Skip to main content
Uncensored — This model declares no content filter. SpicyAPI forwards the request without adding a platform content scan; legal and consent duties remain with the customer.

Head Swap Review: Moving the Whole Head, Hair Included

Pick Head Swap when the target's hairstyle needs to change along with the face; keep the neck line covered up if you can't match lighting between photos.

Open the Playground

Spicy Index

69.9/ 100

Freedom Score

60.0/ 100

Range if the rest pass: 60.0–100.0

Content levels

Tested 3 of 6 probe types · 15 runs

  • Mild · The lightest prompts in the test

  • Moderate · Where filtered models start to refuse

  • Strong · Mid-scale; must be tested before a model is ranked

  • Very strong · Where most models start to hold back

  • Maximum · The top of the scale, scored in two halves: class A and class B

Price
$0.013 per image
Median time
22 s
Success rate
Collecting data

Head Swap is the sibling to Face Swap that moves more: face, hairstyle, hair colour and skull silhouette all transfer from the reference photo, while the target's body, wardrobe, pose, lighting and background stay exactly as they were. It's the endpoint to reach for when the target's own hair has to go — a different colour, a different length, a different texture entirely — rather than survive the swap. Two required fields, an optional seed, no prompt and no mask, for $0.013 per image.

What Head Swap made in our tests

Straight from our test runs. Copy a prompt or open it in the playground to try it yourself.

Make your own with Head Swap

Open the Playground

The verdict

The trade-off for moving the whole head is the neck seam. That's where this endpoint succeeds or fails, and a target whose neck is hidden under a collar, scarf or hair is the easiest way to avoid a visible join.

Try Head Swap →

What we liked and what held it back

What we liked

  • Hair travels with the head, on purpose. In the silver-hair example, long pale hair arrives over an open metal collar because the reference's hairstyle and colour move as one piece with the head — a face-only transfer couldn't do that.
  • It handles the mirror-image case too. In the waist-length-blonde example, the target's own waist-length honey waves don't survive — the whole head, and with it the reference's black hair, replaces them — while the emerald gown and everything below the neck stays as shot.
  • It fills in when there's nothing to preserve. The shaved-head example starts from a target with no hair at all; the reference's curls are built onto that plate from scratch, and the tattooed shoulder and backlit rim around it stay untouched.
  • A seed keeps a retry comparable. The stage-relight example pins a seed specifically because the lighting — a purple key from the left and a warm rim from the right — has to be rebuilt on the swapped head consistently across attempts.
  • Same cheap, predictable price as the base Face Swap endpoint. $0.013 per image, one charge per completed generation.

What held it back

  • The neck seam is the whole game. Bare shoulders and an exposed neck, as in the window-portrait example, give the seam nowhere to hide, so lighting direction between the two photos has to match closely.
  • image_url and reference_image_url are easy to swap by mistake. They aren't interchangeable, and sending them backwards is a valid request with a completely different result — there's no error to catch it.
  • There's no way to change just the face here. If you want just the face to change and the target's own hair to survive, that's the plain Face Swap endpoint instead — this one always takes the whole head.
  • One face per photo, same as the rest of the line. A group shot in either source gives the engine nothing to disambiguate.
  • No prompt, no mask, no batching. Two photos in, one image out, and nothing else to configure.

What the images look like

The gallery holds published, safe-for-work examples from the Head Swap model page.

Hair over an open collar. Long pale hair arrives with the swapped head, and the seam sits exactly where the borrowed hair meets the target's shoulder — everything below stays as shot.

A costumed body plate plus one head. The pattern behind most before-and-afters on the model page: a full costumed target and a single consented head reference.

Waist-length hair replaced entirely. The target's honey waves don't survive a whole-head swap; the reference's black hair and features arrive together, while the emerald gown and hand position stay put.

A shaved head as the target. With no hair to preserve, the reference's curls are built onto the plate from nothing — the tattooed shoulder and backlit rim confirm nothing else moved.

