try this: buffered shadows, buffersize set to at least 3000 (i use closer to 4000 or a little more myself), the Bias down to about 0.150, and Samples to 5. i do the 3-light setup, without AO (it eats up too much time IMO, you can get nearly the same “ambient light” feel with using a dim hemi-light). this will render shadows for the strand render (doesn’t render shadows for raytrace, i dunno why), and it’ll be a LOT faster. let me know what happens.
Nice model!
For cutting down render times a bit while doing render tests (I sometimes even use it with finals, but that doesn’t seem much right) you could chose rt:1 at the anim panel and simplify ao and sss, cut down the number of children particles or some other stuff. Here’s a screenshot:
Hey ward7299, your settings works perfectly on Strand render and the rendering time is improved drastically (even with AO as in my test). It renders the shadows, but the hair look changed too. So the lighting for the hair needs special care even separate light rig for it?! And maybe combining both renderings will give better result, which introduces Node editor 
Thanks for the tips! Much appreciated!
Sick! Is Simplification panel some hidden feature of Blender? Cause I dont find it in my 2.48 version
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yeah, pay real close attention to the rt spinner!
Thanks a lot!