A hairy question

I've been working at getting up to speed with photoshop and was playing around with a photo of my co-worker taken last Halloween. I like the results pretty well, but I think the hair could be better. Any suggestions:

Original:

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

Did you defringe the layer with her on it (Layer > Matting > Defringe)? Looks pretty good but I can still see a bit of the old background. I'm trying to master this myself right now and it's a challenge!

I like her skin texture much more in the photoshopped example. Geishas to me tend to look more ceramic like/flawless in skin textures which IMO you have recreated very well in the 2nd image.