Alternatives

  • Want to change just the face and keep the target's own hair? Face Swap is the feature-only version, same $0.013 price.
  • Want a no-retouch version of the plain feature-only transfer? Face Swap Pro skips the smoothing pass, for $0.16.
  • Only need a resemblance to your own face rather than a specific target photo? Celebrity Look-Alike generates a new frame from a single portrait instead.

How far Head Swap goes

Each level, on each task, based on confirmed results. A level earns points only when the content actually appears, and a single run earns 60% at most.

Freedom points by level and task
LevelImage editing
MildThe lightest prompts in the test
5/5 delivered20.0 / 20 pts
ModerateWhere filtered models start to refuse
5/5 delivered20.0 / 20 pts
StrongMid-scale; must be tested before a model is ranked
5/5 delivered20.0 / 20 pts
Very strongWhere most models start to hold backNot tested yet
MaximumThe top of the scale, scored in two halves: class A and class BNot tested yet
Task score60.0 / 100.0Tested Sep 28, 2026

Tested Sep 15, 2026 to Sep 28, 2026

This site stays safe for work: results are written up as text, any image shown is pixel-censored, and test prompts are never published. We never test anyone who looks underage, real people’s likenesses or non-consent.

See every test record →See the uncensored leaderboard →

Run your own prompt and see how far it goes

Open the Playground

How Head Swap earns its Spicy Index

Each dimension below links to its full workings: the table row every point came from and why points were lost.

Public leaderboards 45% of quality
Not yet tested

No exact match on a tracked public leaderboard yet. How it works

Blind output test 35% of quality
74.1
Arena quality 20% of quality
Not yet tested

Counts once the model has 100+ blind votes and a 95% interval under 200 Elo. How it works

Capability 10.5% weight
Not yet tested

Not scored yet. How it works

Freedom Score 30% weight
60.0
Open the full test report →

What Head Swap can do on SpicyAPI

Straight from the live model specification on SpicyAPI. Some creators offer more in their own apps; this is what you can call through our API today.

Capabilities by endpoint
FeatureImage editing
Seed controlYes
Negative promptNo
See every parameter and code sample →

How long it really takes

Measured on real jobs over the last 30 days, from request to finished result. Times include our own test runs.

Median time
22 s
90th percentile
37 s
Success rate
Collecting data

A time appears once at least 10 completed jobs are in. Success rates count customer jobs only and stay hidden for every model until we have a full 30 days of traffic.

Models to consider instead of Head Swap

What do you think?

Was this review useful?

Log in to vote.

Comments

Comments are checked automatically and by our team. We remove spam, offensive content, personal attacks and anything that names a real person without consent. Report a comment and we review it within one business day.

Tried this model? Share what worked. You need a free account to comment, so we can keep spam out.

Head Swap FAQ

Try Head Swap yourself

Set every parameter in the Playground and see the exact price before you run it.

$0.013 per image

More reviews

See the leaderboards →
  • Two empty glass frames and an ivory bridge

    Face Swap Pro

    Pick Face Swap Pro when the face needs to match the sharpness of the rest of the photo; skip it if you want a glossier, smoothed-over result.

    Spicy Index
    70.9
    Freedom Score
    60.0

    Tested Sep 19, 2026

    Read the review
  • Two empty glass frames and an ivory bridge

    Face Swap Plus

    Pick Face Swap Plus for cross-skin-tone pairs where the engine should judge face-only vs. whole-head on its own; don't rely on its prompt field to steer it.

    Spicy Index
    62.2
    Freedom Score
    60.0

    Tested Sep 20, 2026

    Read the review
  • Two empty glass frames and an ivory bridge

    Celebrity Look-Alike

    Pick Celebrity Look-Alike for a fun, single-portrait generation from your own photo; don't use it for identification, verification, or to label a real person.

    Spicy Index
    46.0

    Tested Sep 19, 2026

    Read the review