On the side of authors that get this... kind of right, or at least explicit (no, not that way) about it: Julie Czerneda, A Thousand Words for Stranger (and the rest of the trilogy) has a race of telepaths in which not only does their hair get long at puberty, it has a mind of it's own - or at least, reflects the character's mental state; most of them are high in an aristocracy where they have the time to deal with such things.

Another is CJ Cherryh, Invader (and the other 5 books in the trilogy) where not only does everyone braid, there are complex cultural signals in the ribbons in one's braid. Fortunately the main character is an ambassador/translator, and has a staff to take care of his braid, which he grows to appreciate more over time.

(I would braid mine, but I've never really gotten good at it [and am lazy about such things] so a braid ends up being a signal that my girlfriend is in town :-)