'Ark: Survival Evolved' Designer Demos v254 Update's Crazy Hair Growth Feature [WATCH]

Ark: Survival Evolved is getting hairstyles and facial hair features in next week’s planned v254 update, and Studio Wildcard lead designer Jeremy Stieglitz recently showed it off via Twitter.

The embedded GIF is obviously a rapid-speed representation of what’s to come, but it still looks pretty crazy. After the update, survivors on all maps will be able to have beards and hair growth as full as they desire. If it’s not taken care of over time, it will grow bigger. Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves, but we imagine you’ll be seeing lots of hairy natives on the servers very soon.

As those who have played Ark: Survival Evolved for a while will know, hair styling and such had been exclusive to mods in the past. Wildcard has often suggested an official version will be added in the future, and here it is.

This is merely a tease of course, because there’s a lot we can’t see in a single tweet. How long does hair take to grow? How free will players be to choose a color and style that suits their personal tastes? What can be done to trim it? These sorts of details may not be revealed until the v254 update goes live. As of now, its arrival is scheduled for Jan. 20.

In addition to hair features, the v254 update is also supposed to introduce the highly anticipated Tek Tier of items and seven new Dinos, including the Ovis Aries, Purlovia and Ammonite. We’ll likely post a more detailed guide on everything once it becomes available.

For those not on the bleeding edge of PC updates, Wildcard has also announced a series of PS4 and Xbox One patches planned for release very soon. These are promised to add v253 content and various fixes for major bugs and crashes.

Ark: Survival Evolved is available now on PC, Xbox One, PS4, OS X and Linux.

What do you think of these hairstyle and facial hair growth features? Are you excited for the v254 update? Tell us in the comments section!