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Definition: Hair |
HairNoun1. Dense growth of hairs covering the body or parts of it (as on the human head); helps prevent heat loss; "he combed his hair". 2. A very small distance or space; "they escaped by a hair's-breadth"; "they lost by a hair". 3. Filamentous hairlike growth on a plant; "peach fuzz". 4. Any of the cylindrical filaments characteristically growing from the epidermis of a mammal; "there is a hair in my soup". 5. Cloth woven from horsehair or camelhair; used for upholstery or stiffening in garments. 6. A filamentous projection or process on an organism. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "hair" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Hair n. [back-formation from hairy] The complications that make something hairy. "Decoding TECO commands requires a certain amount of hair." Often seen in the phrase `infinite hair', which connotes extreme complexity. Also in `hairiferous' (tending to promote hair growth): "GNUMACS elisp encourages lusers to write complex editing modes." "Yeah, it's pretty hairiferous all right." (or just: "Hair squared!"). Source: Jargon File. |
Bible | Hair (1.) The Egyptians let the hair of their head and beard grow only when they were in mourning, shaving it off at other times. "So particular were they on this point that to have neglected it was a subject of reproach and ridicule; and whenever they intended to convey the idea of a man of low condition, or a slovenly person, the artists represented him with a beard." Joseph shaved himself before going in to Pharoah (Gen. 41:14). The women of Egypt wore their hair long and plaited. Wigs were worn by priests and laymen to cover the shaven skull, and false beards were common. The great masses of hair seen in the portraits and statues of kings and priests are thus altogether artificial. (2.) A precisely opposite practice, as regards men, prevailed among the Assyrians. In Assyrian sculptures the hair always appears long, and combed closely down upon the head. The beard also was allowed to grow to its full length. (3.) Among the Greeks the custom in this respect varied at different times, as it did also among the Romans. In the time of the apostle, among the Greeks the men wore short hair, while that of the women was long (1 Cor. 11:14, 15). Paul reproves the Corinthians for falling in with a style of manners which so far confounded the distinction of the sexes and was hurtful to good morals. (See, however, 1 Tim. 2:9, and 1 Pet. 3:3, as regards women.) (4.) Among the Hebrews the natural distinction between the sexes was preserved by the women wearing long hair (Luke 7:38; John 11:2; 1 Cor. 11:6), while the men preserved theirs as a rule at a moderate length by frequent clipping. Baldness disqualified any one for the priest's office (Lev. 21). Elijah is called a "hairy man" (2 Kings 1:8) from his flowing locks, or more probably from the shaggy cloak of hair which he wore. His raiment was of camel's hair. Long hair is especially noticed in the description of Absalom's person (2 Sam. 14:26); but the wearing of long hair was unusual, and was only practised as an act of religious observance by Nazarites (Num. 6:5; Judg. 13:5) and others in token of special mercies (Acts 18:18). In times of affliction the hair was cut off (Isa. 3:17, 24; 15:2; 22:12; Jer. 7:29; Amos 8:10). Tearing the hair and letting it go dishevelled were also tokens of grief (Ezra 9:3). "Cutting off the hair" is a figure of the entire destruction of a people (Isa. 7:20). The Hebrews anointed the hair profusely with fragrant ointments (Ruth 3:3; 2 Sam. 14:2; Ps. 23:5; 45:7, etc.), especially in seasons of rejoicing (Matt. 6:17; Luke 7:46). Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Dream Interpretation | If a woman dreams that she has beautiful hair and combs it, she will be careless in her personal affairs, and will lose advancement by neglecting mental application. For a man to dream that he is thinning his hair, foreshadows that he will become poor by his generosity, and suffer illness through mental worry. To see your hair turning gray, foretells death and contagion in the family of some relative or some friend. To see yourself covered with hair, omens indulgence in vices to such an extent as will debar you from the society of refined people. If a woman, she will resolve herself into a world of her own, claiming the right to act for her own pleasure regardless of moral codes. If a man dreams that he has black, curling hair, he will deceive people through his pleasing address. He will very likely deceive the women who trust him. If a woman's hair seems black and curly, she will be threatened with seduction. If you dream of seeing a woman with golden hair, you will prove a fearless lover and be woman's true friend. To dream that your sweetheart has red hair, you will be denounced by the woman you love for unfaithfulness. Red hair usually suggests changes. If you see brown hair, you will be unfortunate in choosing a career. If you see well kept and neatly combed hair, your fortune will