Hello SBG. Getting into my very late 20s and my hair is starting to go bad at the temples, still have hair on top but its getting very thin. Now I am getting very close to wanting to shave it all to a 1 or 0(part of me is tired of living under hats and I wanna be myself). The thing is/the other part of me thinks i have been wearing a hat everytime I go out for years and im soo shocked/worried of what people are going to think when the deed is done..I also have a big forehead. They are obviously gonna wanna see my hair since its shoulder length right now. A few friends know what I am hiding since ive told a few, they say i should just shave it. Anyone ever been in the hat situation like I am? what were peoples reactions when you finally shaved or showed off the dome after living under a hat for years?
It seems like you've already decided for yourself: you want to do it, your friends say you should do it... JUST DO IT

But I know what you're going through, I've been through the same feelings a couple of months ago. I'm also receding and thinning, and for the last half year I had been wearing a hat or cap. That's when I wanted to do something about my 'balding' and going sly was closest to what I want people to associate me with: a confident person who is vain enough to shave every day / every other day, but not so vain that I need to hold on to medication or surgery to feel good about myself.
I also thought I had a big forehead, but guess what: that's your hair receding. Hair frames the face, and if your hair is receding, it draws all the attention upward and elongates the forehead. That's why I shave my head every other day: to keep the stubble away and keep my face in proportion.
After buzzing or shaving: don't wear a hat unless necessary (to protect you freezing temperatures or sunburn). It's less of a shock to others when you enter the room with a bald or buzzed head than when you wear a cap and take it of. I felt more embarrassed a couple of months ago when I had to take of my hat and reveal my 'hair' (or whatever was left of it) than I am now. Now I'm just: BAM, here's my head.
People's reactions have been all over the place: strangers I get to meet for the first time don't comment on it (so I guess it looks pretty normal), most of my friends made a Britney Spears-jokes when they first saw it ("Seriously, you're taking this Britney Spears-fandom WAAAAAY to serious") but were mainly indifferent about it, and my colleages and bosses really liked it ("a mature and clean look"). My mom was harder to please, but she started to like it eventually.