Yes, That is how normals/PBR maps work. They don't modify the model at all, they only change how the light is interpreted and "fake" the details onto the model.
try modifying the beard normals to be like the face normals to vet better integrated shading, like so: http://simonschreibt.blogspot.de/2013/02/airborn-trees.html
It could have edited normals, which are fixed in place. Add an Edit Normals modifier, select all the normals, and press the Reset button, then Collapse the stack.
You would do that with the actual modifier. There's a button labeled Instanced Node. You hit that, then click on some object (the one sided plane), and it will use that as that hairs.
Like a lot of others. The way layers worked before was tons better. But they modified to introduce the animation features, that are useless for almost everybody. Damn you, Pixologic.