You seem like you have a good head of hair from the photo. If I was you I would buzz it first.
I am sincerely sorry for not reading your whole post, are you a ..male or a femele?If you are a male, imho, take it slow.Don't go straight to a buzzcut, the diffrence will be too big."level down" your hair
From your photo you indeed have a nice head full of hair...there are organizations that are always in need of hair donations to make wigs for people taking Chemo treatments...if you are interested and have a mind to helping those in need. Myself and many others chose to do this when we went BBC. Good luck!