Stew, how many hairs on your rat, if I may ask? If you're doing short hair, you don't need too many vertices. But for long hair, you get an unpleasant zig-zag look without a lot of them. Fyrespiryt, interesting idea. Maybe something like Animedoll's modular hair, only more detailed and more realistic? One thing I've done is make "locks" with dynamic hair. I grow them on primitives like small cubes or spheres, then save them in my library. Saves some styling time, anyway. You can bring them into a new scene and place them so the sphere they're growing out of doesn't show. It's easier than making a whole hairdo, and can add some individuality to widely-used styles like Koz's. Maybe someone more ambitious and skilled than I am would actually make a kit, with smart-propped or conforming locks...