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So for some years my hair line has been fairly high but now it would appear the hair on the top of my head is thinning, when do I admit it to myself and shave all my hair off?
It's currently styled in a swept-back stylee so there's still plenty on top but I have to face the facts and that is the hair is thinning whether I like it or not.
When did others decide it was time to give it the 1-all-over treatment?
When the wife tells me...
I'm a #2 all over... she's used to it now.
I just kept cutting it shorter and shorter.
It is empowering and you will feel epic afterwards.
Do it now and send before and after pictures
I did it in the first lock down, gave me a chance to get used to it while no one else was around to gawp and point at me.
Agree, It is empowering!
Was feel self conscious about receeding hair all through 20s.
Once I had the balls to buzz it all off, I never looked back.
DO IT!!
Never!
* flicks luxuriant locks*
I did it during first lock-down too.
I seem to have inherited my Dad's pattern of balding with a nice spot of baldness growing steadily from my crown.
I remember years ago catching sight of the back of my head in a changing room and being shocked how bald I was. When I asked my (now) Wife about it, she said I'd been like that for ages, and just assumed I knew.
I kept umming and aaahing about whether to just go for a short all over, grade 2, and then bit the bullet during lock down.
Should have done it years ago.
It looks much better than trying to keep a 'style' going when there's clearly a massive bald bit in the middle of it & it saves me something like £15/month in haircuts.
I have no option now, but note you have to cut more often the shorter it gets or uneven bits really show up.
Also I have a fair number of hats now - not vanity - just avoiding sunburn
I was in my late thirties. Mine was thinning considerably and that was OK "disguised" by a No 4 on top and 2 at the sides, but it was a losing battle. Fortunately the "fashion" for clippering it all off kicked in (or rather was wrestled from the hands of the thug types) and I treated myself to some clippers and grew a goatee. Zero all over since then. It's liberating.
I have tried keeping it down to skin alone with a electric shaver type grinder, but can't be arsed every other day so it's beard trimmer with no guard every week.
Years ago, I noticed the slightest bit of thinning at the top of my head.
Shaved off the same day, and now shave to bone with wet razor every 2 days. Nothing worse than a bloke trying to keep his hair...
Best thing I ever did (best might be pushing things) but it was a relief to never have to worry about my hair ever again. Plus I used to suffer from real anxiety about going to the barbers and having to make small talk so that was a bonus too, and I’ll have saved hundreds.
If I may be blunt;
If you have noticed the top of your hair is thinning, then anyone else who has looked at you for, probably at least a year, will have noticed you're effectivly sporting a comb over.
Just get it done, you'll not look back. I've been shaving my head since my early twenties. If I don't look like my dad!
About 25 years ago! I starting noticeably thinning in my late twenties. I muddled along with shorter and shorter cuts until my early thirties before the clippers came out. Never looked back, never mourned the loss of my hair. Own it, rejoice in the lack of faff it creates and have one less thing to worry about. Invest in a good head shaver, I recommend the Remington RX5 - none of that No.1 nonsense, down to the wood!
Never. There's nothing more stylish than a Gregor Fisher comb-over...
Mark Strong, Bruce Willis?
It’s a really good look, and I say this as someone who doesn’t have any hair loss.
Never!
* flicks luxuriant locks*
I was in a pub with some squaddies and the older ones were taking the piss out of the younger one who wasnt yet man enough to recede.
I liked them.
Only downsides are sunburn and sometimes it can be a bit chilly but both easily sorted with a hat. Been no 1 for 15 years, absolutely hate it when it grows too long. I reckon a buzz cut takes 10 years off your age.
Shaving your head because you're worried it looks like you're going bald still looks like you're going bald - just with shaved hair
Go full male vanity and shave it then get lots of those little dots tattood on on your scalp so the bit thats bald looks likes shaved hair. - Create the illusion that you've shaved fulsome manly main, not jus the bits you've got left over. Its the very much done thing
That way you flick the Vs at TJ flicking his luxurious locks..... until the rest of your hair falls out and you have a tattood island on your baldy napper. Or for even more fun - the hair you have got goes grey.
Do it. You'll have a few days of colleagues & friends being surprised and making jokes, then nobody will give a shit.
Well, I effectively started on my hair loss journey after my 30th birthday. By the time I was 40 I'd got the comb on the clippers down to a No1. Making the switch to the razor was incredible as it was the final an undeniable admission that I was a fully fledged slap head. Nobody batted an eyelid but I encountered serious push-back from SWMBO.
So, to buck the trend I'm suggesting you go full comb over prior to doing anything else.
Feel free to post some before & after shots \o/
I think if you are asking the question then you already know the answer.
Really it depends a lot of your hair - maybe try a diffferent hairstyle. Some hair / heads / haircuts look fine with a bit of baldness. Embrace being an adult. Shaving your head is hiding baldness in the exact same way wearing a wig is really. Maybe just do something different rather than just give up.
