Hello from Scotland

[The Sheep]

You look absolutely FINE, the look suits you!

Thanks man appreciate it. The majority of the time I think that too it is just you know when I have my "evil thoughts" moments.

[tomgallagher]

Welcome to the group.

[Switchy]

You look great, and SLY fits you well shave that and you will feel like a million dollars !  And your confidance will go UP UP UP !   

[Bald Kahuna]

Welcome to the best men's forum on the net...you are looking good like a SLY guy should!

[slymyke]

Shaun,

Glad you posted the pic.  I had the same problem posting an avatar one time.. I had cropped the background on the pic and actually made it smaller.  When it didn't post to my profile, I ended up using the larger original before cropping and it worked.   not sure why...

You look good either way, so it really is a matter of personal opinion and choice.   

[Frontier Guy]

Welcome Shaun,

For the profile picture, about 65KB seems to be the maximum size.

I'll agree with just about everything written above. Personally, I think you will look great if you shave it off. That will eliminate any worries about hair style, how it's combed, length, is it time to get it cut again, and all that.

I had no issues with confidence, but even after shaving I felt so much better about myself. It's a remarkable and unexpected change.

Although I was "comfortable" being Sly from the first day, it was a couple of months until I realized that when I saw myself in the mirror I no longer noticed I had no hair. It was an interesting observation.

Regardless of what you do, I hope you will continue to participate here. Great guys with good information. We've had several fellows with BDD as well, so it's not an unknown issue around here.

[Andrei]

Shawn, nice to see before and after photos.
IMO the short haircut is great, you did good buzzing your hair. 

Thinking on going even shorter?

[The Sheep]

You look good either way, so it really is a matter of personal opinion and choice.   

Thanks dude while I'm still at a stage where I'm still not totally comfortable with my hairline I definitely prefer the #1 when it comes to headwear, wind and rain. In fact the feeling of rain against my head is actually pleasant where with hair I feel like a drowned rat. lol

Shawn, nice to see before and after photos.
IMO the short haircut is great, you did good buzzing your hair. 

Thinking on going even shorter?

Yeah man definitely thinking about it. I think I'm gonna give it my own take on the 30 day rule. Think I might just keep my #1 for a while longer, people are already getting used to seeing it anyway. Might make shaving it off my new years resolution!

Regardless of what you do, I hope you will continue to participate here. Great guys with good information. We've had several fellows with BDD as well, so it's not an unknown issue around here.

That's good to know. I am definitely planning to stick around. I already get an overwhelming sense of the brotherhood around here.

Thanks again everybody for all your wise words and welcomes.

[Andrei]

Wenever you're ready Shaun!
Shaving is very addictive and therapeutic (others said so too).
Enjoy your new look and let us know how it goes.

[Bilko1]

Shaun,

Your #1 haircut pic looks absolutely fine.
However, I think that before you take the leap with lather & razor perhaps you should get a shorter #0 buzz & then if you like that, by all-means try the total head shave.

A word of warning: shaving your head can be addictive & you may not want to go back to having hair on your scalp.
A shaved head is a whole different feel & look from a buzzed head.

All the best from a fellow scot

[MikeM]

Welcome, and hope you enjoy mucking about with those that cannot bleat.

[Gary~]

Love the name -- very creative.

Firstly, let me say that I admire your openness and honesty in talking about your mental "problems". It takes a fair bit of courage to come out about that stuff and is much better for you putting it out in the open when the time is right [as it obviously is here, now]. In a similar vein putting your face and head "out in the open" is very therapeutic for many people. Before joining the brotherhood on this site I thought that I was the only one who felt so free after whipping my hair off but obviously not so. You look fine, fit and healthy with hair or the #1 and if you make the transition to #0 or totally slick then we all hope that you too experience the freedom from "the tyranny of hair" -- thanks to that opinionated walrus TheSlyBear for the phrase.

When you are looking at yourself in the mirror you are looking at yourself as an object and then projecting that mind-image back onto the mind-image that you have of yourself thus reinforcing it -- even if the image frequently changes as in your case. It might be helpful for you to go to http://headless.org/ and at least do this 60 second experiment http://headless.org/experiments/pointing.htm

Then do this experiment http://headless.org/experiments/the-mirror.htm

The mirror experiment shows that what shows in the mirror is just an image that is only representative of you at certain distances but at all distances when you look in the mirror you can see that what is looking is clear and attributeless. I can say that with a bit of practice that when you look into the mirror you can see more of what is looking and what it is looking out of and you will pay less and less attention to what is being looked at. The image in the mirror is only a very small facet of you [hardly even that really].

Once you get the hang of it every time that you look into the mirror you will be able to physically see [not imagine] that what you are is mostly attributeless, clear and open which is obviously based upon your open attributeless and totally clear and transparent awareness.

My apologies for not being able to explain all this in a clearer way right now but http://headless.org/ will make things perfectly clear. No religious nonsense or money involved.

As to keeping your mother happy -- my advice is to always try to keep your mother happy especially as she has seen you through some dark times. However, as she obviously has your best interests at heart and really wants you to be as happy as you can be it would probably only take a bit of talking with her to bring her on board to the slick look once you explain how much you want to do it [if you still do]. Also, letting her clearly know that it is totally and quickly reversible would probably also help quite a bit as she would see that you are not obsessing about being slick for life or whatever.

I wish you well, don't forget to stay in contact on the forum.

[RichieRichie]

Personally, I'd leave the hair as is for right now, the buzzed look is very fashionable and you pull it off.   If your facial hair isn't too patchy, then some stubble would look very good.

[wpruitt]

Welcome Shaun.  You a golfer by any chance ?  Got some great courses over there

[prixmo93]

Welcome Shaun!