I knew I forgot something on that ambient test. As for the light, actually, I think it's an infinite. Lemme check. *checks* Yup, it was infinite. Here's some comparisons between infinite and spot lights, and between SSS, an ambient with the texture plugged into the ambient node, and an ambient with the same edge blend shader plugged into the ambient node. On the ambients, I didn't change the neck material because I was lazy, so you can see a bit of a seam there where the straight ambient material meets the SSS material. I took the hair off because it took a long time to render.