Quote - The OP doesn't mention where they're rendering, Poser or DS?   If Poser, then have you tried unticking the Visible in Raytrace option in the properties tab of the hair?   It will cut down times a lot.  If you don't want it to reflect in a mirror or water then you can do without raytracing on the hair.

I do that for all test renders. But I find the lack of raytraced shadows to be unconvincing. So I deal with the long render times.  But I suppose it might work quite well in some lights.

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PoserPro 2014, PS CS5.5 Ext, Nikon D300. Win 8, i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz, AMD Radeon 8570, 12 GB RAM.