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I am living in Seoul, and reading a novel, Human Stain. I found this sentence in it:

Under the protection of Pierce Roberts, the handsome young hotshot president with all the hair who came in and appointed him to the deanship-and who told him...

I know "hair" usually means the stuff that grows out of your head, but it seems strange here-- I don't understand why hair would be mentioned, or what "all of it" would mean. Is there another meaning of "hair" in America that I don't understand?

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    Is there any context before this that describes Pierce Roberts? Does he have a lot of hair?
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 3:45
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    You'd added some punctuation that wasn't present in the original. Take care not to do that.
    – James K
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 6:39
  • The example contains "who came in who came in". I assume that this is a typo?
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 18:29
  • I edited the question to include the reason you are asking it, which you wrote in a comment below. I hope this will help you obtain better answers, and also prevent the question from being closed.
    – Richard Winters
    Commented Dec 9, 2021 at 6:39

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It's an idiomatic usage reflected in...

But the man with all the beard was already clambering up on the nearest table...
We can dig that, says the girl with all the hair.

...where the X with all the Y essentially means that X has a lot of, and/or very noticeable Y.

I can't find a written example, but I personally would be fine with I like the look of that girl with all the eyes over there. Identifying a girl with very noticeable (large, khol-enhanced?) eyes.

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  • This could be regarded as a variant of "all that," as in "all that junk / up in your trunk."
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Dec 9, 2021 at 20:57
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Without any reason to think otherwise, I'd assume this is just the stuff that grows on people's heads.

It is just making a point that Roberts is still young and not (yet) bald. Perhaps this makes a comparison to the other professors who are old and bald.

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  • Thanks a lot! I just guess there may be other meanings for the word of 'hair' in America.
    – Hosun Lee
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 7:41
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    Or maybe he has long or unusually thick hair.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Nov 26, 2021 at 10:01

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