To think that bald does not mean completely hair-less?

[Feelingmardy]

Please settle a dispute between me and OH. Does bald refer to men with very little hair or men with no hair at all on their head?

YABU: bald means not one single hair on your head
YANBU: bald means not much hair on your head

Bald I’d expect hairless. Bald on top would be balding, going bald or bald on top.

Total hair loss - definitely bald.

A patch of no hair? Balding.

Some hair left, but not that much? Balding.

Only a few strands of hair? Technically, still balding, but most people would round down and call that bald. Mainly because if someone just had a few strands of hair, they'd probably give up at that point and shave them off. So, although they wouldn't have a 100% bald head due to hair loss, and a tiny bit was shaved off, you'd describe that as bald rather than shaved.

For me, bald means hairless. Hence the phrases such as going bald, balding, bald patch, bald on top etc.
I accept that it is often used to mean having little hair.

Also, most men nowadays who are mostly bald like @Pucarbuile's pic shave the rest of their head, so they are technically bald, but not 'completely' bald which I would take to mean not capable of growing any head hair.

But doesn't 'balding' imply an ongoing process? Once you get to the hair round the edges stage, it can just stay like that forever - balded!!

I’m not sure, but when I’ve shaved my hair quite short in the past, I’ve referred to myself as “baldylocks” (though I’ve never shaved my hair completely off)

@DysmalRadius

But doesn't 'balding' imply an ongoing process? Once you get to the hair round the edges stage, it can just stay like that forever - balded!!

Well, the process is ongoing, it's just at some point, it slows down.

It's like how we're all dying, but it doesn't necessarily mean we're going to drop dead tomorrow. Some of us have decades and decades left in us, but humans are built with a finite life span.

So, once balding, always balding. Just balding at a different rate, perhaps.

Bald = completely hairless

@frazzledasarock

Bald is bald as in completely hairless.

Having hair but thinning is balding

But then English is not my first language.

No, this is wrong. Bald often refers to men that are hairless on top but have hair around the back and sides. Patrick Stewart for example has been called bald for 40 years. He still has some hair. You don't need to be hairless to be bald.

In that case, are we all technically balding?

Bald is no hair on top. Balding is thin on top (or a comb-over). A bald patch is when you still have hair between your bald patch and your forehead.

My DH looks like Kojak. He's bald. I mean, I suppose he shaves the bits that still grow but to all intents and purposes, he is bald. And I quite like it

Bald is little or no hair. Jason Statham is bald.

Balding is obviously thinning or receding hair. Prince William is balding.

There are very few 100% bald people - surely that's just people with alopecia. My partner has little hair and what's left is shaved short. He and I would both say he is bald.

Completely bald - not a hair on the head
Bald- no hair on top but could have some around the sides
Balding - hair thinning or small bald patch at the crown

I would say Patrick Stewart is bald.

@DysmalRadius

I would say Jason Alexander is bald, for example. Did not realise that was weird!

Yes, George Costanza, famously and repeatedly described as a short, stocky bald man

A character based on Larry David, who, in Curb Your Enthusiasm, considers himself part of the "bald community"

I think balding is a subset of bald

It's balding if you've got some hair. You have male pattern baldness. Prince William is showing male pattern baldness. He isn't bald.

If Someone said 'Come meet my bald cat' Would You expect a cat with hair or without?

@Ponoka7

It's balding if you've got some hair. You have male pattern baldness. Prince William is showing male pattern baldness. He isn't bald.

But soon he will be bald, even when he still has some hair. If you've none on top but have some around the sides, but the process has stopped, you're bald. Balding is the process, you can't be balding when you have had the same hairline for a long time (again, see Patrick Stewart)

@ZeroFuchsGiven

If Someone said 'Come meet my bald cat' Would You expect a cat with hair or without?

Cat's aren't people, not sure if you know. If a cat had no hair anywhere on its body but a short back and sides on its head, would that car be bald?

@frazzledasarock

Bald is bald as in completely hairless.

Having hair but thinning is balding

But then English is not my first language.

This.

Nope, not this. Ask a bald man, their opinion is more relevant than any here.

Bald is no hair

Balding is hair loss

@BeauxRingarde

Nope, not this. Ask a bald man, their opinion is more relevant than any here.

DP - once there's more smooth skin than hair on the top of the head, it's bald. The sides of the head are irrelevant, as they can stay hairy for the next 60 years as part of normal male pattern hair loss. It's the top of the head that counts.

'Balding' is when you start beginning to see the scalp through thinning hair - the point at which the grade 1 clippers should come out.

He should know. He's been like it since he was 22.

My point about the cat was id expect to see a cat with no hair.

To me bald is hairless.