Alopecia World
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A new word for us!
I think we should have a new word for people without hair due to alopecia. It's unfair that there is such a negative tone inherent in the word "bald" it seems to refer to a defficiency. We are not defficient, but different. There is no reason why we should have negative feelings toward ourselves or our condition. Hair is just hair and our look is our own. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of 'bald spots' we had 'love spots'? or we were 'hair-free' instead of bald? Just a thought.. Let us begin this language revolution!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Carol on
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There will always be a negative stigma about being bald as it reminds most people of aging and mid-life crisis. I think the term "alopecian" is pretty cool, it shows just how individual we are, like a tribe. I enjoy my slick melon very much and I've called myself hairless (like an expensive cat) or follicly challenged. Since a wig can be referred to as a rug, I often say my head is bare wood (knock on wood). I think as long as you can have fun with it yourself, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.
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Permalink Reply by kastababy on
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Sorry, bald is bald -- I don't need a new word that is more "sensitive to my needs" or "politically correct" to describe myself to anyone. You are absolutely right in that hair is just hair -- and words only have as much power as you allow them to have. So much of our society has been screwed up because we have to make everything politically correct for sensitive to others' feelings -- damn that! Use "alopecian" if it makes you feel better (I use that term myself quite a bit and actually like it), but dammit, BALD IS BALD!!!
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Permalink Reply by Daria on
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I don't know guys...."alopecian" reminds me of someone or something from Outer Space!!!! LOL
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Permalink Reply by Lee on
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I dont like the word Bald either...I just like to say "I dont have hair" lol whatever gets us through I guess.
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I still maintain my stance that by embracing the word "bald" rather than running away from it or trying to find another word to describe it, we remove the negative connotations that are generally associated with it. I am too much of a control freak in my own life to let what someone else's word associations are have that big of an influence in my life. My mother and my grandmother always told me that words only have as much power as you allow them to have, and I have found that to be very true over the years. So whenever anyone says "Oh look, you're bald," My reply to that is "Yeah, I AM -- so what??"
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Permalink Reply by Matt on
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For someone with AU, "bald" just doesn't cut it. Connotations aside, while it's accurate, it's not specific enough. "Alopecian" is more accurate, but too clinical. Also, it sounds like a breed of dog. ;)
I sometimes joke with my more open-minded friends that I represent the "next stage in human evolution". Not sure how I'd condense that down to a simple descriptor, though. "Genetically advanced" is too ambiguous.
I tend to fall back on "hairless", but "hair-free" sounds more positive, so I may adopt that. Thanks Eric!
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Permalink Reply by Cheryl, Co-founder on
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Hair-free... I kind of like that even more than hairless. Hair-free works for me.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa on
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Eric, I just want you to know I completely agree with you and I also completely get what you're trying to say/do. The actual dictionary definition of "BALD" is not negatively skewed, but I do take the term in a negative way. I think this is because when kids would tease me when I was little they would use the word "Bald." So when someone says "BALD" or even "WIG" I still have a hard time not taking it in a bad way. I still call my wig my "hair" because the kids would tease me with the word "WIG" as well.
So, Eric, I say you keep trying to find your new word and I'll support you the whole way! Hahaha!
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What do you mean "a better word for which we can describe OURSELVES which better defines the situation"? If you don't have any hair on your head or your body, you are BALD. If you have some hair in some spots on your head or your body, you are PARTIALLY BALD. Of course you're preaching to the choir when you refer to being teased and tormented with the word bald over the years (along with the words wig, hair piece, weave, cue ball, egghead, hairless, etc, etc) -- but as much as you want to create something new to describe the condition, the reality is that you are bald. "Hair-free" takes too much time to think about and even longer to say, let alone write.
I for one am not any more sensitive to the word bald than I am to being called a spic, a half-breed, the N word, cue-ball head, fatty, pizza face, buck tooth, gappy, dopey, big ears, big head, nerd, geek, wiggy longstocking, wiggy, wetback, greaser, beaner, lite brite, redbone, or anything else that is supposed to be offensive to me or derogatorily describe me. After 26 years of living with alopecia, I have come to accept the fact that the best word to describe my appearance is BALD -- having a total lack of hair on my scalp and various other areas of my body. There is no driving need for me have "a desire for a word which I can enjoy more emphatically." That in itself suggests a deeper sensitivity for the word which you yourself won't admit to.
No matter how you dress this conversation up, this need to find a different word to categorize us still REEKS of political correctness. I will state my initial position again and again until people start to believe it, because it lies at the crux of a lot of people's problems, not just the problems and perceptions of alopecians. If you have to print this and post it on your mirror and make it a mantra and repeat it every day, then do so, but everyone on this site I think needs to understand this on a very deep level:
Words only have the power that YOU allow them to have. If you think that being bald or going bald is a negative thing, then "bald" will hold nothing but negative connotations for you. If you understand that "bald" is an adjective describing a state of being as well as a condition, then you can CHOOSE to let that word either have a neutral or positive connotation. By embracing the word BALD you remove the power that it has over you.
I am fully cognizant of the fact that you are not offended by the word bald on the surface (although this discussion has begun to make me think that it still touches a nerve very deep down.) I understand that you don't dislike others referring to you as being bald (although you never said you liked it either.) Like you, I look at treatment options (all of which I've tried with NO success so I have discontinued them) and "miracle cures" (all of which also DON'T WORK, otherwise why would you have bald people advertising them?). But until now, bald is something I've never paid much attention to and have learned to embrace over the years because like it or not, that is what I am.
My suggestion to everyone wanting to further categorize us alopecians (which, by the way, I deeply resent more than being called bald or anything remotely deemed insulting to an alopecian): There are hundreds of thousands of words in the English language. If it is that important to you to find yet ANOTHER word to make us stand out (when everyone's so called burning desire is to FIT IN, thus defeating the purpose) then I would recommend purchasing an unabridged copy of The Oxford English Dictionary and searching word by word through every letter of the alphabet until you find one that you think fits. I just ask that you don't use it to describe me or my alopecia, because in actuality, the word alopecia itself is the scientific term for baldness of any kind. We just all have different forms of it.
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If you have ZERO desire to ever grow hair, then what will you do when your body's immune system starts behaving normally again and you begin to produce hair? If I remember correctly, you live with AU, so that means if and when your immune system stops suppressing your follicles you will start growing hair again -- everywhere it's supposed to be. I hope you're into high maintenance, because your extreme degree of bald enjoyment will be seriously compromised by that tiny little wrinkle. Waxing and Nair and shaving combined (plus tweezers for your eyelashes) work wonders for maintaining that smooth look -- have fun. :)
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