Make hair fall without combing? I have an animal with hair like Suzanne's. Is there any way to manipulate the hair particles so they respond to gravity right off the bat?
Yes. You can run a dynamic hair simulation. In the Particle Systems tab in the Properties panel, check Hair dynamics.



Key Alt + A to play. The hair should fall. You can adjust the settings shown above to differ how it falls.

Further Reading

I learned my stuff from here. You can also look into the Blender Reference Manual and YouTube videos like this one.