Thanks everyone for all the help and suggestions. I got transparency maps figured out (I use PaintshopPro) to create them. I'm working now on getting the "filthy rag" look. Also, I realized that by removing the belt loops and pockets from the pants texture (using a copy of the original texture, of course) I can make them look more like 19th century pants.

I also discovered that the transparent parts of the clothing still cast shadows in preview mode, so I had to turn of shadows for each part so that I could see to arrange my lighting properly.

I was looking at the advanced materials page with all the nodes and connections, and I couldn't make any sense out of it. Then, after a couple of hours of fiddling with it, and reading the manual, the light bulb suddenly lit up and it all made sense to me! funny how that works.

I'm still going to try other hair, and I haven't tried a beard yet. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll go check them out.

@quietrob: I don't know yet what I'll do with my project. I figure out somewhere to post it. Probably on my old website, which hasn't been updated in 10 years and probably hasn't had a single visitor in that time either. hehe