Hello, and allow me to say thanks ahead of time for any warm welcomes to the SBG forums.
My name's Dracconus (Yes, that's my real name) and I'm a 32 year old male that used to SUFFER from receeding, and thinning hair (since approximately 18) due to (probably) my own causes from rubbing my head when I wore a hat and worked in construction, and kitchens. I say this because no one in my family has balding issues at all, so I highly doubt it's genetic, and my testosterone levels are fine.
Getting that out of the way, I have a few questions.
I recently just decided to stick with shaving my head bald. I have Sebhorreic Dermatitis which results in my skin becoming VERY easily irritated in high stress scenarios, but also if I shave too often, or don't shave often enough. Sadly as of late it has decided to take it's toll on my head as well as my face, resulting in a burning sensation most of you are lucky to have not known. It's very similar to that of what I believe shingles would feel like.
Anyhow, moving along; I've been currently using a combination of a foil shaver that my phillips norelco travel grooming set has which I actually quite like, but the foil is simply "too small" to effectively do the job. I have to clean it about five times per head shave per day. I also use a 3 blade razor that I don't personally like the feel of, but it does the job without irritating my skin too heavily.
I am looking for the best alternative to these two that will keep me under $50 as this is a fairly new expense I've decided to take on, and I decided to do it during a bit of a financial tight-time.
Any recommendations would be great, and VERY much appreciated. I'm looking to purchase within the next 24 hours, so please feel free to spam this post with suggestions.
Naturally I'll research each of them before I purchase to prevent any blame for faults being pushed onto anyone so feel free to list pros, and cons if you want, but no hard feelings if you don't.
I'm not quite at 30 days, but I have no problem saying I'm quite content with shaving my head for the rest of my days. To quote a response to a friend of mine on Facebook the other day: "Oh, I loved my hair when it was a full head; but getting older I lost a lot of confidence in my head. I went from the hair that every girl loved and wanted to touch due to natural highlights, and tones and bounce to the hair that I didn't even want to look at.
I shaved because of dermatological reasons, but over the last few days I've found it extremely pleasing to my OCD to have something to focus on aside from the meticulousness that I'm rarely able to obtain in life due to constrained space, and a newborn restricting my schedule.
That 5-15 minutes of "me time" where I get to focus on how smooth it comes out just relaxes me inside, plus I'm not sure what it is, but there's something oddly soothing about a razor grazing through the hairs on your head. Seriously, it sounds daft; but it's true.
The level of confidence one exudes when sporting a bald head is also a perk. A lot of people just don't want to pull it off, and most of the ones that do aren't white because, well...the whole "skinhead" thing.
As for the feeling, I'd say it's akin to a back massage."
I've included a picture of myself both before, and after shaving my head as my "here I am" post.