Nice picture , lovely family. Welcome to SBG .
Well, I made it about 60 days. I liked the look right from the start - didn't have any issues with confidence or anything. And after a couple of weeks I liked the feel of it well enough - didn't love it but got used to it. But I HATED the upkeep! I had to shave pretty much every day - I got my best results with an Andis electric and if I waited two full days, it was like mowing a wheat field, so I was shaving basically every day. And to get it feeling close all over my head, it was a 10-15 minute project every day to cover my head and most of my face.
So I'm out. I'm just gonna use my Remington clippers on their lowest setting (1.5mm) in the summer, which makes me look more or less bald to the casual observer, but there's definitely some fuzz left up there, which I can feel and you can see if you're standing near me. It's just long enough not to get the whole velcro experience when I'm taking a tee shirt off and I kind of prefer the feel of having a little bit of hair up there.
I'll probably just give it a good clip every week or so. It's a lot quicker than shaving and of course FAR less frequent. For the beard, I'll probably use about the #2 or #3 clipper. In the winter, who knows - I may let it grow a bit again. So now I'm just back to shaving my neck daily, which is about a 30 second job.
I appreciate the advice and encouragement from folks here. I'll probably shave it again at some point, but given my history with beards (having them, shaving them, growing them again, etc), I know its not gonna be a constant thing...
-Ray
That's cool, Ray, if you can tolerate the stubble. Many of us, including me, have to have it smooth as I hate the Velcro feel. Too bad, I thought the shaved head and goatee was an awesome look for you. What's nice is you can take a razor to it whenever you get the urge, then a week later, you're back to the short buzz.
Thanks. Yeah, I liked the look too, but basically having stubble length hair and beard looks OK too. And my hair is just long enough that it just feels like soft fuzz, not grabby like velcro - shirts slide off right over my head.
I'm sure I'll shave it from time to time, maybe for a few weeks here or there, but I just don't seeing it being a constant thing...
-Ray