have hair v. phr. (of a financial transaction or investment) to be less than ideal; to be risky; to have complications. Editorial Note: Two common meanings of “to have hair” well-covered elsewhere are “to be old” and “to be manly, robust, or substantive.” (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Angela calls from Albany Township, Maine, because she’s puzzled by the slang she hears from younger professionals in her field. She designs wigs and styles hair for actors, and recently she’s heard them use the word eat in a new and...
When you had sleepovers as a child, what did you call the makeshift beds you made on the floor? In some places, you call those bedclothes and blankets a pallet. This word comes from an old term for “straw.” And: What’s the story...
Pure speculation, of course, but I wonder if this could be related to the informal term “hairy” meaning (according to wordnet) “hazardous and frightening; ‘hairy moments in the mountains’” (I would personally add some implication of complexity to much of the usage). I could imagine someone in the financial industry using “having hair” as a jocular variant of “hairy” to describe a “hazardous and frightening” investment and having the phrase catch on as jargon.
Perhaps. It calls to my mind food with hair on it. Something you could go ahead and eat, since hair isn’t poisonous, just disgusting.