Some places still say no short no shoes no service. Even lobo enjoys fast food. ;)

I think that ever since the DCAU version had a shirt different artists have chosen to follow that example, especially as we've been in a time where nostalgia for those cartoons is high.

Not to demean the artists who make these decisions, but business-wise... if they want to amortize all these tooling costs with a variant down the line, a shirtless Lobo would be an easier sell to those who already own this one than a new headsculpt, yeah?

All I know is that Lobo's vest better say "Bite Me, Fanboy."

If I buy Lobo, can I wait for his hair to grow longer before opening?

Not really. Hes worn a shirt in the comics years before any animated appearance going back to his first mini series last czarnian. The look goes back and forth for the various one shots and mini series until his ongoing series starts up where it settles with the shirt and leather vest being his standard look. The animated show just went with what was his current look at that time.

^^^
Alright so it's even more of an established thing than I thought, thanks for the breakdown on that.

There's countless classic Lobo series that show him wearing a shirt. Lobo's Paramilitary Special, for example. The McFarlane figure is totally a great example of classic Lobo, not just the New 52 version. I don't even understand why people are debating this.

Well this figure isn't the New 52 version at all since the New 52 one was the skinnier "pretty boy" that totally ditched any of the biker elements of the character, it's often pointed at as one of the reasons the New 52 was lame. Once DC scrapped the New 52 though and launched Rebirth the main man returned to his usual design but with very minor tweaks like mildly shorter hair and an actual mustache and beard instead of the tattoo/face-markings that looked like a mustache.