Actually I don't think it did slow the balding process. I toyed with the idea of growing my hair out and seeing if I could get back to a ponytail but, after a couple of months, I had what some in here refer to as a toilet seat, the hairy crescent around the sides and back of the head. I was still sparse on top and growing the hair out actually made me look 10-15 years older than previous estimates. I looked in the mirror one day and saw the aging illusion staring back at me and I grabbed the clippers and went back to shaving. It seems to me that people who make the assumption that shaving slows the balding process are under the impression that the weight of the hair is what causes balding in the first place but if this were, indeed, the situation then older men that I have seen with a full head of hair that goes halfway down their back would not really exist. I'm thinking that the balding process has more to do with the chemical make up of the human body, particularly the presence of DHT, and has little if anything to do with the length of a person's hair.