I have extremely long hair and I frequently get women coming up and saying things like: "I love your hair, it's so long". But I have no idea how to respond to this, I just smile and say "thanks" quietly.
How do I engage them in conversation when they open me with something like that?

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One cannot lose what one has never had.

You could always just give them a compliment back. Just transition and start a conversation with them as you would if you approached them.

You're on the right track, being able to accept compliments gracefully is an aspect of strong social skills. While I dislike the somewhat manipulative context my advice will take, I feel it gives you a rationale to apply to similar situations in the future, and in my opinion isn't so much about controlling other people's behavior as it is about communicating some of your desirable attributes (namely, social calibration) and your social disposition (friendly, comfortable, and interested in interacting with others).

In effect, she has done something 'good' by investing effort in conversing with you via the compliment, and so you should reward her with warmth to demonstrate your friendliness and comfort in dealing with people. So, the next time a woman comes up and offers a compliment to you, use confident eye contact, tone, and vocal projection to warmly thank her. Smiling is essential as well, but you really should be smiling most of the time anyway (and if you're not, you need to cultivate enjoying yourself more).

This is a perfect opportunity to start touching her as well, a light hand on her shoulder while responding communicates that her pleasantness is well received, and all the other benefits of kino, like establishing that you're unafraid of touching her.

"I love your hair"

*Turns, smiling, meeting her eyes* "Why thank you, I don't believe we've met, I'm [name]".

If you speak quietly, don't engage her in further conversation, and or skirt eye contact, you're communicating embarrassment, which is a fairly natural reaction for shy individuals but it's the opposite of the dominant, poised, and warm disposition that makes your interaction feel smooth and exciting.

It's a massive IOI for a woman to open you this way, if you don't already feel confident that your appearance is helping you out, you should now.

Good luck man,

'aw you're just saying that to get into my pants'

while hugging her.

I get that a lot too, for the same reason. Long hair rocks.

I smile and say. Thank you very much that was a very nice thing to say. Now you are my favourite girl in this (look around) part of (look around) this table... Jokingly of course.

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I'm not trying to be a dick Ezo, but you're being a Pick Up Snob in my opinion.

bbardot: you just reminded me about porn

Thanks for the responses guys, I'm definitely going to try some of these out! I've been too nervous for kino so far, so this seems a good time to begin using some of that.
I also really like your response Ezo, I like to do cocky/funny, so that helps a lot

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One cannot lose what one has never had.