Newcastle second-rower Tyson Frizell has advised Jarome Luai to invest in a hair tie after he conceded a costly penalty for pulling the Penrith five-eighth's locks.
Luai recoiled in pain when the stand-in Knights captain pulled his hair at McDonald Jones Stadium in Saturday night's game and with the ensuing penalty, Penrith moved into position to score the try that levelled the scores.
From there, the Panthers sealed their 16-15 win in golden point and the Knights rued the costly penalty against Frizell, who insisted his hair pull had not been deliberate.
"When his hair's hanging halfway down his back and I'm going to make a tackle, it's incidental, I guess, if I do pull his hair," Frizell said.
"It's classified as a penalty but it wasn't intentional. I'd like for him to tie his hair up."
Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien pondered whether players with long hair had an edge if such penalties would continue to be paid.
"It's ridiculous," he said.
"Otherwise I'll advise them all to start growing their hair long to try and get an advantage.
"I think players get a bit of credit, they are actually just trying to make tackles and get people on the ground, take them to the ground.
"I guess there must be a lot of innuendo that players out there to maim each other and pull hair ... it's not the case."
The hair-pull came after the Panthers parlayed an earlier penalty into their first try.
Referee Peter Gough penalised Dane Gagai for back-chat in the first half, allowing Penrith to seize possession and score through winger Brian To'o.
"It wasn't directed directly at (Gough), which he thought it was," Frizell said of Gagai's comment.
"That's the way he took it and a penalty came from it. In saying that, he understood once I explained it to him where 'Gags' was coming from."
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary would not be drawn on the hair-pull call, nor on the referee's decision to overlook Lachlan Fitzgibbon's late contact on Nathan Cleary as he kicked the first of two Penrith field goals.
"We've all got views but we don't want to turn into a headline. Happy to get the win and move on," Cleary said.
O'Brien understood the frustration of the Panthers playing group after Cleary was taken out.
"If it happened to us, we'd be appealing for it too so I'm not blaming Penrith," he said.
"(But) we had penalties for bad language and another penalty for hair-pulling tonight. How many do we want to have?"
