Bald normally means "completely without hair", but people use it to joke around and insult people who are in the process of losing hair.
mittenknittinâ˘
Bald means you have no hair. Why itâs missing is irrelevant.
BonesSawMcGrawâ˘
Both. âBaldâ can indicate any level of hair loss really. Youâll also hear âbaldingâ for someone in the early stages.
sodaslugâ˘
It can be both, and I think it usually has more of a negative connotation--calling someone bald feels direct and maybe a little rude, depending on the situation.
If someone is losing their hair, they're balding, but you could also say that they're "losing their hair," their hair is "thinning," or just say they don't have hair. (Edit to add: in addition to balding, you can say "going bald," like "he's been going bald for a while now," "she's going bald on the top of her head," etc)
If someone has a shaved haircut where it's really short and all one length, that's a buzz cut. You could say "they have a buzz cut," "they got their hair buzzed," etc. But, they could also be shaved down to nothing, which is the case where I would actually call someone bald. (In this case, "shaved bald.")
My dog had to get shaved for surgery once, but just around the surgery area, so he had a bald spot, but was not bald.
NeonFractionâ˘
âBaldâ means no hair at all on your head.
âBaldingâ means someone me who is losing hair.
brienneoftarthshredsâ˘
Both.
DrMindbendersMonocleâ˘
First one is balding, the other is bald
BobbyThrowaway6969â˘
Both, but usually people say someone is 'balding' if they're starting to lose hair naturally.
PinLongjumping9022â˘
If something is bald, itâs a thing that is not covered by what youâd expect it to be covered by.
If a man is bald, his scalp is not covered by hair. If land is bald, itâs not covered by vegetation. If a tyre is bald, itâs not covered by tread.
A man who is losing his hair would be called balding. If heâs not got much hair left to lose, he may be referred to as bald but it isnât strictly true.
If a man shaved his head, he isnât bald because his scalp would still be covered in stubble. If he used a skull shaver so that you couldnât even see stubble, he would be bald.
Generally men who choose to have very, very short hair so they effectively look bald would be referred to (in the UK) as a skinhead - this differentiates a stylistic choice from hair loss.
thricenessâ˘
What do you mean by "iniesta"? I'm not familiar with that word.
fjgweyâ˘
Both, but to be fair if someone has a full head of a hair but shaves it all then I would be inclined to say they have a 'shaved head' rather than a 'bald head'. However, calling it a 'bald head' wouldn't be wrong either, even if it usually has the connotation of natural hair loss.
SnooDonuts6494â˘
If he looks like this, I wouldn't call him bald;
https://e-noticies.cat/en/soccer/official-andres-iniesta-returns-to-barca-in-style-it-will-be-day
Maybe he's had a transplant or something. IDK. He's had weird hair for about the last 15 years.
cinder7usaâ˘
When youâre talking about someone who is losing their hair, balding is the term used most often.
I hardly ever hear bald being used as an adjective for someone who still has hair left.
JinimyCriticâ˘
I'll throw a third meaning in, just for fun. There is an older word that is not used much anymore: piebald. It means "patched". It's mostly used for horses, but it's also where the bald eagle gets its name (it's a bit of a coincidence that the eagle's head is white, and could be interpreted as "not having hair").