# HairFormer: Transformer-Based Dynamic Neural Hair Simulation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12600 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.12600/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 29 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Jul 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.02531/) (2015)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Empirical Evaluation of Gated Recurrent Neural Networks on Sequence Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.3555/) (2014)
- [SNUG: Self-Supervised Neural Dynamic Garments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.02219/) (2022)
- [HOOD: Hierarchical Graphs for Generalized Modelling of Clothing Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.07242/) (2022)
- [PBNS: Physically Based Neural Simulator for Unsupervised Garment Pose Space Deformation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.11310/) (2020)
- [Neural Haircut: Prior-Guided Strand-Based Hair Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05872/) (2023)
- [GroomGen: A High-Quality Generative Hair Model Using Hierarchical Latent Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.02062/) (2023)
- [Perm: A Parametric Representation for Multi-Style 3D Hair Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.19451/) (2024)
- [Functional Regularization for Representation Learning: A Unified Theoretical Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.02447/) (2020)
- [Quaffure: Real-Time Quasi-Static Neural Hair Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10061/) (2024)
- [TANGLED: Generating 3D Hair Strands from Images with Arbitrary Styles and Viewpoints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.06392/) (2025)
- [Augmented Mass-Spring model for Real-Time Dense Hair Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17144/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [HairWeaver: Few-Shot Photorealistic Hair Motion Synthesis with Sim-to-Real Guided Video Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.11117/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Simulating hair dynamics that generalize across arbitrary hairstyles, body shapes, and motions is a critical challenge. Our novel two-stage neural solution is the first to leverage Transformer-based architectures for such a broad generalization. We propose a Transformer-powered static network that predicts static draped shapes for any hairstyle, effectively resolving hair-body penetrations and preserving hair fidelity. Subsequently, a dynamic network with a novel cross-attention mechanism fuses static hair features with kinematic input to generate expressive dynamics and complex secondary motions. This dynamic network also allows for efficient fine-tuning of challenging motion sequences, such as abrupt head movements. Our method offers real-time inference for both static single-frame drapes and dynamic drapes over pose sequences. Our method demonstrates high-fidelity and generalizable dynamic hair across various styles, guided by physics-informed losses, and can resolve penetrations even for complex, unseen long hairstyles, highlighting its broad generalization.