Overview of creating hair

Before creating hair, consider the following:

How do you want to render hair? The renderer you want to use affects what Output setting you choose when you create hair. For more information, see Hair Output and Rendering Hair.
Do you want to include passive hair curves in your hair system? See Passive hair curves.
Do you want to include Rest curves in your hair system? See Start, Rest, and Current Position curves and Create Rest Curves.
What kind of hair style to you want to create? If short and simple, you can keep your Points Per Hair (segments) low, but if you’re creating long hair or a short, complex hairstyle you need more segments for flexible, natural looking hair. Also, you can create multiple hair systems on the same surface, which can be helpful if you’re adding bangs (fringe) to a model. See Assign a selection to a hair system.
If creating hair on a polygon, which UV set do you want to use? Use UV sets to define where the hair goes and to control its distribution and density. See Select which UV set to use for Hair (polygons only).
Do you want to use dynamic curves for a non-hair simulation? For more information, see Creating other models and effects with hair and also Make curves dynamic.