is typically included in Blender’s default hair system node tree.
• You might also have a Generate Hair Curves node if starting from scratch (this creates hair curves on the surface). The key is: by the time you want to clump, you should have a bunch of hair curves (guide + children).
• Ensure the hair curves are attached to the surface (often handled by an Attach Hair Curves to Surface node so they follow the head shape).

3. Using the Clump Hair Curves Node

The star of the show is the Clump Hair Curves node. Add this node to your hair geometry node graph (usually after interpolation of children, so it clumps the children around certain guides):

• How it Works:The Clump Hair Curves node groups hair into clumps using guide curves, which can be automatically assigned or manually specified. It outputs clumped curves.
• Guide Selection:The Clump Hair Curves node uses a Guide Distance input to define the minimum distance between guides for clumping. A smaller distance results in more, tighter clumps, while a larger distance creates fewer, bigger clumps. Adjusting this distance helps control clump size.
• Manual Guide Control (optional): The node has inputs like Guide Mask and Existing Guide Map. These allow advanced use – e.g., you could mark certain curves as guides explicitly (perhaps to ensure a specific clump pattern). For beginners, you can skip these and let Blender auto-pick.
• Clump Factor: The Factor input controls the strength of clumping, with 1.0 for full clumping and 0 for no clumping. Values between can create partial clumping. It’s useful for animating clump influence or blending multiple clump nodes.
• Clump Shape: The Shape parameter (0 to 1) controls how clumping varies from root to tip. A value of 0 means uniform clumping, while 0.5 creates a linear falloff. To have less clumping at the roots and more at the tips, a value around 0.5 or higher is usually ideal.
• Tip Spread: The Tip Spread setting adds random variation to the ends of clumped hairs, preventing them from converging at a single point. This creates a more natural, fluffy look by slightly varying the length or direction of the tips. A small increase in Tip Spread can break up the tip cohesion for a more realistic effect.
• Clump Offset: Adds a random positional offset to each clump as a whole. This means the clump center might shift slightly in a random direction, making the grouping imperfect. Real hair clumps aren’t perfectly centered around one guide; clumps might wander or lean. Clump Offset simulates that. It’s another layer of randomness to avoid all clumps being carbon copies.
• Distance Falloff & Threshold: Falloff distance and threshold control how clumping fades with distance from guide curves, preventing strands from clumping to distant guides. Use Distance Falloff to avoid incorrect clumping across the head or in parted hairstyles by limiting the influence to a specific radius.
• Preserve Length:The Preserve Length option on the Clump node ensures that hair strands maintain their original length while clumping. Enabling it avoids unnatural “glued tips” by preventing hair from stretching or shrinking. It’s recommended for realistic grooming, but can be turned off for stylized effects where length isn’t preserved.
• Troubleshooting Clump Node: To fix odd clumps, lower Guide Distance or split guides (e.g., left/right) and use separate Clump nodes. The clump node doesn’t automatically respect hair parts, so manual separation is needed.

4. Adding Further Detail with Nodes (Frizz, Noise, Secondary Clumps)

After the Clump Hair Curves node, you’ll typically chain other Hair nodes to add variation:

• Frizz Hair Curves: This node introduces a randomized kink or curl along the hair curves (like frizziness). A small frizz gives subtle deviation per hair; it’s analogous to Roughness in particles.
• Hair Curves Noise: Another node for noise along curves, useful for more chaotic variation.
• Curl Hair Curves: If you want curly or wavy hair, you can add this either before or after clumping depending on effect. Curling after clump could curl the clump as a whole; curling before clump will make each guide curly but then they clump – experiment based on desired look.
• Multiple Clump Nodes (Sub-Clumping): One advanced technique is layered clumping. The Blender devs and artists discuss workflows to achieve “clumps within clumps” (sub-clumps) by chaining clump nodes. For example, you could:
  1. Use one Clump node with a large Guide Distance to form big clumps (macro clumps).
  2. Then use a second Clump node with a smaller Guide Distance on the result to clump hairs within each clump further into micro clusters.
  This layered approach can mimic fractal clumping (like in Houdini’s hair tools, where clumps break into smaller clumps). It yields very organic results but can be tricky to set up. Ensure that after the first clump, you somehow designate new guides for sub-clumps (you might use the output guide index map from first clump as input for second, or simply rely on the remaining curves).
• Set Profile / Set Material: Ensure you use a Set Hair Curve Profile node to define hair thickness. Tapered strands (thinner at the tip) work better for clumping, creating a thick lock with fine tips. Check strand thickness and assign a hair material.

The Geometry Nodes approach might seem complex, but it provides a non-destructive and highly customizable workflow. Once set up, you can tweak node parameters (like Guide Distance, Tip Spread, etc.) and see the hair update in real-time, which is great for fine-tuning realism.

