Hi guys, I've only been lurking the forums for a week or so but saw straight away that this is a great community of supportive guys, and just reading a few posts helped me decide to take the first step in becoming sly.
So I'm 20 years old and just finished my 2nd year of university. For the last 6 or 7 years I've had medium/long hair. I first noticed I was receding from the front when I was 15. It gradually got worse but I kept my hair roughly the same length and always styled it to cover my embarrassing hairline. My hair didn't start thinning until I was about 18. It starting slowly thinning and by the time I hit 20 it seemed to be going at an alarming rate. For the last 2 years I have barely went outside without wearing a hat or styling my hair and holding it in place with loads of hairspray. It's got to the point where as I don't have very many friends on my course, I've heard other people in my class refer to me as "the guy with the hats". I play a lot of sports and am captain of my university field hockey team, so when I play I use a hairband to keep my hair from blowing back and revealing my hairline. I guess I've always just been scared of how people will react if they notice.
It took me ages to come to terms with my MPB, I think the thing that finally made me come to terms with it was when I was 18, myself and a group of friends all bleached our hair, and while they got theirs cut and the rest grew out in a few months, It took me over a year for my blonde fringe to grow out. I'm not sure how many people knew how badly I was losing my hair (after a certain picture I'll post below, I always made a conscious effort to keep it hidden) but very few of my friends have mentioned it to me, despite openly making fun of other friends who were only slightly receding.
So I got a haircut a few days ago, got a bit brave and got it cut too short and ended up with a haircut that exposed my hairline and showed how much I was thinning. I really hated it so tonight I decided to buzz it all off.
to give you an idea of how bad my hairline actually is, this was me just turned 16 at a foam party:
hair then varied in length for a couple of years (i'm 18 here) but normally looked like this when caught on camera:
then in may 2011 it looked like this (note the combover):
nearly a year later (march 2012) the blonde was still visible:
then a few days ago I got it cut and it looked like this
which I really hated and after reading some stories on here, finally gathered up the courage to buzz it off.
My hair on top is quite a light colour and very thin compared to the sides, so although you can't tell really from my avatar, it's actually a very short buzz cut. I'm going to keep it for a while to adjust to it and see how things develop but I genuinely think it will look better completely sly. Maybe I'll do it in a few weeks, but you guys will be the first to know.
I am in the (very) early stages of growing a beard, which is why my facial hair looks a bit weird.
Already I feel free and liberated, and a bit cold. I'm excited about my life now, hoping for the positive changes that will come with more confidence. I know my friends back at uni will make fun of me for a while, but that's only to be expected.
I want to thank you guys for pretty much giving the inspiration to accept who I am and embrace my (nearly) bald head. Also, I'm sorry for this post being so long, I've never spoken about my hair loss before and it just feels like I've got a whole load off my chest.
