Re: hair, to me, the most important thing is uniformity across the squad - if you want a huge 8 inch high poof and a huge pony tail that's 20 inches long and 15 inches high, that's fine, but make sure every female on the squad has that - ones w/ short hair get a hair-piece fake ponytail, or better yet, make everyone get the same hair-piece fake pony-tail so everyone's hair is identical.
To me a big part of cheer is uniformity among the squad - they are wearing uniforms so they all look the same, the same shoes and socks, they are judged on if they jump together, tumble together, how the pyramid is timed together, etc., and then you got all these kids doing crazy/different things w/ their hair (kids with crazy short bobs, kids w/ streaks of purple and blue, etc.) so they can "stand out"? It just goes against the spirit of cheerleading if you ask me.
Same deal w/ make-up. Do a class where the whole team learns the right way to do it and ensure that they all did it right when they show up for check-in - and the coach tell them to go fix themselves if they are not in line w/ the rules.
CP's gym is a big offender of this and it drives me crazy (maybe it's my dance background ;)) - the beginning of the year info says the hair/makeup is supposed to be no poof w/ a straight pony tail, uniform matching glitter on the eyelids, a certain color of lipstick, etc. Then we show up at the comp and third of the kids have poofs (all of varying degrees), huge teased out curtly pony tails, a third have braids, and only some actually listened to the rule - and don't get me started about the makeup discrepancies. Lol.
I doubt the judges take off points for this, but I really think it detracts from the overall impression of the routine. If I ever owned a cheer place, or if I was a judge, I would be a stickler for this type of thing big time.