So I am working on a new type of zombie that has many game play difference but only one visual difference. My Zombies have a greenish gray hair not black, silver or brown as in the vanilla game. It has been a while, I have not made new creatures for Oblivion in almost a year. But from what I remember I need to copy the entire mesh folder and textures and then make my charges in this set of copy folders.

I really do not want to do that just to have gray hair on my zombies. How can I have my own zombies using all the standard mesh and texture files EXCEPT for their hair color?

I would like to just have my re-textured hair in my mod files and maybe the head of the zombie mesh file with the redirected texture path to my hair ....somehow? Can this be done via scripting using OBSE pathway change commands?

You only need to make a copy of the 'Hair01.nif' or 'Hair02.nif' file and retexture it.
You then select your hair in the model list for your zombie.

YES! I knew it had to be simpler than I was fearing. Time to try it, I have been scripting my zombie all day.
Got some cool effects, like shooting the zombie in the head with an arrow now ACTUALLY lands the arrow in the head not in the chest .... he he..

God, that use to drive me crazy (when I was working on the locational aspects of arrows for my combat archery mod) trying to figure out why the arrows were hitting the chest instead of landing in the head. Then one day I just watched it frame by frame and saw what was happing. The game will not show a head shot (arrow stuck in the head) unless the target dies from the arrow that hits it.
The game actually moves the arrow down into the chest or arms even if the arrow is dead on target to the head.

I guess Bethesda did not like a guy walking around with an arrow stuck in their head.

Anyway thanks for hair answer.