Crossword Genius

Carpet man loses heart, having messy hair (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

shaggy

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'having messy hair' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'carpet man loses heart' is the wordplay.
'carpet' becomes 'shag' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'man' becomes 'guy' (guy is a kind of man).
'loses heart' means to remove the middle letters.
'guy' with its middle taken out is 'gy'.
'shag'+'gy'='SHAGGY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for shaggy that I've seen before include "Ill-kempt" , "Hairy and unkempt" , "(Of fur) long and unkempt" , "With long coarse hair" , "Kind of story about a dog?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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