diff --git a/apps/openmw/mwworld/esmstore.cpp b/apps/openmw/mwworld/esmstore.cpp
index 137c9cf026..d5d2c03b8b 100644
--- a/apps/openmw/mwworld/esmstore.cpp
+++ b/apps/openmw/mwworld/esmstore.cpp
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 #include <components/lua/configuration.hpp>
 #include <components/misc/algorithm.hpp>
 #include <components/misc/resourcehelpers.hpp>
+#include <components/vfs/pathutil.hpp>
 
 #include "../mwmechanics/spelllist.hpp"
 #include "../mwrender/actorutil.hpp"
@@ -140,22 +141,17 @@ namespace
                 // TESCS sometimes writes the default animation nif to the animation subrecord. This harmless (as it
                 // will match the NPC's race) until the NPC's race is changed. If the player record contains a default
                 // non-beast race animation and the player selects a beast race in chargen, animations aren't applied
-                // properly. Morrowind.exe handles this gracefully, so we clear the animation here to force the default.
+                // properly. Morrowind.exe handles this gracefully, so we clear the animation here to force the default
+                // values to be used.
                 if (!npc.mModel.empty() && npc.mId == "player")
                 {
                     const bool isBeast = (race->mData.mFlags & ESM::Race::Beast) != 0;
                     const std::string& defaultModel = MWRender::getActorSkeleton(false, !npc.isMale(), isBeast, false);
                     std::string model = Misc::ResourceHelpers::correctMeshPath(npc.mModel);
-                    if (model.size() == defaultModel.size())
+                    if (VFS::Path::pathEqual(defaultModel, model))
                     {
-                        std::replace(model.begin(), model.end(), '/', '\\');
-                        std::string normalizedDefault = defaultModel;
-                        std::replace(normalizedDefault.begin(), normalizedDefault.end(), '/', '\\');
-                        if (Misc::StringUtils::ciEqual(normalizedDefault, model))
-                        {
-                            npc.mModel.clear();
-                            changed = true;
-                        }
+                        npc.mModel.clear();
+                        changed = true;
                     }
                 }
             }