Oh, thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou!!!

I just changed the GC to 1 on another render, using the same character and hair, and it made a MASSIVE improvement! I always thought there was something wrong with my lights, because I wasn't doing something properly with them, not having enough lights in the scene... but I can see now it was the Gamma that was causing problems, not the lights at all.

I didnt understand what the Gamma Correction was in the Render settings, so I left it at Default, which was pretty high at 2.2 (I think). I will have to remember to drop it down to 1 from now on. I prefer the results.

Thankyou again!! I learned something new today big grin