I think I understand what you're saying. I don't think you can rewrite the hierarchy chain without damaging its ability to conform. Yeah, I'd think it's all anchored to the hip. You're trying to make it work kinda like a cape. You could leave the head of the hair as a head and perhaps make the neck and chest into different named parts. Plus you'd have to rename parts in the actual object file. Now, you would lose the neck and chest conformability. Hope this helps a bit. Maybe I'll play with this some, it's starting to intrigue me.

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