Speaking personally I like the hair and beard: they look very sculptural and very appropriate (detail-wise) for how much scrutiny they'll get from the average player. But if you want to change it, two quick words of advice:
* Polygons. You'll need a lot more to effectively model the curls you're aiming for. For something like this I'd figure out approximately how many "rows" of beard-locks you'll want (probably 5 or 7), and make a box with twice that number of vertical cross-sections (i.e. 10 or 14), and start sculpting that box into something beard-shaped.
* Texture. Even with more polygons, you probably won't want to model the beard in as much detail as your photo example. This is where your texture can help, e.g. to create light and shadow that emphasises your geometry and helps "fill it out."
There are two basic approaches to both of these ideas: 1) starting with a high res model and using that to "bake" a texture (basically, capture a render in a 2D file to use as the basis of your texture) and optimising your geometry to simplify it; or 2) doing a low-poly model from the start, planning carefully how much detail to entrust to geometry and how much to your texture. I favor the 2nd, simply because doing a high-res model only to "dumb it down" feels like a waste to me personally. However, baking a texture off a high-poly model can help ensure the texture and the geometry are working together in the best possible way to fool the eye. Like so many questions in 3D modelling, it comes down to whatever works best for you
Looking really good, BTW!