improve. To dream you cut your hair close to the scalp, denotes that you will be generous to lavishness towards a friend. Frugality will be the fruits growing out therefrom. To see the hair growing out soft and luxuriant, signifies happiness and luxury. For a woman to compare a white hair with a black one, which she takes from her head, foretells that she will be likely to hesitate between two offers of seeming fortune, and unless she uses great care, will choose the one that will afford her loss or distress instead of pleasant fortune. To see tangled and unkempt hair, life will be a veritable burden, business will fall off, and the marriage yoke will be troublesome to carry. If a woman is unsuccessful in combing her hair, she will lose a worthy man's name by needless show of temper and disdain. For a young woman to dream of women with gray hair, denotes that they will come into her life as rivals in the affection of a male relative, or displace the love of her affianced. To dream of having your hair cut, denotes serious disappointments. For a woman to dream that her hair is falling out, and baldness is apparent, she will have to earn her own livelihood, as fortune has passed her by. For man or woman to dream that they have hair of snowy whiteness, denotes that they will enjoy a pleasing and fortunate journey through life. For a man to caress the hair of a woman, shows he will enjoy the love and confidence of some worthy woman who will trust him despite the world's condemnation. To see flowers in your hair, foretells troubles approaching which, when they come, will give you less fear than when viewed from a distance. For a woman to dream that her hair turns to white flowers, augurs that troubles of a various nature will confront her, and she does well if she strengthens her soul with patience, and endeavors to bear her trials with fortitude. To dream that a lock of your hair turns gray and falls out, is a sign of trouble and disappointment in your affairs. Sickness will cast gloom over bright expectations. To see one's hair turn perfectly white in one night, and the face seemingly young, foretells sudden calamity and deep grief. For a young woman to have this dream, signifies that she will lose her lover by a sudden sickness or accident. She will likely come to grief from some indiscretion on her part. She should be careful of her associates. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Hair One single tuft is left on the shaven crown of a Mussulman, for Mahomet to grasp hold of when drawing the deceased to Paradise. "And each scalp had a single long tuft of hair." Byron: Siege of Corinth. The scalp-lock of the North American Indians, left on the otherwise bald head, is for a conquering enemy to seize when he tears off the scalp. Hair (Absalom's) (2 Sam. xiv. 25). Absalom used to cut his hair once a year, and the clippings "weighed 200 shekels after the king's weight," i.e. 100 oz. avoirdupois. It would be a fine head of hair which weighed five ounces, but the mere clippings of Absalom's hair weighed 43,800 grains (more than 100 oz.). Paul says (1 Cor. xi. 14), "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?" Mrs. Astley, the actress, could stand upright and cover her feet with her flaxen hair. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Medicine | The essential movement is relative displacement of the hair cells and tectorial membrane, so that the -- are bent one way or the other. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Hair is also a musical: see Hair (musical) Hair is an outgrowth of the epidermis in mammals. Hair is a characteristic of all mammals, though in some species hair is absent at certain stages of life.Hair serves a number of different functions. It provides insulation from cold weather and, in some species, from particularly hot weather. Because hair is often pigmented, it provides coloration. This might serve to camouflage an individual; in some mammals, the pigmentation changes with the seasons, becoming white during the snowy winter, for example.
The hair of non-human animal species is commonly referred to as fur.
Humans
Among humans, nature selected for little body hair as part of a set of adaptations including bipedal locomotion and an upright posture. Bipedal locomotion is extremely inefficient, and many animals can outrun human beings for short periods of time; such animals, however, are inefficient radiators of heat, and cannot run for long periods of time. Thus, human hunters must be able to chase animals for long periods of time, and must therefore have an efficient mechanism for radiating body heat. Upright posture, which exposes less surface area of the body to direct solar radiation, and subcutaneous sweat glands, which operate best with an absence of hair.
Typically, humans have more hair on the top of the head (perhaps to protect against too much radiation from the head), where extremities meet the torso (axillary (arm-pit) hair and pubic hair), on the eyelids and above them (eyebrows). In most societies people shave, style or adorn their hair for aesthetic reasons.
