If anyone else has an issue with the "Spiral" Setting not working, I've found a fix:
1. After changing "Hair Length" to "0.1" in tutorial, go to the top of your particle settings and check the "Advanced" box
2. Scroll down to your "Velocity" options and change the "Random" setting to "0.01"
3. Resume tutorial where you left off; You're good to go!
Hope this helps!
(From the wiki):
Alignment Limitations
When hair is pointing straight up (along the chosen spiral axis, default Z), spirals may not show up! This is a limitation of the projection method used. Giving a slight tilt or random orientation to hairs fixes this.
Source: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.74/Particles