5. Best Settings and Tips for Geometry Nodes Clumping

• Guide Placement Matters: Place guides carefully, as uneven placement leads to uneven clumps. For partings, place guides on each side and avoid the part line for clear clumps. Well-placed guides simplify adjustments.
• Use Weight (Attributes) for Guide Selection: To make only specific hairs act as guides, create an attribute (like a selection) for them and use it in the Guide Mask on the Clump node. This allows control over which curves serve as clump centers, such as weight painting or marking every Nth guide.
• Adjusting Factor vs. Preserve Length: If clump Factor 1.0 is too strong, reduce it slightly (e.g., 0.8) to create looser clumps. If tips merge despite a Factor of 1, enable Preserve Length to avoid merging without losing clumping. It’s about finding the right balance.
• Randomize and Iterate: The Clump node has a Seed value – change it if you want a different random distribution for tip spread and offsets. If results look too regular, a different seed might give a better random arrangement.
• Performance: Geometry Nodes can be slow with many hairs; reduce hair count for previews and increase it for the final render.

Now that we’ve covered both methods of creating realistic hair clumps in Blender, let’s discuss how to shade and refine those clumps for maximum realism and address common pitfalls.

Part 3: Shading and Refining Hair Clumps for Realism

Achieving realism isn’t just about the hair model; it also involves materials and variation to ensure the clumped hair looks convincing in renders.

Hair Shader Techniques for Clumped Hair

Blender offers a Principled Hair BSDF shader (and older Hair BSDF) that is physically based and great for realistic hair. Here are some shader tips:

• Use Principled Hair BSDF: If you’re aiming for realism, use the Principled Hair shader with the Melanin and Tint controls (for natural hair colors). This shader automatically handles light scattering along the hair, giving those nice soft glints on clumps.
• Vary Strand Color: Use the Hair Info node’s Random output in Cycles to add subtle color variation to strands, making clumps more distinct.
• Root to Tip Gradient: The Hair Info node’s Intercept output creates a root-to-tip gradient, darkening roots and lightening tips, adding natural variation to clumps.
• Shine and Roughness: Clumped hair can have thicker locks with highlights. Use lower roughness for healthy hair, but avoid too much shine. A Fresnel or facing factor adds gloss on edges. Adjust Roughness or IOR for highlight size, and reduce roughness for a wet hair look.
• Texture for Variations: You can also UV map or auto-generate coordinates on the hair (the new hair system supports capturing UV from surface or generating curve UV). A procedural noise texture mapped along hair can modulate the roughness or color slightly, simulating irregularities like slightly greasy areas (lower roughness) or dust (higher roughness) for added realism. Keep these subtle.

Adding Natural Variation and Avoiding Repetition

Despite all the settings we dialed in, there’s always a risk of CG hair looking “too computer-generated”. Here are additional tips to add natural variation and avoid repetition:

• Mix Clump Sizes:Real hair has clumps of different sizes. In the particle system, simulate this with textures/weights or by layering systems (high clump for big clumps, lower clump for smaller ones). In geometry nodes, use a multi-stage approach or adjust Guide Distance. Alternatively, use one clump node for all hair, then apply a second node to a subset for larger clumps.
• Loose Strands and Flyaways: Not all hair strands should clump. To add variety, ensure some hairs remain loose. In geometry nodes, manually mark some guide hairs to stay outside clumps, or mix original positions back using a Blend Hair Curves node. Alternatively, scatter a second hair object with single strands placed strategically (e.g., baby hairs or stray hairs).
• Different Child Settings per Area: In particle systems, the Radius in children settings controls how far children spread around the parent. A larger radius can create looser clumps. Interpolated children offer a Parting option and virtual parents for even distribution. To create a part line, use Interpolated children with the Parting feature or manually adjust parent distribution.
• Hair Thickness Variation: Clumps will look more natural if each strand has a subtle thickness variation. For example, you can set the hair particle material to use a texture along the strand to thin out at the tip (if using EEVEE’s Strand shader, or Cycles with curve radius control). In geometry nodes, profile the hair to be tapered. This way clumps don’t end in blunt cuts; they feather out.
• Dynamics and Gravity: For realistic posed/simulated hair, simulate gravity’s effect on clumps (via simulation or soft selection sculpting). Upright clumps look unnatural; Blender’s hair simulation/softbody curves can add realistic droop.
• Reference Images: Always compare with real references or high-quality grooms. You might notice, for instance, that hair near the neck might clump due to slight sweat, whereas hair on top of the head might be fluffier – this can guide where to apply more clump vs more roughness. Don’t hesitate to tweak weight paints or guide the clumping based on such observation.

Common Mistakes to Avoid (and How to Fix Them)

Even seasoned Blender users make mistakes in hair grooming. Here are some common pitfalls specific to hair clumping and how to address them:

