rope

I spent 3 days trying to get this right. Think I got it. Might need a little more tweaking though. To make the twists I rotated a cylinder with proportional on with a linear falloff to get a even twist.

 

I then added a wood pattern and then added partials with norm at .010, damp at .18 and z force at -0.1. (I rotated the object off the Z)

 

Looks like a mix between twisted hair and a rope.

Done