Maiden hair taken down the wrong way (8)
I believe the answer is:
misspelt
'maiden hair taken down' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'wrong way' is the wordplay.
'wrong' becomes 'mis' (similar in meaning).
'way' becomes 'spelt' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'mis'+'spelt'='MISSPELT'
'the' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for misspelt that I've seen before include "badly written" , "Used the wrong letters" , "put down in error" , "having character faults?" , "having written words wrongly" .)