baby hair

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English

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Noun

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baby hair (countable and uncountable, plural baby hairs)

  1. (dialect, usually countable) A fine, wispy strand of hair at the edge of a person's (usually a woman's) hairline.
    • 2003, Darcel Turner, Dana Dances on Paper[1]:
      Medium size cornrows going back with a curl at the end of each braid. A silky, smooth, hairline, highlighted with soft black baby hairs.
  2. (uncountable) The hair of a baby.
  3. (countable, uncountable) Any immature or fine strand of hair, or (uncountably) a collection of such hairs. (Compare baby tooth, baby fat.)
    • 1919, Eleanor Atkinson, The how and why Library[2]:
      You shed your hair, too. Old hairs fall out nearly every day, and new baby hairs grow in their places .
    • 1931, Lida Louise Fleitmann, The Horse in Art: From Primitive Times to the Present:
      He has not made the mistake of giving us a smaller horse, but shows us all the coltish attributes, the curling baby hair on the flanks, the slim gawky legs, and above all the concave face and []

Usage notes

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(fine hair at hairline): Usually used in reference to the textured hair of Black and Latina women.