Sometimes, the term body hair is used, to distinguish hair on the body from hair on the head. The difference between body hair and scalp hair (and, in males, chin and moustache hair) is that head hair for practical purposes grows continuously, whereas body hair alternates regular periods of growth and dormancy. During the growth portion of the cycle, body hair follicles are long and bulbous, and the hair advances outward at about a third of a millimeter per day. After a few weeks, body hair growth stops. The follicle shrinks and the root of the hair rigidifies. Following a period of dormancy, another growth cycle starts, and eventually a new hair pushes the old one out of the follicle from beneath. Head hair, by comparison, grows to great length, whereas body hair does not. Anthropologists speculate that the functional significance of long head hair is almost certainly adornment, a by-product of natural selection.
Unlike other animals, human beings often have their hair cut or remove it by shaving or other means.
Hair is a biological polymer; over 90% of its dry weight is made up of proteins called keratins. Under normal conditions, human hair contains around 10% water, which modifies its mechanical properties considerably. Hair proteins are held togther by disulfide bonds, from the amino acid cysteine. These links are very robust; for example, virtually intact hair has been recovered from ancient Egyptian tombs. Different parts of the hair have different cysteine levels, leading to harder or softer material.
Structurally, hair consists of an inner cortex, comprising spindle-shaped cells, and an outer sheath, called the cuticle. Within each cortical cell are many fibrils, running parallel to the fibre axis, and between the fibrils is a softer material called the matrix.
The cuticle is responsible for much of the mechanical strength of the hair fibre. It consists of scale-shaped layers. Human hair typically has 6-8 layers of cuticle. Wool has only one, and other animal hair may have many more layers. Hair responds to its environment, and to its mechanical and chemical history. For example, hair which is wetted, styled and then dried, acquires a temporary 'set', which can hold it in style. This style is lost when the hair gets wet again. For more permanent styling, chemical treatments (perms) break and re-form the disulphide links within the hair structure.
The diameter of a human hair ranges from about 18 µm to 180 µm. In people of European descent, blond hair and black hair are at the thinner end of the scale, while red hair is the thickest. The hair of people of African descent is typically thicker than the hair of other groups.
The speed of growth is roughly 10 cm/yr = 0.3 mm/day = 3 nm/s.
Notable variations in physical appearance of the top and back of the head are:
Hair spray, gel, etc. may be used for fixation of the arrangement and may also make it shiny.
- headgear
- hair color (original or artificial)
- hair type
- haircut, dreadlocks, braids, ponytails, wigs, decorative hairpins, the way the hair is combed or otherwise arranged, or disarranged.
See also facial hair, pubic hair, hirsutism, social role of hair, blonde joke.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Hair."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Hair is a musical about hippies, written by James Rado & Gerome Ragni (words), Galt MacDermot (music). It premiered off-Broadway on October 17, 1967, and moved to Broadway in 1968.The play caused controversy when it was first staged, and though much publicity was provoked by the Act I finale which included both male and female nudity, this only became a legal issue when the show left New York on tour. (At least three other plays in the same season featured nude scenes of one sort or another).
Original cast:
There is also a film version directed by Milos Forman (1979).
- Shelley Plimpton
- Kim Milford
http://www.geocities.com/hairpages/
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Hair (musical)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area and in the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region. Pubic hair starts to grow during puberty (for boys it starts to grow earlier than facial hair). Patterns of pubic hair vary widely. On some people, it is thick and/or coarse, while on others it may be sparse and/or fine. Pubic hair and axillary (armpit) hair is much darker than the hair of the scalp, and is accurately comparable to the colour of the eyebrows, if not darker (in both sexes, with the exclusion of albino people). This is due to the lack of "sun bleaching" that the hair experiences. On most women, the pubic patch is triangular and lies over the mons veneris, or mound of Venus. On many men, the pubic patch tapers upwards to a line of hair pointing towards the navel. As with axillary (armpit) hair, pubic hair is associated with a concentration of sebaceous glands in the area.
Function of pubic hair
It is believed that the functions of pubic hair include the dissemination of pheromones, and protection from the friction of sexual intercourse
Culture
Attitudes
In Japanese drawings pubic hair is often omitted for legal reasons, see hentai, as the display of pubic hair is not legal.
Modification
The following paragraphs are about females. For males, please see further down.Trimming or completely removing pubic hair is a common practice in the Arab world.
Since the 1960s it has become popular to trim or completely remove pubic hair in the western world (Europe and North America). In some regions of India and surrounding countries, this practice has been popular since before the 1960s.
