Don't know if this helps - it's not an accurate answer, Nate.
I had to do a filmstrip all curled around and I couldn't work out how to do an irregular wiggle and keep a regular artwork (the film frames) in sync, so I "split" the polygon strip into bite-sized chunks in UVs and faked the
photoshop work to fit.
What I'm thinking is that is if you made a texture to fit a short length of whip at the fat end, you could UV the next section with a slightly reduced scale plait pattern, maybe with a built-in trompe-l'oiel taper in the artwork and so forth, reducing each time until you hit the business end. I'll bet a man of your drawing caliber could fiddle the textures so nobody would notice the joins!
