... which would it be? Which is the most versatile? Recommendations from satisfied users would be welcomed.

Don't buy anything until you've thoroughly checked out Kozaburo's wonderful free hair models (Digital Babes, at the lower right). You can then look to fill out your collection with a much more educated eye. I love Michael's Wedge Cut, it's beautifully made and looks good on male and females. The Wonder Wedge add-on pack adds to it's versitility, but together they're pretty pricy, and of course, majorly overexposed within the community. Vairesh keeps getting better and better - and you can buy the specific style you want for a very reasonable price. If you want to invest more, there are some good packages that offer a basic head style and lots of additional parts and morphs, so you can customize the look. A lot depends on what your end product is. For a still you can get away with arranging the hair to fit from just one perspective; for animations it's a lot trickier, most long styles just aren't up to it at this point. You end up with hair intersecting body parts, unless the morphs are very good and you tweak it frame by frame. If you are doing a still and bring it into Photoshop for postproduction, you can produce very unique and realistic (or fantastic) results. There are some good tutorials on that. I always pay attention to feedback here on hair models when they first come out. You can do a search on old messages.

Buy from VAIRESH, then the the money should be enough for 2 hairs. ;) My favorite is the Mariah hair, but if you want to go for different looks, the Maiden or the Xena hair are probably best.

Looks like I crosspost with gryffnn. Where was my brain? Yupp, first check Kozaburo hair downloads, great quality and free.

From a newbie , that is on a budget I like DAZ Gel hair. It works for me and you can use it on guys and gals. I used it with the p4mantoboy to make a rowdy english school boy. Also a free texture at digital babes.I have also seen it used on the NEW DAZ Girls.

Got to be the Wonder Wedge. I have used that so many times now, it's getting silly.

I swear by Anton's changing ponytail with the expansion pack. I could actually get by with just that hair.

If you have the money, Anton's Changing Ponytail with the Expansion pack. One model that can create virtually ANY style you are looking for. (Check out the pics at DAZ, it does more than just ponytails.) I use it almost exclusively, except for Mehndi's braid. Vairesh also has some great models, if you are looking for multiple models. But since you asked for the one, it has to be Anton's. The MOST versitile hair out there right now.

Jim Burton's Hollywood hair, and the figure version, the supermodel hair. Looks great even unrendered, and transparency isn't mandatory like it is with some. With a few well placed magnets it will do wonderful things. But if I had to choose just ONE HAIR... I'd want a really, really, long one I could wind up around and around in a pile on top of my head and make a nice pompadour...

Antons changeing ponytail and expasnsion pack. I love it!! It is pretty much all I use. But Variesh's hair is very good to. Plus it is very inexpenisive.

My personal favorite is the Total Hair package from hmann (offered in the Marketplace). Anton's package is great, too, but positioning on the model is done manually, and I wind up tinkering more with it than I'd like to sometimes. Total Hair is more plug-and-play, in my opinion.

I vote for Jim Burton's Hollywood hair.....don't forget you get two hairstyles and free morphs are available for them as well as nice textures....... Many of the free hair models are great as well; Kozaburo, and Jim Burton has a free conforming Strip hair that works similar to the Poser Conforming Curls hair.....gee, guess I really like Jim's work....... Krel

I'd have to vote for Anton's hair with expansion. That, Mendhi's braid and the WonderWedge (expansion for MIchael's wedgecut) from DAZ are pretty much all I use anymore

The things I use most are Mike's wedge cut (goot for both male and female) and "Alice hair" by Kozaburo, though I'm also loking for a decent braided hair at the moment, so I'm thinking Mehndi... later jb