Different cultures have different shaving habits as well as different reasons for why they modify or remove pubic hair, which include:
Performers in pornography often have removed some or all of their pubic hair.
- hygiene, especially during menstruation
- aesthetic
- avoid unpleasantness during oral sex (hair in your mouth)
- tradition
- culture, e.g., India and BDSM cultures
- possibly Religion
For methods of how to remove hair, please see depilation.
Styles
As you can imagine, just about any style is possible, e.g., heart-shaped (to name just one). But these styles are very popular:
- trim the sides of the triangle (bikini line), so that pubic hair cannot be seen while wearing swimwear
- remove hair from both sides of labia majora, often seen with above trimming
- remove all, but a small patch, line or triangle over the clitoris
- remove all pubic hair
Regions
Females between 15 and 40 years of age keep their pubic hair according to this table:
Region not modified
[%]trimmed
[%]fully shaved
[%]
USA/Canada <10 60 30 Europe > 75 < 15 < 10 South/Latin America no information Africa (w/o Arab countries) no information Arab world <20 80 Australia no information South-East Asia 85 5 10 Indian subcontinent 20 10 70 Chinas/Koreas 85 5 10 Japan 85 5 10 Nudists 25 10 65 BDSM cultures 15 5 >80
Men
Since the 1990s more and more men also trim or remove their pubic hair. Alltogether it is seen much more rarely than in females. It is fashionable in BDSM cultures (approx. 30% shaved) or nudist cultures (approx. 10% shaved).
Like other hair, pubic hair may be infested by lice: see pubic lice.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pubic hair."
Synonyms: HairSynonyms: fuzz (n), hairbreadth (n), haircloth (n), hair's-breadth (n), pilus (n), tomentum (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Drunkenness | Verb: get drunk, be drunk; Adjective: see double; take a drop too much, take a glass too much; drink; tipple, tope, booze, bouse, guzzle, swill, soak, sot, bum, besot, have a jag on, have a buzz on, lush, bib, swig, carouse; sacrifice at the shrine of Bacchus; take to drinking; drink hard, drink deep, drink like a fish; have one's swill, drain the cup, splice the main brace, take a hair of the dog that bit you. |
Dryness | Dessicator; hair drier, clothes drier, gas drier, electric drier; vacuum oven, drying oven, kiln; lyophilizer. |
Fear | Make one's flesh creep, make one's hair stand on end, make one's blood run cold, make one's teeth chatter; take away one's breath, stop one's breath; make one tremble; |
Filament | Noun: filament, line; fiber, fibril; funicle, vein; hair, capillament, cilium, cilia, pilus, pili; tendril, gossamer; hair stroke; veinlet, venula, venule. |
Lamentation | Frown, scowl, make a wry face, gnash one's teeth, wring one's hands, tear one's hair, beat one's breast, roll on the ground, burst with grief. |
Pain | Sicken, disgust, revolt, nauseate, disenchant, repel, offend, shock, stink in the nostrils; go against the stomach, turn the stomach; make one sick, set the teeth on edge, go against the grain, grate on the ear; stick in one's throat, stick in one's gizzard; rankle, gnaw, corrode, horrify, appal, appall, freeze the blood; make the flesh creep, make the hair stand on end; make the blood curdle, make the blood run cold; make one shudder. |
Roughness | Brush, hair, beard, shag, mane, whisker, moustache, imperial, tress, lock, curl, ringlet; fimbriae, pili, cilia, villi; lovelock; beaucatcher; curl paper; goatee; papillote, scalp lock. |
Smallness | Small quan modicum, trace, hint, minimum; vanishing point; material point, atom, particle, molecule, corpuscle, point, speck, dot, mote, jot, iota, ace; minutiae, details; look, thought, idea, soupcon, dab, dight, whit, tittle, shade, shadow; spark, scintilla, gleam; touch, cast; grain, scruple, granule, globule, minim, sup, sip, sop, spice, drop, droplet, sprinkling, dash, morceau, screed, smack, tinge, tincture; inch, patch, scantling, tatter, cantlet, flitter, gobbet, mite, bit, morsel, crumb, seed, fritter, shive; snip, snippet; snick, snack, snatch, slip, scrag; chip, chipping; shiver, sliver, driblet, clipping, paring, shaving, hair. |
Truth | Exactly; Adjective: ad amussim; verbatim, verbatim et literatim; word for word, literally, literatim, totidem vervis, sic, to the letter, chapter and verse, ipsissimis verbis; ad unguem; to an inch; to a nicety, to a hair, to a turn, to a T; au pied de la lettre; neither more nor less; in every respect, in all respects; sous tous les rapports; at any rate, at all events; strictly speaking. |
