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In yesterday's "i" crossword (originally in the Independent July 2016) one of the clues was:

Bun hairstyle, unfamiliar on celebrity, turning heads (4)

The answer was CHOU (anagram of first letters of "Hairstyle Unfamiliar On Celebrity").

I don't think I've ever seen this time of clue before and I didn't think they were allowed - you normally have initials, or an anagram, but not both. It seemed particularly unfair because the answer wasn't a very common word.

Do they crop up elsewhere?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this ‘double’ way of clueing.
I can’t see any indication of first letters either.
The answer was an unfamiliar word to me too.
An awful clue IMHO.

it's wrong anyway - the pastry (and gence buns) are chouX

Chambers give Chou = ‘a cream bun’ so I guess it’s ok

Turning is the anagrind and heads is the initial letter indicator. It’s a two stage process but it’s been done before. I’ve seen ‘fashion leaders’ as an equivalent indication.

Another one in the Guardian was ‘broke the hearts of’ requiring an anagram of middle letters.

No, not wrong. CHOU in Chambers - ...;a cream bun;...

i put chou pastry in google and it insisted on searching for choux

I've seen this trick used a few times, but I can't remember where - the Indy I think?

Chambers justifies CHOU as others have said. I'd have thought "heads turning" would have been a slightly better indication (you take the heads first, then turn them) but of course the surface would then make no sense.

'Turning' indicates an anagram.
'Heads' indicates initial letters.
As for what is 'allowed'; absolutely anything that the setter thinks that they can get away with can and will be used.

At least 10 years ago I stopped adding to my list of 'anagram indicators' - it had reached over 500 - and I still encounter new ones.

Another from the recent Guardian…

“All clothing for axxxb cxxd exxxf prepared”…
… for an anagram of abcdef

Thanks for all the replies (and apologies for typo in opening post - "time" should be "type").

Re #8: "absolutely anything that the setter thinks that they can get away with can and will be used"

That's not true, is it? If someone had clued CHOU as "mangled cry of pain making bun" (anagram of OUCH), it would have been disallowed as an anagram of a definition, or a so-called "indirect anagram". The device in the clue above struck me as similarly unfair, as it combines an anagram with another form of indication. I sort of assumed that there was a blanket ban on them, but it seems not.