Cool start on the hair! For the beard I think you'll want to get rid of the stepping effect by angling the roots of the cards and by adding transition cards on top.
Looking at the buffer visualizations would help you identify the root of the problem. You probably have different roughness on the decal from what you have on the wall.
I really dig the direction, but the sword does not right now look like a root is branching around it. The shape is a bit to unstructured and reads more like clay.