Wonder | Surprise, astonish, amaze, astound; dumfound, dumfounder; startle, dazzle; daze; strike, strike with wonder, strike with awe; electrify; stun, stupefy, petrify, confound, bewilder, flabbergast, stagger, throw on one's beam ends, fascinate, turn the head, take away one's breath, strike dumb; make one's hair stand on end, make one's tongue cleave to the roof of one's mouth; make one stare. |
Phrase: vox faucibus haesit; one's hair standing on end. | |
Zero | Adjective: not one, not a one, not any, nary a one;not a, never a; not a whit of, not an iota of, not a drop of, not a speck of, not a jot; not a trace of, not a hint of, not a smidgen of, not a suspicion of, not a shadow of, neither hide nor hair of. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And if I cut my hair again (Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles; writing credit: Anne Rice) It's your hair. (Notorious; writing credit: Ben Hecht) She likes your butt and fancy hair. I know (Lilo & Stitch; writing credit: Chris Sanders) I'm a lot like my dad: brown hair, flat chest (While You Were Sleeping; writing credit: Daniel G. Sullivan; Fredric LeBow) Look, if you touch one hair on his head, I swear I will spend the rest of my life making sure you suffer (Big; writing credit: Gary Ross; Anne Spielberg) | |
Lyrics | I'm gonna grow my hair right down to my feet (Just Push Play; performing artist: Aerosmith) Are streaming through the waves in your hair; (Making Love Out Of Nothing At All; performing artist: Air Supply) She'll wash her hair (Flavor of the Weak; performing artist: American Hi-Fi) You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere (Barbie Girl; performing artist: Aqua) Her eyes her smile her skin her smell her hair, her walk her talk her way her (There She Goes; performing artist: Babyface) | |
Clever | 1968: Long Hair. 1998: Longing for hair. (references; author: unknown) Why does the sun lighten our hair but darken our skin? (references; author: unknown) When your mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair. (references; author: unknown) What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men? (references; author: unknown) 1968: Parents begging you to get your hair cut. 1998: Children begging you to get their heads shaved. (references; author: unknown) | |
Tongue Twisters | Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he? (references; author: unknown) I cannot bear to see a bear bear down upon a hare. When bare of hair he strips the hare, right there I cry, "Forbear! (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Big Hair Romp (1974) Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch (1971) The Blonde Hair Monster (1962) Hair of the Dog (1961) Care of the Hair and Nails (1951) | |
Song Titles | Hair of The Dog (performing artist: Nazareth) Scarlet Ribbons (For Her Hair) (performing artist: The Browns) Hair (performing artist: The Cowsills) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A 9 year-old white child, is pictured here in a home setting with her mother getting dressed, and having her hair combed. The girl is a long-term survivor of massive abdominal surgery at age three for neuroblastoma. She is presently disease-free. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer). |  | Structures on the terminal abdominal segments may be used to identify some mosquito genera such as the presence or absence of hair tufts. Credit: CDC. |
 | 27 year old white female with cutaneous anthrax on right forearm; patient had worked in a spinning department of a goat hair processing plant for 3 years; lesion as seen on 12th day. Credit: CDC. |  | A patient with typical "nickel and dime" lesions on the face, which can develop during secondary syphilis. Other symptoms that may occur during this stage are mild fever, fatigue, headache, sore throat, patchy hair loss, and swollen lymph glands. Credit: CDC. |
 | One last pose at the South Pole - Lt. Bortniak never had more hair before or since. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | Lieutenant Mark Boland making Ozone measurements with a Dobson spectrophotometer . Hair is a little out of regulation but no barbers at the South Pole. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | Figure 38. Hygrometer register, built to record variations in relative humidity. The hygrometer is built on principles discovered by Horace Benedict Saussure in 1783 and uses the changes in length of human hair and animal hair with humidity to derive relative humidity. The exact age of this recording instrument is unknown. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now. |  | Sharon Del shows off the long hair of the Churro Sheep to her granddaughter Dekota Smith, on the Ganado Navajo Reservation Arizona. Credit: USDA. |
