Merry southern youth leader concealing tuft of hair (7)
I believe the answer is:
squiffy
'merry' is the definition.
(both can mean drunk)
'southern youth leader concealing tuft of hair' is the wordplay.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'youth leader' becomes 'y' (I've seen this in other clues).
'concealing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tuft of hair' becomes 'quiff' (I've seen this before).
's'+'y'='sy'
'sy' placed around 'quiff' is 'SQUIFFY'.
(Other definitions for squiffy that I've seen before include "Tiddly" , "Slightly tipsy" , "Mildly intoxicated" , "Smashed" , "Slightly drunk" .)