Sly Endangered by Shadow

[Sc00teR]

Hey, guys. Looking for some advice here.
 
I had a chance to get a really good look at the back of my head this morning. (I was helping install a webcam on my wife's computer. While checking out the video settings, I turned around and saw the back of my head in high definition on my own monitor.) I was surprised by this gray shadow indicating where what little hair I might have would grow if I wasn't shaving it clean.
 
I guess I haven't really had a good look at it before. All the photos I've seen since going sly were taken at the theater during our production of "Annie," so my skin was touched up by the makeup people without any shadow showing.

I mean, my head feels perfectly smooth. It had only been an hour or so since I shaved. I wasn't even feeling that "sandpaper" feeling that I get at the end of the day. But there it was... the shadowy ring around the back of my head. Bleh!
 
I guess I was assuming that the back of my head looked like the back of so many other bald guys whose pics are posted around here -- ya know, skin color! I kind of expect a bit of a shadow hours after shaving when I can begin to feel the stubble, but not when it's still feeling baby-butt smooth.
 
I've had plenty of sun on my head this season -- the scalp has a healthy glow, so it's not like the hair is growing in contrasted with pale white skin. Also, my hair is naturally a sandy color (with increasing streaks of white), so it's not like there's a ring of black stubble growing in to create the shadow.
 
What am I doing wrong? How do I combat the shadow?
 
'Cause, ya know, if my scalp is gonna broadcast my old male-pattern baldness anyways, perhaps remaining sly isn't such a certainty for me. Feeling discouraged here, guys. Help me out. (By the way, my wife revealed to me this morning that this shadow is her biggest reason for not encouraging me to stay sly; she doesn't see why I should invest so much in fresh blades and such if it's not really making as big of a difference as I thought.)

[jedder]

Hydrogen Peroxide is the reason hair loses its colour and turns white. It may be worth making a Hydrogen Peroxide topical and rubbing it on your head for a couple of months to see if it 'dilutes' the colour at all.

[-Doug-]

Hydrogen Peroxide is the reason hair loses its colour and turns white. It may be worth making a Hydrogen Peroxide topical and rubbing it on your head for a couple of months to see if it 'dilutes' the colour at all.

A word of caution with the Hydrogen Peroxide....it will act like bleach on dark color fabrics. I "stained" a few pillow cases before I discovered that. 

As to your original question, do you shave against the grain? That may help. Shadow is the bane of every BBC/Sly guy's existence IMHO. If you find something that works, let us know. Good Luck!

[D.A.L.U.I.]

Shadow--yes, that caused me to pause too early on.  But, in the final analysis, in the real world do you know the only people who will notice the SHADOW?  You and other sly guys, that's pretty much it.  Really.  We're sensitive to it but the others out there, the rest of the world only sees the bald, the sly head.  It's what they don't see, the horseshoe, the "harry" toiletseat, the bozo ring--what a shadow becomes if you grow it out. 
End game, you will get over it and realize that the alternative, whatever the name doesn't look good.  You have and will get good comments about the sly head, but I haven't ever heard of any guy hearing that some woman got turned on by the fringe, bozo ring, etc.  So, nothing's perfect, but sly is pretty damn close, IMO. 

[Razor X]

Lighting and time of day also play a huge role in how much shadow is visible.  At times I see quite a bit of shadow in the mirror and in photographs and other times there doesn't seem to be any.  I wouldn't worry about it.  It still beats the hairy horseshoe by a mile.

[kenny57028]

If Expense is an issue and you don't mind not being completely smooth you could pick up an electric razor and shave it with no guard or a #1 or #2.  Like saint said most people don't notice our shadows and if they do simply don't care. I at times have thought the same thing, what's the point if you can still see I'm balding anyways? Well it's not as apparently obvious as it would be if I grew my hair out. There's nothing we can really do about our shadow except for hope for early graying (which doesn't seem to be on my side, early balding and late graying.)  So I guess it just comes down to what you wanted sly with a shadow or horseshoe of hair.

[intex]

I I at times have thought the same thing, what's the point if you can still see I'm balding anyways?

I guess that major point is you don't try to hide by combovers, transplants etc.  It is you and have some pride in it.

[Sc00teR]

I guess the point is that the shadow is there right after I shave. It's not like it grows in by the end of the day. So I'm wondering how to minimize the shadow at the beginning of the day. Or if I'm just doing something wrong.
 
My shaving pattern is to use the HeadBlade with the grain and then again against the grain. The result has been a head that feels silky smooth. But, at least in the back, there is still a shadow indicating my hair pattern.
 
Oh, and by the way, I don't have any problem with having male-pattern baldness. It's cool with me. I don't think it looks bad or anything. I have never minded losing my hair, or having that ring of fuzz around my noggin. Hey, my wife actually likes it; it's really the only way she's known me, and old pictures of me with a full head of hair are kinda weird to her. (And, let's face it, if the woman ya love really likes the way you look,  what more do ya want?). But, well, I kinda like the sly look. I certainly enjoy shaving each morning. So I'm just trying to make it work for me. I see other sly guys who I know have naturally very dark hair and they don't have the same level of shadow I have. So I'm hoping there something I can do to minimize it.

[Cochise]

 You have and will get good comments about the sly head, but I haven't ever heard of any guy hearing that some woman got turned on by the fringe, bozo ring, etc.  

Hilarious ROTFL 

[Arty Chris]

My feeling is that your head looks no different to many other guys here... I'd guess that your just (and this is perfectly natural) more sensitive to your own image than others are...

TheSlyBear said this to me when I first joined this site, it helped and it's  so true... "We're always our own worst critics, aren't we? If sly looks cool on other guys, you can rest assured that it looks just as cool on you"

So if it feels smooth, and as the photo you have up as your avatar rocks, I'm just wondering if it's not such an issue as it may seem right now...

Just my thoughts...

[Razor X]

I guess the point is that the shadow is there right after I shave. It's not like it grows in by the end of the day. So I'm wondering how to minimize the shadow at the beginning of the day. Or if I'm just doing something wrong.
 

I'll bet that if you take some photos of yourself in different lighting conditions -- outdoors, etc -- that you'll find that very little shadow shows.  The harsh bright lights in the bathroom usually don't show us at our best.

[The Noggin]

My shadow isn't very strong but clearly visible to me. When I visited my sister recently, she was asking me if I have any hair left at all because my head's looking so shiny. 

[intex]

many of the guys I see sly have enough of "shadow" to tell they have mpb.  Myself being older my hair that i have left is white and thin.  I don't seem to have the shadow problem.

[zetaeffe]

the only way to show NO HAIR SHADOW is to have NO HAIR.
So it will always show, less or more, until there's some hair on your scalp.
But, as other have already told you, only few people would notice the difference (just the addicted head shavers), so just relax and enjoy the smoothness 

[zetaeffe]

if this is the look you want to get, i.e. no shadow at all, you have to get rid of your remaining hair.