I am not sure what type of hair is best for fine detail?

A lot of different hairs are used to produce brushes. Sometimes brush makers have been quite creative with the naming of the different types. This creative name giving can be very misleading when you don't know what the names really mean. Additionally there are differences in the quality of the hair which are differentiated by the name. This applies especially for sable brushes, which are quite important for the miniature painter. I will now try to clear up some of these "mysteries" by listing and describing a selection of hair types.

Kolinsky sable. The red sable "mustela sibirica" lives in east Siberia and northern China. The Harbin-Kolinsky is named after a city in northern China close to the border to Russia. This sable lives on the banks of the Ussuri, the border stream to Siberia. The tail of this sable is a bit smaller than the tail of his Siberian cousins. It is bushy and has strong hair with a fine tip. The terms Tobolsky-Kolinsky and Ussuri-Kolinsky describe the Russian red sable that lives on the banks of the streams Lena, Amur, Ussuri and Tobol. It has a splendid tail with strong hair with a fine tip and a good spring. It makes excellent brushes. The best Kolinsky brushes are made from the winter hair of the tail of the male red sable. The color of this hair is golden.

Red sable. Brushes under this label consist of second grade Kolinsky sable hair or are made of weasel hair. The weasel hair has this reddish shine.

Black sable and Russian sable are two terms used for Fitch Hair. The Fitch hair comes from the polecat. It has similar qualities to red sable, but is more coarse. This limits its application to oil based colors.
Brown sable brushes are made from the hair of sable tails that are dyed with the rest of the fur by the furrier. This hair is used for simple quality brushes.

Sable. Brushes that are simply labeled sable without anything else will be made of any hair listed above that doesn't meet the quality requirements for the other labels. Sometimes some lower grade squirrel will be mixed in too. The quality of these brushes can range from trash to good.

Sabeline is a sable imitation made from ox hair. For this kind of brush, the white hair from the oxen ears is used. It is dyed to look like red sable. It has similar properties to sable, but the hair has blunt tips.

Bristle. This is a stiff hair from a hog, boar or pig. It is well known for its so called flags. The term flags describes the split tips of the hair. They increase the paint capacity and volume of the brush. It is used to spread heavy paint evenly over a surface. These brushes can be applied in drybrushing.

Camel hair. The term camel hair is very misleading. Camel hair brushes actually consist of various inexpensive hair types like Asian pony, bear, sheep or lesser grade squirrel hair. There is not a single hair from a real camel in a camel hair brush.

Sheep hair and Goat hair is long and can hold a good point. But it has no spring. This hair is mainly used in calligraphy.

Horse hair is used for calligraphy too, but it can not hold a good point when it is wet. So often a second layer of sheep hair is put around a core of horse hair to get a good brush.

Squirrel. Canadian and Russian squirrels provide thin, soft absorbent hair. Squirrel hair brushes can form a very sharp point but they have no spring. They are used for watercolor wash and lettering.

Synthetic hair is a modern development to replace the expensive and rare natural hairs. It has a good spring and can form a sharp point. But usually they can't hold color as good as natural hair and the color will come to the surface faster. A very popular fiber is Nylon. The golden taklon nylon brushes are a cheap alternative to sable brushes.

Thank you so very much for the bristle info, which shall be very useful to me. My main complaint is that no matter how much I've paid for the brush I have to be aware of shedding. Any useful tips on how to minimize shedding?

Care must be taken when cleaning your brushes. Never allow your brush to "sit" in water or other cleahers, it curls the bristle. Shedding is caused by breaking or loosening the bristle. Never allow paint to accumulate at the base of the brush. Water based acrylics can be removed from the base AFTER CLEANING WITH SOAP AND WATER with rubbing alcohol from your local store. Even dried paint is dissolved and easily removed. The drawback is that repeated use will dry out your bristles and they will break. I do have brushes(red sable)that I've used for over ten years but I only clean them with alcohol when the base gets clogged. Good luck.