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I understand that "hairs" is plural when talking about multiple hairs, as in "my hairs have split ends", and that "hair" is singular when talking about one's collection of hairs, such as "my hair is blue". However, I'd like to know what the plural form is when I am talking about the collections of hairs of multiple people.

We must wait until our ______ dry.

Furthermore, if the answer is "hair", then would it be "We must wait until our hair dry." or "We must wait until our hair dries."?

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    Until our hair dries, indeed. It's a mass noun in this case, just like "water".
    – oerkelens
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 10:40

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Hair can be either hair or hairs when pluralised, but the hair(s) of a group should be hair. I have three grey hairs, but we all have brown hair.

My hair, your hair, our hair.

"We must wait until our hair dries"

Hair is usually hairs when it's countable, and hair when uncountable. As an uncountable, it becomes a mass noun.

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  • plural is always hairs (you cannot say "I have 3 gray hair"), but as a mass noun the singular is used
    – msam
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 10:53
  • I might say "I have no grey hair" when talking about three though! I touched on that in my last point - "Hair is usually hairs when it's countable, and hair when uncountable. As an uncountable, it becomes a mass noun."
    – Ronan
    Commented Apr 11, 2014 at 10:56

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