I could shave my head (I did once by accident after the guard came off my clippers and I shaved a diagonal line across the top of my head so just had to finish the job off) - but anything less than a N04 and I just dont suit it. No 2 looks like a bouncer, No1 looks like an escaped lunatic, No0 and I look like escape wouldn't cross my mind. So a choose to have mostly hair.
I look like a vulture with a zero so have to keep it 2-4 and embrace the donut of power :/
About 25 years ago when it started thinning. Best thing I ever did as opposed to slowly cutting it shorter and shorter. Get a Headblade Moto or Omnishaver, some SPF moisturiser and never look back.
Several factors in my decision to go zero guard all over.
Sunburn - unavoidable when thinning and hoping you aren't thinning. It hurts on your scalp.
Reflections - lights above your head really make a point of your scalp being visible through your hair.
The amount of hair removed during a cut - noticeably reduced volume of hair and minimal attention to the top.
It's all down to excess testosterone, you're a real man now!
No.1 all over for me every few weeks.
I feel a fully shaved head would be a level of faff I'm not prepared for! 🙂
Every month or so, and the clippers come out (set to zero).
Barber here, if it goes from the back, ie, bald patch, then it needs to come off. If it goes slowly from the front you can carry on for years if you like.
Mine went at the back so came off at 34. Only issue I have is that it needs doing every two or three days and regulations say you need to balance it out with facial hair 😉
When do you admit you’re bald and shave your head?
I'd say when you're about a 6 on the Nutkins scale.
What Hooli said….
Just buy platforms / cuban heels and no-one will see your shame.
I’d say when you’re about a 6 on the Nutkins scale.
regulations say you need to balance it out with facial hair
My hair started retreating from my eyebrows in my twenties. I've kept my hair short since then Gradually moving from a 2 to no guard. Maybe I'm one of those thug types. I'm sixty now the hairline stopped receding just at the top of my temple in my 40s but now it's turned bloody white. So it will be staying ultra short.
Had really long hair in my youth.
Years of doing stupid shit to it soon wrecked it.
First signs of it falling out and I took the only real option and clippered the lot off in my late 20's
Give it a going over once a week with no guard on.
Life is so much easier this way.
TBH my quandary is when to go blond (oddly that's a uk word with sex - blond/blonde) as I'm not really into the distinguished gray hair look, currently skin fade cut seems to hid it but I may have to dye it one day and i'm just not a just for men guy.
I can't do the beard thing as that really shows it.
I wanted to for years before I was "allowed" to 😀
But when I hit 40 the Mrs was like "OK, it's time now". I think I got out before achieving the full-on "egg in the nest" look, which is pretty much what I wanted.
I would echo what others have said about maintenance. When I had #3 back/sides and scissor cut on the top I could go five weeks between haircuts and it'd mostly look OK. Now it's #1 all over if I don't trim weekly it starts to look bad (or possibly worse).
Interestingly, the barber's is now more expensive. I feel it's an insult to their art to go in and just ask for #1 all over so I get my beard done too...
I reckon I could carry the film image of a So Cal tech surfer giant look as opposed to the real life Elon 🙂
When i was 19... 43 now. Always been a 1 or 0, never been brave enough to try the full on bicced look. I was seeing a hair dresser for a bit during my mid twenties who convinced me she could disguise it. Looking back at photos from then, she failed. Weirdly no one else in the family has been blessed with baldness - clearly i must be the alpha male then...
The day I saw the bright shiny round bit on the back of my head in a photo at a gig is the day I clippered mine off. I'd been trying to keep it looking OK for too long with a comb back and honestly it was just delaying the inevitable.
No guard clip every few weeks makes dealing with hair way easier anyway.
I think if you are asking the question then you already know the answer.
I was going to say, "when you feel the need to start a forum thread about it."
Honestly, I've got little to add as like TJ I'll go grey rather than bald. My hair is one of the very few physical traits I'm happy with, I'd be devastated if I started losing it. I reckon I'd be in denial as long as I could get away with it (and probably be longer). You have my sympathies.
When it was pointed out to me I had fallen out clumps stuck to my back at a sweaty rave in Bridlington Spa. Guess I would have been 19!
Mid 30s, final straw was a mate is not seen in a while taking the p!ss, clippers on it that evening (against the will of SWMBO) and weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders and the bonus that I could wear hats without messing up my hair. Since then it’s gone from grade 2 to no guard; to skull shaver.
When your MTB friends start calling you monkey bum head.
When my pattern baldness went odd, widows peak stayed, but wasn't attached to the rest. Went to No1 all over every 3 weeks. Covid shut the barbers so I went shaved and have stuck with that. Remington RX5 every couple of days now.
Takes me about 5 mins with the headblade a couple of times per week and the blades last forever. I think fully bald looks tidier and weirdly helps you look younger if you’ve only got side bits left. I’ve tried electric head shavers but they don’t get it smooth enough.