 | Long and short hair wool at the South Central Farmily Farm Research Center in Boonesville, AR. Credit: USDA. |  | St. Croix hair sheep have a high resistance to certain internal parasites such as barberpole stomach worms. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Perry Rech.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "I just washed my hair :)" by Peter Gašperan Commentary: "Yeah, I just washed my hair.... and thats it :-)." | "Bad Hair Day" by Linda B Commentary: "Catepillar having a bad hair day :)." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Hair dryer whirling and blowing hot air. | | Turning on electric hair clippers and shaving hair. |
| Starting a hair dryer and blowing hair dry. | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
George Villiers | Men's fame is like their hair, which grows after they are dead, and with just as little use to them. |
J. P. Senn | Old age adds to the respect due to virtue, but it takes nothing from the contempt inspired by vice; it whitens only the hair. |
John Heywood | A hair of the dog that bit us. |
Martin Luther | The hair is the richest ornament of women. |
Omar Khayyam | A hair divides what is false and true. |
Sophocles | It made our hair stand up in panic fear. |
Walt Whitman | The beautiful uncut hair of graves. |
William Blake | For everything exists and not one sigh nor smile nor tear, one hair nor particle of dust, not one can pass away. |
William Shakespeare | What he hath scanted men in hair, he hath given them in wit. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | He came back, had had his hair cut, and laughed at himself with a very good grace, but without seeming really at all ashamed of what he had done |
As It Fell Upon a Day | Carroll, Lewis | When he came up to the turret stair, He shrieked and tore his raven hair. |
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | His hair was wiry and gingerish and brushed backwards from the temples |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses of her hair, and confined them beneath her cap. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He replaced his teeth by jests, his hair by joy, his health by irony, and his weeping eye was always laughing |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | He had loose redbrown hair and tender shapely strong freckled hands |
King Richard III | Shakespeare, William | My hair doth stand an end to hear her curses |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Dusty water ran out of his hair and streaked his neck |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | His visage was meager, his hair lank and thin, and his voice hollow |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | With consummate skill he has set his trap with a hair springe to catch comfort and independence, and then, as he turned away, got his own leg into it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Use a soft hair brush. (references) | |
Have your hair cut short. (references) | ||
Thoroughly saturate hair with lice medication. (references) | ||
Business | Germany is the leading supplier of hair color products to Russia. (references) | |
Local skin and hair care products form over 70 percent of the total market. (references) | ||
A bottle of Gamma hair color, for example, costs only 20 rubles, or less than a dollar. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Afghanistan | Men also were required to wear head coverings and to wear their hair short. (references) |
South Africa | The students claimed that they subscribed to Rastafariansim as a religion, which they claimed requires that adherents grow their hair. (references) | |
Jamaica | It is alleged that the police force Rastafarian detainees to cut their hair and surreptitiously give them food that they are forbidden to eat. (references) | |
Economic History | Senegal | High on the list of products sought by Senegalese consumers are hair, facial and skin care products. (references) |
Liberia | There is a market for U.S. consumer goods such as toiletries, hair products, and other personal care items. (references) | |
France | The specific markets showing the most potential are real estate agencies, convenience stores and hair salons. (references) | |
Human Rights | Belarus | The officer on duty handcuffed the boy, beat him, sprayed his hair with the paint, and threatened to shave the boy's head. (references) |
