Explaining 'bald' in other words

[bruxinha]

Hello!
When referring to someone who is bald, would you rather say:
1. He hasn't got hair.
2. He hasn't got any hair.
3. He's got no hair.

I know they all mean the same, but which one sounds more natural?
(I tried to search for a similar topic, but couldn't find anything about this.)

 

[probus]

In my opinion:

1 The least natural.
2 The most natural.
3 In between.

I suspect 3 would be more common in BrE and less so in AmE.

 

[Rover_KE]

Women can be bald, too, though the condition is usually more distressing for them.

If you know they've got alopecia, or are undergoing chemotherapy, you can say so, unless you've been asked not to.

It all depends on the context. It must be the same in Portugal and Germany.

 

[bruxinha]

Thank you for your quick reply!

@Rover_KE: Yes, the context is the same in that situation, in both Portugal or Germany you just don't talk about it if you feel like it's embarrassing for the person.
But in this case my context is another one. Sorry, I guess I should have mentioned it above...

I'm introducing the topic "describing people" to my students. I'd like to explain the unknown vocabulary and try to make them come up with the meaning by themselves, so that I don't need to translate the words. For instance, you wear glasses to see better, you wear braces on your teeth, etc. They don't know the word 'bald', but they do know 'hair' and '(to) have got'.

(Of course, I'll show them pictures, too. But I need these explanations to expand their vocabulary, in order to use them in a future vocab quiz. They should know the short explanation, so that they can tell what's the word I'm looking for. Or they should be able to paraphrase a word, if I ask what it means.)

 

[Tarheel]

I'm not sure what you mean by "unknown vocabulary". Is that words a person doesn't know?

 

[bruxinha]

@Tarheel: yes, exactly. Some words have been introduced before, like the colours, so the students can describe the eyes as soon as they learn the word 'eye' (they've already learned how to build plurals, too).
Other words are similar to German (hair = Haar, beard = Bart), so they're easy to understand without explaining much - or just by using gestures.

 

[Tarheel]

There are many similarities. Look at the German words for "father", "mother", "brother," and "sister".

 

[Bib00752]

Bald is concise and accurate. When referring to a person it means they have no (visible) hair on their head. There are some amusing alternatives to those alternatives given above such as “follicly challenged” or “hirsutely challenged” as “hirsute” means covered in hair and is usually used to describe a very hairy man. Brits do enjoy finding different ways to say (describe) the same thing!

 

[bruxinha]

Thanks, Bib00752!
I was just looking for the most natural way to paraphrase 'bald' to my students. It's a new word and I always try to explain unknown words with others they already know (such as hair), so that they understand the meaning even before they translate the new word.

I'm still laughing at your suggestions, though they'd be too 'upper level' for my EFL starters...
But I love such things! If anyone else has got other funny ways to express baldness, please write them here!

By the way, do you know the song: Papa's Got a Head Like a Ping Pong Ball? I've found it accidentally and still have an earworm after weeks...


P.S. - I don't mean to offend or discriminate anyone... My husband became bald at a relatively young age and laughs out loud at such puns and songs.

 

[ponglish]

Alternatively, you can say someone is bereft of hair, or in my case, time has robbed me of a fringe.

 

[emsr2d2]

By the way, do you know the song: Papa's Got a Head Like a Ping Pong Ball? I've found it accidentally and still have an earworm after weeks...

We sing that as part of our warmup sometimes at my all-female a cappella choir! It's great but it certainly hangs around the brain for a while.