(Click on image to enlarge) Image is MilDog with Moonrose's wolf texture and morphs.

I suggest you test a lot to find your balance between:

amount of hairs in every group,
thickness of root/tip of strands,
amount of verts - you can go as low as 6 and still be able to style quite well
Do the styling carefully and you will be able to have less hair which will cost less in power when rendering. The lighting is also important for the "scalp" not to show through.