what you need for clothing is a modeller (can do certain types of hair too)

there is 100's of them  free all the way too need a mortgage ;-)

blender and wings are free but most of the expensive ones have a months trail USE it

find one that suits YOU 

I actually use wings3d. I have used blender but find wings to be more user friendly. I have made a few of my own props (swords, houses, and some simple clothing) I have heard of making hair in programs like wings and then using the cloth room to simulate hair movement in animations. Would this be something you would recommend? If so, is there some kind of tutorial or advice on how to make hair look natural using this method?