Hey, guys (and gals). I'll be 25 in August, and I'm going through the same trauma most of you balding guys have gone through. I've had a natural receding hairline since I was young, and for years I thought that's how things were going to stay. I liked it because I grew up idolizing guys like Michael Keaton and Bruce Willis, and I thought the look was distinguished and manly. My dad and his dad have full heads of hair, but my mom's dad and her only brother went bald, and I often worried about inheriting that gene. The worst part of worrying about it is not knowing if it's going to start, where it's going to stop, how long it's going to take--this guy () sums it up perfectly, I'm sure you guys who struggled with it will agree.Last week, I cut my hair short and thought it looked like my frontal hair was thinning a little on one side. I hadn't really looked at my hairline that closely in a while, and the maddening part was not being able to tell if it had changed, if I just caught my hair at the end of a growth cycle, or if it was just the lighting. I hated the idea of using Rogaine forever, and I was leery of taking pills with sexual side effects (if your body makes DHT, I'm not sure it's a good idea to stop it). I'm a practical guy, and I hate the idea of worrying about hair and what it might do in one year or five or ten. Now I found myself obsessing over it! My self-image was really damaged, especially as a guy who wants to make a living as a musician someday.Then I found this forum. Reading through the threads and seeing other people go through the same story (and some several years younger), I started to feel a lot better about just shaving it. It was something I sort of wanted to do in high school anyway (at that point I was idolizing rock guys like Maynard Keenan) but never had the opportunity. The nice thing about having hair is having options with your look, and I didn't like feeling "stuck" with the bald look forever if I do end up losing my hair. But the idea of just shaving it off and being liberated from the weight of all this sounds really nice. I'm a shy guy who likes to hang in the background, and sporting a bald look is scary from the perspective of drawing attention, but at the same time, it's also appealing. I also feel like the types of chicks who would like a bald guy are the types of chicks I would like back. So I bought clippers but chickened out and just went with a reasonably short buzzcut for now. I'm still mulling over the idea of going very short or all the way, asking friends what they think (the two women I've asked say shaved heads are hot). I wasn't even thinking about baldness or my hair or anything until last Wednesday when it hit me in the mirror, and it was a pretty nerve-wracking weekend. I was even having trouble sleeping from worrying about it. All of it hit me at once, and I just wanted to get all this out and say that I'll be sticking around and will let you know if I take the plunge.Attached a few pictures to show me off.
Welcome, first, two words..........SHAVE IT!!!