I was talking to my friend about cutting his hair when this came up. I wanted 2 dollars for every hair-strand that I cut but he said that since hair is plural, I would only get 2 dollars for the whole haircut.
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2Not plural, but uncountable (when referring to hair as a substance). A hair (countable) is an individual strand.– Kate BuntingCommented May 6, 2020 at 7:29
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2Agree - per hair means per hair strand. per Head [of hair] would imply per haircut. Likewise, per thread would not equate to per shirt.– AlanCommented May 6, 2020 at 7:33
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The question is not about the meaning of hair, by itself, nor about the meaning of per, by itself, but about the interaction of the two, and that arguably goes beyond what can be discovered by simply consulting a dictionary.– jsw29Commented May 8, 2023 at 21:39
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After "per" you need to have a count noun, so here you need to interpret "hair" in the countable sense, as referring to an individual strand of hair.
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There may be an additional problem, both in this answer and in the question itself, due to the ambiguity of strand in the context of talking about hair: it can stand for a single hair or for something that is more than single hair but less than all the hair on a person's head (a lock of hair). Can per hair ever mean per strand of hair in the latter sense? Note that charging $2 per single hair would quickly make one a millionaire; charging $2 per strand in the latter sense would, although highly unusual, not be completely preposterous.– jsw29Commented May 8, 2023 at 21:51