Recently, within the forums here on Alopecia World, a discussion has been raised in regard to the issue of creating another word besides "bald" to describe us. It has turned out to be a most vigorous discussion, with many opinions being voiced both in favor of and against it. Apparently, the word "bald" really hits a nerve with us alopecians, and I am no exception. In one of the replies to this discussion, it was suggested that we come up with "a better word for which we can describe ourselves which better defines the situation." This particular phrase just burned me up to no end and prompted what you may or may not consider to be a "fiery" response. I would recommend reading my answer to the discussion, and I invite you to either post a response here or go into the forums and click on the posting entitled, "A New Word For Us" and voice your opinion there. Here is my most recent posting in answer to the debate below:

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.