Not trying to sell XSI and shout down Maya (far from it), but its in built Hair tools are almost on par with Shave N a HairCut. But the best part is. It's cloth simulator is Syflex. Its built in to the Advanced version.

I started in XSI, and was doing really basic animation, skinning, rigging, modelling within 3 months. I have been 1 year at Maya and have still not got to grips with about 80% of Maya at a basic level...