• Hair is too Uniform or “Plastic-looking”: Perfect, unvaried hair clumps often look unnatural. To fix this, add roughness or randomness, slightly lower the clump value, or mix clump values. Ensure Clump Noise is not zero; even minimal noise is beneficial. Also, verify lighting and shader, as uniform shading can emphasize a CG appearance.
• Strands Sticking Together at Tips in a Weird Way: If you see small clumps merging into bigger super-clumps at the ends (like unintended grouping), it could be an issue with clump settings:
  • In the particle system, perhaps Clump Noise Size is too large, causing neighboring clumps to merge. Or children count is low making each child cluster very obvious. Fix: reduce noise size or increase children for smoother distribution.
  • In geometry nodes, this could happen if Preserve Length is off, leading to hair tips all exactly meeting. Fix: enable Preserve Length or adjust the Factor down slightly so tips aren’t fully pulled in. Also, check Tip Spread – increasing it will physically separate those tips so they don’t converge to a single point.
• Clumps Crossing Over (Left-right mixing): If hair on opposite sides of a part or head are clumping together through the head, it breaks realism. This usually means your clump influence radius is too large:
  • Particle system: if using Interpolated children, too high Virtual Parents or mis-used Parting can blend across a part. Fix: use Simple children on each side with their own particle system, or paint a parting line as density zero so no hair in the exact middle.
  • Geo nodes: as mentioned, tweak Guide Distance or split hair into multiple systems (or use a guide mask attribute). The user who had this issue split the hair into two objects which solved it. If splitting isn’t desired, consider using the Guide Mask input to define groups of guides that clump separately.
• Hair Not Covering Scalp (Bald Spots): Excessive clumping can cause hair gaps. Fix by increasing parent strands, using a small child radius, or in geometry nodes, increasing child density or interpolating.
• Performance Lag: High child counts/geometry nodes slow Blender. Fix: use Display Amount for particles, switch nodes in geometry nodes for lower detail, and groom fewer parent strands
• Weight Painting / Vertex Group Confusion: Wrong vertex group assignments cause odd hair results. Fix: check vertex groups, clear clump groups for debugging, and smooth hard weight paint transitions.
• Not Enough Segments for Smooth Clumping: Few parent hair segments cause angular clumps. Fix: increase segments (at least 7) for smoother bends.
• Ignoring Scale and Units: If your scene scale is non-standard (e.g., very large or small), the default clump distances/noises might not fit. Fix: Adjust clump size values to match scale, or consider applying scale to 1. In geometry nodes, Guide Distance is in object units, so for a big model you might need larger distance.

By being aware of these issues and solutions, you can save hours of frustration in your hair grooming journey.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. My hair clumps in Blender look too chunky. How can I make them more subtle?
   Chunky clumps mean clumping is too strong/uniform. Fix: lower Clump, use gentler Shape, add Noise/Roughness, vary with textures/weight paint, or adjust Geometry Nodes Factor/Tip Spread.
2. How can I simulate wet hair clumping versus dry fluffy hair?
   Wet hair: high Clump, low Roughness/Radius, shiny/dark shader. Dry hair: low/negative Clump, high Roughness/frizz, Endpoint Roughness for fluffy ends.
3. Is the new Geometry Nodes hair system better than the old particle hair for clumping?
   Geometry Nodes hair: flexible, complex, for advanced users/film. Particle system: simpler, faster, good for common use. Choose based on project complexity and realism needs. Geometry Nodes is still developing.
4. How do I prevent hair from different areas (like beard vs scalp, or left side vs right side of head) from clumping together?
   Separate hair systems for distinct areas. For parted hair: use Interpolated children/separate particle systems (particle system) or region separation (geometry nodes). Use density vertex groups for part gaps, and limit Clump Guide Distance or use Guide Masks.
5. My particle hair is behaving oddly – some children are floating or clustering in one spot not even on the scalp. What’s wrong?
   Floating/off-center hair: apply emitter scale, check vertex groups, reduce Children Radius/use Roundness 1, increase parent count/use simple children, enable Use Modifier Stack.
6. Can I use Blender’s hair clumping for things like fur or feather grooming?
   Fur is short hair, use clumping for tufts. Feathers may use clumping, but often need manual work. Adjust clump scale to hair length.
7. I want to create braids or dreadlocks – is that hair clumping or something else?
   Braids and dreadlocks are more extreme forms of hair grouping. While they involve clumping (strands winding together), they usually require modeling specific patterns:
   • Braids: Model curves or use Blender’s braid features (particle kink or geometry nodes).
   • Dreadlocks: Use heavy clumping or model individual dreads; roughness adds frizz.
8. After setting up everything, how can I make the hair move or simulate physics? Will the clumps hold?
   Blender hair simulation is complex. Old particle hair uses cloth solver for dynamics; children move with parent strands, but extreme motion causes lag/penetration. Low-res simulations can guide high-density hair. New hair system integrates simulation (soft body curves or simulation nodes in 3.5). Clumping updates during simulation but requires tweaking; Preserve Length prevents stretching. Simulation of more guide hairs can prevent clump separation. Simulation requires careful setup, and clumps hold if relative hair motion remains similar.

References:

For more information on specific settings, check out the Blender Manual’s section on hair children and clumping which explains clump, shape, and roughness options​ docs.blender.org. The Geometry Nodes hair documentation (Blender 3.5+ manual) details the Clump Hair Curves node and its inputs. Community tutorials and forums are also invaluable – for instance, Blender artists often share tricks on layering particle systems for messy, realistic hair​ blender.stackexchange.com and developer discussions on hair grooming highlight techniques for organic clumping and sub-clumping. Don’t hesitate to explore those resources and experiment – realistic hair clumping in Blender is an achievable goal with practice and the right settings at your fingertips.

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