Iran | This includes women whose clothing does not cover the hair and all parts of the body except the hands and face, or those who wear makeup or nail polish. (references) | |
Iran | The leader among the agents was reportedly a former Deputy Minister of Intelligence, Saeed Emami, who, the Government stated, had committed suicide in prison by drinking a toxic hair removal solution several days prior to the release of the Government's report. (references) | |
Trade | Botswana | Certain services such as hotels, dry-cleaning and hair dressing, also are subject to sales tax. (references) |
Luxembourg | Products that may be expected to carry the eco-label include textiles, detergents, dish-washing agents, cleaning agents, paints and varnishes, batteries, shampoos, packaging, refrigerators and freezers, tiles, shoes, cat litter, light bulbs and hair sprays. (references) | |
Singapore | Under the Consumer Protection (Safety Requirements) Regulations of 1991, 17 products (LPG systems, cooking ranges, electric irons, gas cookers, hair dryers, microwave ovens, televisions, video display units, video cassette recorders, table fans, high-fidelity equipment, immersion water heaters, kettles, refrigerators, rice cookers, room air-conditioners, vacuum cleaners and washing machines) which are potentially hazardous to consumers must be registered and declared safe before they can be sold in Singapore. (references) | |
Travel | Netherlands | American appliances, such as electric shavers and hair dryers do not work and will be damaged if used without a converter. (references) |
Women | Saudi Arabia | During the year, Mutawwa'in continued to admonish and harass women to wear their abayas and cover their hair. (references) |
Saudi Arabia | In public a woman is expected to wear an abaya (a black garment that covers the entire body) and also to cover her head and hair. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | SUCCESS, n. The one unpardonable sin against one's fellows. In literature, and particularly in poetry, the elements of success are exceedingly simple, and are admirably set forth in the following lines by the reverend Father Gassalasca Jape, entitled, for some mysterious reason, "John A. Joyce." The bard who would prosper must carry a book, Do his thinking in prose and wear A crimson cravat, a far-away look And a head of hexameter hair. Be thin in your thought and your body'll be fat; If you wear your hair long you needn't your hat. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dennis Miller | Between skin bleach, hair relaxer and that scale-model Barbie nose, it seems to me that the only person who obviously has a problem with Michael Jackson's race, is Michael Jackson. |
Regis Philbin | We don't need to hear about the wipe, wipe, wipe. That does it. Hair is good. We don't want to know about wipe. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Thomas Jefferson | 1801-1809 | Besides those of colour, figure, and hair, there are other physical distinctions proving a difference of race. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | Soon we'll be able to carry all the phone calls on Mother's Day on a single strand of fiber the width of a human hair. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Hair" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.93% of the time. "Hair" is used about 14,438 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.93% | 14,428 | 640 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.07% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Total | 100.00% | 14,438 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "hair" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Hair | Last name | 3,000 | 4,603 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "hair". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Julitta | N/A | N/A | Soft and tender hair |
| Delilah | N/A | Biblical | Head of hair |
| Julia | N/A | Biblical | Soft and tender hair |
| Puah | N/A | Biblical | Bush of hair |
| Tarah | N/A | Biblical | A hair |
| Ziz | N/A | Biblical | A lock of hair |
| Yuliya | N/A | Bulgarian | Soft and tender hair |
| Jules | N/A | English | Soft and tender hair |
| Julie | N/A | English | Soft and tender hair |
| Julie | N/A | French | Soft and tender hair |
| Júlia | N/A | Hungarian | Soft and tender hair |
| Juli | N/A | Hungarian | Soft and tender hair |
| Juliska | N/A | Hungarian | Soft and tender hair |
| Iúile | N/A | Irish | Soft and tender hair |
| Iulia | N/A | Romanian | Soft and tender hair |
