Any Tips for First Time Shaving Head?

[BMTridge]

I've been on finasteride for 9 months now and experienced a vicious 3 months of shedding which seems to finally have stopped. However, during that time I lost a lot of my thickness and have been hiding what would be a very noticeably diffused hairline with a long fringe.

For now I've somewhat accepted it's not really feasible to keep my hair this long and am on the verge of shaving it all off. If I cut it much shorter it'll really just be obvious and I can't be bothered with that.

I'm a bit worried that I'll be surprised (in a bad way) at how serious my hairloss has been since I haven't had my hair really short in a long time and shaving will show off the patches. I've also never really had a buzzcut so I can't even imagine how the change will be for me.

Any tips from anyone who has shaved their head for the first time?

[Breaking Bald]

I would advice doing a buzz cut at first because shaving your head bald can be quite a shock at first. I buzzed it with no guard the first time around which was a mistake as it caused me to pretty much go into hiding until it grew back a little.

Maybe give it a grade 3 on top and a 2 on the sides, it will give you a chance to get used to the look, see what your head shape is like and if you don't mind it, start going shorter and shorter. As someone who always had beautiful long hair, it took a while to get used to it but you learn to live with it and dare I say, even like it sometimes.

[Pentarou]

I was frustrated during a massive shed triggered by Propecia, so I was going to give myself a grade 3 or 4 with a poor quality home hair trimmer I had bought. Couldn't get the guard on properly, so I just did it with no guard, was the literally first time I'd ever had a buzzcut. Quite a shock. Wet shaved it the next morning, and was happy going out like that, much to my surprise, as it hid the shedding damage. Unfortunately my girlfriend was in tears, was very uncomfortable about my look. Also, to feel good shaved I needed to wet shave myself slick bald every morning, so the density issue and receded NW2 hairline didnt bother me. Quite a pain. So I grew it out not long after. Worst issue was, I enjoyed shaving my head, but only as a short term new look, wish I didn't have MPB so could do that once every couple of years without worrying about whether I'd be able to grow back a useable head of hair or 'waste' what I have. MPB like ageing is a timer ticking down, unfortunately.

TL,DR do a longer buzzcut before shaving, use a decent quality device if you must buzz or shave your hair at home, and remember wet shaving can be addictive.

[BMTridge]

Ok good this makes me feel better about. Yeahh I was only planning on doing a 2 or 3 for the first time since I already have clippers. Don't think I could handle the severity of going a 1 or more at this point.

[clandestine]

Just go to barber your first time.

[Proper]

1. Buy clippers at walmart, buzz it with number 3, then if its lookin' right, buzz to two, buzz to one, etc to your hearts content.

2. Return the clippers and voila free haircut. Its as easy as saying you just didn't need it.