Why do we say cutting or washing your HAIR, when it should be HAIRS?

Answer 1

sez who?

The question you're getting at is whether "hair" should be used as a count or noncount noun. The count/noncount distinction is something that, as a linguist, I am both very interested in and don't believe in. I recently heard a talk that gave a very convincing argument that any noun can be used as count, plural, or noncount. I'll spare you the examples, but they were lovely.

Answer 2

Hair is an UNCOUNTABLE NOUN, so because you cant count the number of strands you will be washing or cutting, grammar insists we use the singular form (without 's'). If you want to refer to a singular form you would say a 'strand' of hair.
Another example is rice. You can have rice for dinner not 'rices', but you can refer to a 'grain' of rice. You drink water not waters, but you can have a 'cup' or 'drop' of water.

Answer 3

Because of proper syntax. Hair is the singular and plural for the noun. Hairs isn't a word.

Answer 4

There are some things when mentioned collectively, the singular form is used, like sheep, bread, money etc. yet when we are doing something with it individually we can add "s" eg. splitting hairs. English can be pretty confusing even for english speakers, that's just the way it is.

Answer 5

Because you only actually have one hair. It's really long and is threaded in and out of your scalp to give the impression of lots of hairs. Why else do you think baldness is symmetrical?

Answer 6

Yeah Ahdunno is right, cuz if you said 'Ooh im getting my HAIRS cut' then everyone would think you were getting a 'downstairs' trimming!

Answer 7

Maybe it's like 'sheep'. In both it's singular and plural forms it stays the same word.

Answer 8

It shouldn't be hairs. hair is the plural and singular form of hair

Answer 9

Hair today, gone tomorrow.

Answer 10

the English language is a very complicated thing with many questionable words