The hair of my character changes radically when brought into a new file, as either Appended or Linked - see images. As a work around I have created a new copy of the character and then rather linked the set and props into the same file. While this works it will become cumbersome when adding more characters, and seems to go against the concept of optimizing workflow. Is there something I am missing, or are hair particles not designed to link/ append at the moment?
About the process: The Hair Base is just one vertex group on the Head Object - which has two particle systems - the vertex group controls the density in both particles systems. It also has a black & white UV texture that defines the hairline.
The brows have two vertex groups - one for density and the other length - with two particles systems. The second vertex group only uses the density.
The lash have a simple vertex group with one particle system.
Some progress: I have an older file with the model and hair setup - without animation - that I have been able to both link and append without problems. It seems obvious now that somehow the rigging, and or animation is interfering, though the hair itself is not animated.