Make Your Editor Cry: Hair (Awkward Plural)
BLUF: (Bottom Line Up Front)
Hair is singular when it refers to an entire head of hair.
The definition of hair: a slender threadlike outgrowth of the epidermis of an animal, especially one of the usually pigmented filaments that form the characteristic coat of a mammal
The singular of hair is hair. When describing individual strands of hair, the plural of hair is usually hairs. However, when it refers to an entire head of hairs (e.g., brown hair, blond hair, curly hair), the plural is hair.
When describing an entire head covered with individual hairs, hair is treated as a single object or group like an uncountable noun (mass noun), which is why it is referred to in a singular form.
Example:
I washed my hair this morning.
I found three gray hairs this morning.
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.