I would probably try something like that with a colorRamp node, yes.  

But how to handle the tips, where the shader shouldn't run all the way to the edge of the mesh, but should have each strand ending irregularly?

I need to stop surfing and fire up Poser to test some of this....

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Cage can be an opinionated jerk who posts without thinking.  He apologizes for this.  He's honestly not trying to be a turkeyhead.

Cage had some freebies, compatible with Poser 11 and below.  His Python scripts were saved at archive.org, along with the rest of the Morphography site, where they were hosted.