Greetings gentlemen (and the sly ladies out there),
For the past several weeks, I've been a lurker here on the site. Then last week, I stepped up my game and graduated to a lurking member (Hooray!). Now, I figure it's about time I speak up, share my story, and show some gratitude to all of you sly guys here!
I've been battling some on-going Alopecia since I was 17 years old (I'm 28 now). Early on, a patch would fall out, grow back in, and then a new patch would fall out. Always having really thick, dark hair (as well as some creative haircuts) seemed to keep it a secret for the most part. However, over the years it got worse. I started to need prednisone injections in my scalp once a month to help accelerate the hair growth before a new patch would fall out. Then, this past year it started to get very aggressive to the point where the injections no longer worked and people were starting to notice and ask questions. I should mention that I teach 8th Grade Literature (those hyenas can be ruthless sometimes, but I love it), and I also am a Praise Band Leader at my church where I stand up in front of hundreds of people every Sunday to lead music. So, when I say that people were starting to ask questions, I mean LOTS of people!
Anyways, it had finally gotten to the point where I figured shaving my head would look a whole lot less weird than my beginner-chemo-patient-looking haircut (in fact, some of the people asking questions thought I had started to undergo chemo...yikes). Thus, I found this site! After a lot of deliberation, and much lurking, I decided to go for the gusto and shave it. I was pleasantly surprised to find I actually had a good head shape! Needless to say, my wife was relieved as well
). I'm still learning the ropes of it all and trying to figure out how to deal with the super dark, thick patches of hair I still have left that make my head look like a Rorschach Ink Blot (hence the user name
), but I finally feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this.
This brings me to the THANK YOU! You guys on this site have helped me in ways that you could never know. The affirmation, community, and guidance towards technique and products have made this transition so much smoother (*wink*wink*) than I could have imagined. I've been going sly for about 2 weeks now, and I find myself coming back to this site on a daily basis looking up tips and product reviews (I'm pretty sure I could open a pharmacy with all of the razors and product I have accumulated the past two weeks).
So again, thank you so much for aiding in the transition of another sly guy! I look forward to building up the experience to start commenting on threads, too!
P.S. - Sorry for the novel of an intro, but hey, I'm an English teacher. It's what we do...
