iOS 12 Memoji Hair, Skin, and Eyewear Options

With the launch of iOS 12, Apple introduced Memoji, allowing users to build personalized, animated 3D avatars directly within the Messages app. This guide outlines the specific customization options available for skin tone, hairstyles, and eyewear, providing a complete breakdown of how you can tailor these core features to match your personal appearance or create a stylized digital character.

Skin Customization

The skin customization panel in iOS 12 offers a diverse range of tones and facial characteristics:

  • Skin Tone Palette: A comprehensive color spectrum ranges from pale and fair complexions to deep, dark tones. In addition to natural hues, users can select non-traditional colors such as blue, green, and purple.
  • Tone Slider: A slider bar appears beneath selected skin tones, allowing you to fine-tune the exact lightness, darkness, and undertone of the complexion.
  • Freckles: You can toggle freckles on or off to add realistic texture across the cheeks and bridge of the nose.
  • Cheek Blush: Memoji includes a cheek blush option with a selection of shades and an intensity slider to define the prominence of the color.

Hair Customization

The hair category provides extensive choices for cut, texture, and coloration:

  • Hairstyles: The library includes dozens of distinct hairstyles categorized across short, medium, long, braided, and textured looks. Options include buzz cuts, side parts, bobs, afro fades, dreadlocks, topknots, and completely bald styles.
  • Base Colors: Users can choose from a standard palette of natural colors—such as blondes, browns, reds, blacks, and grays—alongside vibrant options like neon pink, turquoise, and violet.
  • Highlights and Gradients: Many styles support a secondary highlight feature. Selecting highlights introduces a complementary or contrasting hue to the tips or strands of the hair, with a dedicated slider to control the saturation.

Eyewear Customization

The eyewear section offers diverse frame styles and tint settings for standard spectacles or sunglasses:

  • Frame Shapes: The selection features modern and classic frame designs, including round wireframes, thick rectangular frames, cat-eye glasses, aviators, and square silhouettes.
  • Frame Color: Like the hair and skin menus, a color wheel allows full customization of the frame itself, matching any solid color or neutral metallic finish.
  • Lens Tint: You can convert any pair of glasses into sunglasses. The interface allows you to choose the tint color of the lenses and adjust the opacity slider from fully transparent to completely opaque.