| Yuliya | N/A | Russian | Soft and tender hair |
| Julija | N/A | Slovene | Soft and tender hair |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
Expressions using "hair": a bush of hair ♦ a hair pad ♦ Against the hair ♦ angel's hair ♦ bang one's hair ♦ Berenice's Hair ♦ bobbed hair ♦ body hair ♦ brown hair ♦ Bulb of a hair ♦ bulb of hair ♦ bush of hair ♦ by a hair ♦ camel hair ♦ camels hair ♦ camel's hair ♦ chest hair ♦ clotted hair ♦ coarse waste of animal hair ♦ coif the hair ♦ coiffure the hair ♦ coil of hair ♦ coiled hair ♦ color of the hair ♦ colour of the hair ♦ comb one's hair ♦ combing one's hair ♦ covered with hair ♦ covering of hair ♦ cross hair ♦ crotch hair ♦ curl of hair ♦ Curled hair ♦ curly hair ♦ cut hair ♦ cut one's hair ♦ cut smb.'s hair ♦ do one's hair ♦ do smb.'s hair ♦ do the hair ♦ do up the hair ♦ Donders hair optometer ♦ dress a person's hair ♦ dressed human hair ♦ dye one's hair ♦ electric hair dryer ♦ false hair ♦ fell of hair ♦ fine animal hair ♦ flowing hair ♦ frizzy hair ♦ gather up one's hair ♦ get in ones hair ♦ get in one's hair ♦ get in smb.'s hair ♦ get one's hair cut ♦ give one's hair a comb ♦ goat's hair ♦ Golden hair ♦ graying hair ♦ grey hair ♦ greying hair ♦ grow one's hair long ♦ growth of hair ♦ guard hair ♦ Hair analysis ♦ hair ball ♦ Hair bracket ♦ hair brush ♦ hair care ♦ hair carpet ♦ hair cell ♦ Hair cells ♦ hair clip ♦ hair clippers ♦ Hair Color ♦ hair coloring ♦ Hair compass ♦ hair cross ♦ hair curler ♦ Hair Diseases ♦ Hair divider ♦ hair do ♦ hair drier ♦ hair dryer ♦ hair dye ♦ Hair Dyes ♦ hair eel ♦ hair follice ♦ Hair Follicle ♦ hair follicles ♦ hair gel ♦ Hair glove ♦ hair granuloma ♦ hair grass ♦ hair grease ♦ hair growth ♦ hair internal crack ♦ Hair lace ♦ hair lacquer ♦ hair like. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "hair": hair-bands, hair-brained, hair-breadth, Hair-brown, hair-brush, hair-brushes, hair-carding, hair-care, hair-clips, hair-cloth, hair-coarsened, hair-coated, hair-combs, hair-cord, hair-covered, hair-cream, Hair-crested stork, hair-curlers, hair-cut, hair-cuts, hair-cutted, hair-cutting, hair-destroyer, hair-do, hair-dos, hair-dotted, hair-dresser, hair-dressing, hair-dressing saloon, hair-drier, hair-dryer, hair-dryers, hair-dye, hair-dyeing, hair-enhancement, hair-fine, hair-form, hair-free, hair-fringes, hair-grass, hair-grip, hair-grips, hair-grooming, hair-havin', hair-like, hair-line, hair-lip, hair-lips, hair-lotions, hair-net, hair-of-the-dog, hair-oil, hair-ornaments, hair-piece, hair-pieces, hair-pin, hair-pins, hair-plates, hair-pulling, hair-raiser, hair-raising, hair-raisingly, Hair-repair, hair-restorer, hair-ribbon, hair-ribbons, hair-rig, hair-rising, hair-rising experience, hair-roots, hair-roughened, Hair-salt, hair-shaker, hair-shirt, hair-shirted, hair-slides, hair-splitters, hair-splitting, hair-spray, hair-sprays, hair-spring, hair-strewn, hair-stroking, hair-style, hair-styles, hair-styling, hair-stylist, hair-tailed mole, hair-tearer, hair-tearing, hair-thin, hair-tidy, hair-tidying, hair-tipped, hair-trigger, hair-wash, hair-wave, hair-weaves, hair-what, hair-worm. | |
Ending with "hair": camel-hair, leaf-hair. | |
Containing "hair": Camel's-hair pencil, Camel's-hair shawl, letting-your-hair-down, mohican-hair-piece, short-hair-cutted, Venus'-hair fern. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
hair style | 66,722 | prom hair | 2,271 |
hair replacement california | 36,989 | hair extension | 2,046 |
hair cut | 13,524 | hair salon | 1,938 |
short hair style | 11,586 | long hair | 1,912 |
hair | 11,089 | hair cut style | 1,897 |
prom hair style | 8,168 | new hair style | 1,722 |
celebrity hair style | 6,125 | short hair | 1,711 |
man hair style | 6,087 | long hair style | 1,655 |
black hair style | 4,629 | hair style woman | 1,649 |
short hair cut | 4,607 | teen hair style | 1,626 |
wedding hair style | 4,470 | hair accessory | 1,613 |
2003 hair style | 4,407 | african american hair style | 1,562 |
hair color | 4,351 | hair product | 1,458 |
hair style picture | 4,105 | curly hair style | 1,451 |
hair loss | 3,768 | hair cut picture | 1,435 |
hair dos | 2,919 | wedding hair | 1,424 |
hair removal | 2,814 | pubic hair | 1,419 |
black hair | 2,791 | hair dye | 1,380 |
laser hair removal | 2,649 | short hair style picture | 1,313 |
hair care | 2,387 | bridal hair style | 1,303 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "hair"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | hare (hairs, hers). (various references) | |
Albanian | flok (flock, jib). (various references) | |