A question about prims and hair.

I'm new, this being the case of about two weeks or so. I've got more of a background with 2D illustration but I've been experimenting rapidly with 3D content and projects for a while now, so I've been designing clothes as well as other models for personal use. One thing I haven't been able to capture correctly in regards with SL is the hair creation technique - is it only possible to do it by the SL building system, or is there a third party program that makes an equal if not better use of this, such as Blender or Zbrush? This is my fourth attempt at working out the building aspect of the game, and it's just hard to grasp it right; don't get me wrong, I don't expect to evoke macro beams of sunshine on the fifth or sixth try, either. Just trying not to stab blindly in the dark on this anymore. Any help is appreciated, and thank you tons.

Find & buy full mod prim hair, put it on the ground and Edit it. See how it's done. Pretty simple.

Prim hair and other prim items can't be imported from other programs. I do think someone made an offline building editor for SL, but I'm assuming it's still SL's basic interface. I'm afraid you're probably stuck with SL's building tools, unless you want to make textures for the default Linden hair.

I second the suggestion to buy some modifiable prim hair and see how it's put together. Lucky for you, most hair is modifiable. You should be able to find freebie modifiable prim hair at various freebie places (Yadni's, GNUbie, and the Free Dove are good bets); if not, I know Panache and ETD sell a line of hair called WLSB and sell them for L$5 (I think) and L$10, respectively.

I know that there have been hair making classes held in the past. Doing a search for them in Events may be fruitful, though they're not all free.

Also, though you already know this, practice. Getting good with prims can take a while. I'm pretty comfortable making prim jewelry, for instance, but I can barely cobble together hair.