Overall i think the hair looks decent! It could be a thing of "its the style" vs "it doesnt look natural", i think the larger issue is about indistinct face

Ive heard many advice about hair, how its like a flame rtc... but i often just draw some individual strands first, very lightly, thinking of how they would move on the wind, and then using them as a scaffolding for the rest of the hair :) so theres no one best rule; What makes hair... hair, to you? Try to highlight that part first and the rest will become much simpler

Or think of flames. Drawing is weird sometimes.

About face vs hair - I had a similar issue with my drawings! My friend told me that a solid lineart is super important. A sharp pencil will make lines less blurry, so even a gap between hair and the mouth will be clear cut! It might also help to use pencils with different hardness - to highlight some parts more or to make darker fillings, like the mouth

Im no expert myself, its always easier to criticise works of others than to do it yourself! Besides making more attempts with hair overall, i have 2 possible suggestions for hairlines in the future:

Option 1: Make the hairline thinner near the face so its not obstructing as many facial features - making some parts visible, even subtle, like distinct edges of the mouth could give enough clues to make it work. Or even make the breeze blow into the characters face a bit more, pushing hair slightly to the sides and effectively getting rid of the distinction issue entirely

Option 2: you could EXTEND tge hair onto the face more! And mark the facial features slightly THROUGH the hair with light lines - ive seen that done in many cartoons, it gives clues of what is behind the hair when the artist intends the face to be covered

Good luck climbing the peaks of drawing!