Physics asset goes whacky

I have this mesh I made in Blender. It has been rigged with one armature consisting of 3 bones linked to vertex groups with weights. There is no animation. The purpose of this mesh is to function as a beard attached to a character that sways as the character moves naturally - there is no animation attached to the mesh. When I first import the mesh into Unreal and create a physics ■■■■■, it seems to recognize only the first bone and links it to the mesh so the entire mesh has only one bone, which is pointless. I solved this by double clicking each bone in the hierarchy and re-created them with Auto Orient turned off. But when I click Simulate, it all goes whack, the mesh stretches and stars loop de looping around itself endlessly. It’s pretty amusing, but I’d really rather get it to work like I want it too.
Could this be a collision issue? What am I doing horribly wrong?

  • in capture3 image, I moved the capsules around to see if it had any effect, as they overlapped. that’s why they’re not inside the mesh