Of course, there’s lots of realistic CG hair out there, so it’s definitely possible. One of the things that is always unintuitive is that we tend to think there’s a special formula, there must be a button somewhere in the software I’m not clicking that I should be clicking that will make it look perfect, but it’s hardly the case. Mostly it’s the same tools you already know how to use but it’s the artistic eye we need to develop, the accumulation of small choices that adds up. There’s also the technical part as well yes, not taking away from that role. But the shader should be pretty good out of the box, again, lighting plays a huge part as well.
That tutorial I linked to should be perfect for making the hair look like hair and not a collection of curves, Kent spends most of the time grooming the hair for that purpose and even though the software has changed a lot in the technical aspect, the core knowledge is there, which is even more important.
