a lush black hair

Question

In English class, we were taught that hair is uncountable and that we use the article when we refer to one strand. However, all the American and British natives in my group agree that the sentence below is correct and acceptable:

She had beautiful blue eyes and a lush black hair most girls would kill for.

Is there a rule in place, or a particular usage, that would explain this? Is it perhaps that when the whole head of hair is referred to or its quality/state described, the indefinite article can be used in a specifying function of sorts?

Answer 1

I don't think they're using hair as synonymous with mane.

The normal phrase is "she had lush black hair".

But we can use the indefinite article to refer to the hair as a type of hair or particular unusual instance of a color.

She had a bright red hair seen only on Broadway in productions of Annie.

There, the indefinite article means "a variety of".

Answer 2

According to British Council and the Oxford English Dictionary, uncountable nouns do not use indefinite articles.

If the sentence refers to someone with one black hair on their head, then the use of an indefinite article is justified, as the singular hair is countable.

If necessary, you can add a countable noun and a preposition to the sentence:

She had beautiful blue eyes and a head of black hair most girls would kill for.

Answer 3

"She has a lush black hair" is at very least odd. It is grammatically well formed, in a minimal sense (subject, verb (agreeing with the subject), noun-phrase, the noun phrase composed of singular determiner, two adjectives, singular noun), but the use of countable "hair" makes the meaning very odd.

Therefore I disagree with the advice that this sentence is correct and acceptable. It does not sound natural in that context.

The countable/uncountable distinction in English is a developing process. It may, in some future version of English come to function as a type of gender, but in current English, using an uncountable noun in a countable context is merely odd.

In your particular example "a hair" would normally mean "a strand of hair". But the context doesn't allow for that interpretation. Therefore the interpretation must be that the collection of hair on her head is lush. That meaning would normally go with an uncountable noun. A native speaker may on occasion produce a sentence like this (it is grammatically English). However, An editor should remove the word "a". A native speaker may not even notice the word 'a' when reading, as the mind reforms the words in the brain.

So, this sentence is grammatically English, but it is not correct.

Similarly "it was a dirty money" is odd and does not sound natural, for the same reason.