The original term was bald-faced or bare-faced and refers to a face without beards or mustache. Beards were very common in the 18th and 18th century to help mask facial expressions while making business deals. A bald-faced liar was not a good lair and was not able to lie without guilt on his face.

The more correct term is bald-faced lie. It refers to a shameless lie. The teller does not attempt to hide the guilt.

In the last 5 years or so, the term bold-faced lie started being used. It is used metaphorically in speech. In the same way that a typesetter uses bold face type to highlight specific text and set it apart, a bold face lie stands out in such a way as to not be mistaken for the truth