So, as most of you know, I've been bald by choice for 10 years. I recently grew my hair back for 4 weeks, and I'm gradually becoming bald by nature. My hair has gotten really fine, and there is now significant new receeding in the front. It is snow white and very dull. It looked just terrible, and I was glad to go back to a smooth shaved head!
It happens to most of us at some time if we live long enough. As you know, I started BBC around 49. But nature started catching up with me soon after. By 53, if a grew back for a few days, my hair was obviously thinner on top, and a bald area had started on the crown.
During the Covid lockdown I went several weeks without shaving. I had good intentions - I was going to let it grow and after the lockdown, go to my barber for a headshave, and give him a very large tip to help make-up for some of his loss of income. Well the lockdown lasted longer than I did once it was obvious that my head was completely bald on top and all that remained was the fringe. I pulled out my clippers and mowed it down, followed by my Fusion razor to get it back smooth. I have not gone more than three days without a shave since.
When your head is shaved you can no longer see the gradual changes in your hair until you let it grow out for a bit and then those changes hit you all at once. I still has a decent amount of hair on top when I started shaving and in the back of my mind I kind of thought I could always get back to that if I stopped shaving. Then I spent 3-4 days in bed with the flu and during that time did not shave. The hair that grew back was firmly in a Norwood 6 pattern.
Then a few years later on a day when I had not shaved for a day or two, I saw a photo my myself that had been taken while I was sitting next to a window. There was a silvery sheen on the side of my head nearest the window. I looked in the mirror and realized that my hair had all turned grey and I hadn’t even noticed. Some grey had popped up in my beard but I hadn’t thought it had started on my head yet.
I think my hair on the sides and back of my head has thinned over the years. When I first started shaving, I’d shack around 6 am and my whole scalp would be like sandpaper by 3 pm. Now my head is usually still nearly completely smooth at 11 pm.
Same story here. Started out BBC in 2006. I had some minor recession in front. My hair was brown but with a lot of grey coming through. I noticed my hair was getting thinner around 9 years ago at the crown. A few years later my hair in front had receded more though I could still pull off a flattop. Probably in the last year my hair has really thinned in front and a nice bald spot in the back. I’m probably a NW5 but moving into a 6 as I can start to see a NW6 pattern. It takes the front longer to grow and fill in. So if I grew my hair it looks like the top is just the bridge of hair across the center for the first few days.
I don’t have any intentions of growing my hair hair back as it would just be a buzzcut anyway and probably eventually just a buzzed fringe.
The best part of this is that I never really had to go through the emotions of having to deal with hair loss. When I started to recede in my 20s that was traumatic enough.
Yeah, I'm not surprised that I'm finally receding a little. I'll be 70 in a few months, so I had a good run! Not I wish it would all fall out, would be easier to shave.
I think I'm hitting that point myself.
Last November I left my hair grow out normally to change my style for the first time in more than two years. I noticed that it didn't have as much volume as before I started shaving my head. Then last April, I was touching my head hair and I decided to take a photo of the top of my head.
Then I noticed that it was thinner than I thought. That evening I decided to buzz my hair with a #2 guard. Then when I visited my mother, she cut it down a bit more on the sides. Since temperatures have been rising here in Texas, I decided just to shave it all off while also growing my facial hair. Previously, I only had a moustache.
I'm liking this look again! I think it makes me look more masculine and not so babyfaced.