High Poly Head and Freyr do different things. High Poly Head provides a higher poly version (meaning a more detailed version with more vertices) of the original Skyrim head mesh. This means that while the new head mesh is smoother and allows for finer tinkering in (e.g. in the RaceMenu mod), it still uses the ugly vanilla head mesh as a base, and therefore it still suffers from the weird proportions and plain ugly shapes of that mesh. (This is no attack on the author of that mod, she/he did great work.)

Freyr takes a different approach. Its male head mesh does not rely on the original one. It was created from scratch by me, and therefore, it has none of the original vanilla ugliness. Furthermore, I provide new race morphs, CharGen morphs and animation morphs, resulting in more beautiful faces for all male characters and more expressive animations.

So, in short:

Use High Poly Head if:

• you like the vanilla face, the vanilla race appearances and the vanilla customisation options (noses, eyes, lips, etc.)
• you like to tinker with lots of vertices in sculpt mode of the RaceMenu mod
• you are very attached to High Poly overhauls of vanilla NPCs
• you want a more detailed version of the vanilla mesh

Use Freyr if:

• you want better looking male characters and NPCs out of the box
• you do not want to be dependent on NPC Overhauls that “fix” the ugly head meshes of NPCs
• you want beautiful, normal-looking elves, orcs, humans and vampires
• you don’t like (most of) the eyes, noses, lips options provided by the vanilla game
• you want a solid basis to build your own male characters/NPCs on
• you want a new, more beautiful face mesh with new eyes, race appearances, customisations and animations
• you want a tool to instantly beautify every NPC in every mod with a few clicks in the  Creation Kit

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Depends on your definition of lore-friendliness. Since the races (mostly) maintain their race characteristics, the customisation options are somewhat similar to the original ones, the animations fit and the characters still look like men, I would say yes.

However, there are a few things to note: With Freyr, the men look more handsome. Their jaws are more squared, their eyes are bigger and set lower, their faces have more pleasing proportions, and their appearance overall is more idealised. Also, they look more similar to each other, since I took a more conservative (and more sensible) approach to the sliders and customisation options. (No more NPCs with mouths down on their chins and eyes up in their hairline, no more weird-looking eyes, noses and lips.)

Additionally, there are a few notable changes to the races:

 Skyrim |  Skyrim SE |  Skyrim AE

• Elves look more normal - no weird eyebrows, pointy chins and emaciated faces
• Orcs look more human and pretty - no snouts, no ridiculous underbites, no crooked teeth
• Vampires look more normal - no emaciated faces, but long fangs
• Bretons look more elvish - they now have pointed ear tips

 Enderal |  Enderal SE

• Starlings and Aeterna (elves) look more normal - no weird eyebrows, pointy chins and emaciated faces

See the images for comparisons with the original faces and decide for yourself if Freyr is lore-friendly enough for you.

No. I don’t do commissions, my mod comes as is, and I like how it looks.

Furthermore, since all the races share the same files, it is impossible to overhaul one race but not another. I would have to alter the existing race morph, and it takes time and effort to create a race morph that looks good and works well with all of the CharGen options and animation morphs, not even mentioning all of the 60+ beards and other adjacent additional meshes that need to be adjusted to fit the new morph.

So no, I won’t provide race morphs (or CharGen and animation morphs for that matter) that look more like their vanilla counterparts (like ugly elves and beastly orcs). This is my mod. If you want the races to look like vanilla, just use vanilla. This mod is for everyone else who wants something different.

Regular NPC overhauls change an NPC’s appearance by adjusting sliders and choosing different eye/nose/lips options for them. Furthermore, sculpting the exported FaceGenData of each individual NPCs seems to be another, more detailed approach.

Freyr is not a NPC overhaul per se, since it doesn’t alter any NPCs directly. It replaces the NIF and TRI files that act as building blocks for the male NPCs’ head mesh (FaceGenData). This leads to their appearance being altered when their FaceGen data is exported with Freyr activated.

The comparison pictures in the images tab do show the same characters with the same customisation options (nose, lips, …), only first with the original NIF and TRI files (left side) used to build the head mesh (FaceGenData), and second with Freyr’s NIF and TRI files (right side) used to build the head mesh. The difference lies in the construction parts, not in the customisations. This is also why Freyr does not come with an ESP file - no NPC record has been altered.

In addition to that, since Freyr changes the underlying building blocks of the male head appearance, the player character as well as any other male character/NPC created by any mod is affected by Freyr and benefits from its visual improvements. It is therefore possible to instantly beautify any male character from any mod with one click in the CK.

TL;DR: Freyr changes the building blocks for male character’s head appearance (FaceGenData), not the male characters themselves. It therefore affects any and all male characters (base game and modded).

Trust me, the decision to not account for compatibility with vanilla hair was one I didn’t make lightly. I tried to make them work together, but at some point, I had to accept that my artistic freedom would be limited if I stuck to the proportions of the vanilla hairstyles. These hairstyles are designed for a head shape that doesn’t suit my artistic vision, so I ultimately decided to disregard compatibility and follow my vision. (I created compatible versions for some hairstyles though, namely the shaved head ones. So any NPC/PC with a shaved head will look completely fine.)

That being said, you can still use Freyr without my hair replacer. The game will run fine, the only issue is that some (not all!) vanilla hairstyles will clip with the NPC and player head meshes. If you can live with this, feel free to not use the hair replacer and stick to vanilla. It’s up to you.