I need shader help.

Hey everyone, I am trying to adapt the Blacksmith hair example for use with fur. The problem I am having is that the shader makes the root of the hair black, fading into the actual colour. I imagine I'd have this problem even using it for just white hair. It looks fine for the hair example because the hair is dark, but it really kills white fur, and I also don't have angled planes yet for the fur, so its creating obvious black bands around the body.

Could somebody take a look at the shader and see what needs to be done to stop it from adding the darkness to the roots? It can be seen in the example when you hit play after making the hair a brighter colour. I had to modify the actual hair albedo image to increase the brightness enough.

I did have a look over the code but couldn't find anything obvious, I don't understand shaders yet. Thanks!