Hey I use Painter, photoshop and psp7, all of them offer different tools and for hair I like the following: 1. Photoshop: the layers and ability to paint with a few hair brushes as well as the tiny brush for detail. 2. Painter...I love the graphic pen, if you use a variety of pen patterns turned down really low and vary the layers you will find some stunning hair effects...boa, giraffe, and even the graphic patterns sized very very small are terrific and using the layer options will spice up the hair...the brushes are great too as was noted by Jim Burton. 3. PsP7 has an excellent smudge tool, it is better than photoshop and mixes the colors very nicely...the brush feature is harder to work with in terms of getting that nice tiny detail for a hair by hair approach....but you can do almost as well with the smudge tool by pulling the color layer by layer.... 4. I like the lighting in Painter and PSP7 for the layers you can focus the light on a layer for highlights... I would build up using PSP7, photoshop then painter pattern pens for the tiny detail...and probably back to photoshop for a final touch up... but PSP7 is a good tool and I did get some nice hair results in that program....just take your time ...also do not forget that you can use the erase tool if you build using the layers....