Why not just buzz it off?

[Brig]

Sorry I hate to rant but we are all here for one reason, because we love our hair and hate to see it go. Likewise I want your honest opinions and no pity. Up until three months ago I had a gorgeous long blonde mane inspired by Clay Matthews that I grew out for football. I won best hair for my senior year superlatives. Basically I have always been very proud of my hair and in some ways let it define me. After I cut it though I noticed that my hair line was receded to like a Norwood 2.5ish. I freaked out and was so pissed off by it. My dad (who went bald in his mid twenties) has always joked with me that there would be a cure for baldness by the time my hair were to start going. Obviously, we're not at that point yet. Yeah I can use Rogaine twice a day for the rest of my life, or take fork over a ton of money on Propecia to hopefully prevent loosing anymore. But I dont want to be a slave to those products and be self conscious about how other people notice my hairline. It sucks because I'm 18 years old and I just feel trapped and imprisoned by my hair loss. I'm strongly considering just buzzing it down to like a two or a three before i loss much more just so that I can be known as a young guy who keeps his hair short, rather than a young guy who is trying to cover up his balding. The pictures of me with a buzz cut were taken around three years ago and the last picture was taken about a month ago. So keep in mind that I've gotten taller (5'10) and weigh a healthy 185. I'm in good shape and decently "big" So do you guys think I could pull off the Jason Satham style buzz? Should I go for it and just shave it all off before my hair loss becomes really noticeable? But also why dont more guys just say ef it and buzz it off?

[Dan26]

Your hair looks good buzzed man...

You could try and save what you have and continue buzzing it, or continue buzzing it and let the rest go aswell.

Obviously it will look better to have hair or even stubble vs slick bald but it's your choice in the end

[BigThinker]

I actually think you look better with really short hair.

Some dudes don't ever buzz it off because they can't come to grips with reality or have a build that doesn't lend itself to the bald look. Would you rather be the guy with wispy, thin hair sporting a combover or the guy who buzzes it and owns that shit?

I think you'd prob pull it off pretty well.

Life goes on whether or not we come to grips with our hairloss. We can try treating, and we may have some success. At the end of the hair loss journey, you have to decide if you want to be beta or alpha about the situation.

I'd say you have it a lot better than most guys going through this. Go the alpha route.

[Notcoolanymore]

You pull of the buzz look pretty good. If I saw you in public I wouldn't look twice. I started buzzing my head around NW2.5. Started at a 3 guard, now using a #2. I hear what you are saying about treatments, being a life long decision and all, but I personally think buzzing your head with decent coverage looks way better than buzzing at NW6. That is my thinking at this point, thus why I treat my loss. Just something to think about.

[blmars french]

pure love of god Brig!
try to keep your hair, even with a large forehead is better with you.
you should have started treatment for a while.
do not come crying being NW7!
or break any mirrors then you cross.

[akai]

Most here on treatments wished they would have started earlier. It's much easier to keep what you have then to grow hair back. I'm not sure about starting finasteride at 18 as you're probably still growing, that's something you need to talk to your doctor about. Finasteride is cheap though. Some people wait until their thinning gets bad enough until it pushes them over the edge to get treatments. Thus losing a bunch of ground they could have kept. You either treat it now or accept that you're going to go bald. That's your decision to make. My opinion would be to get on a low dose of finasteride and use Nizoral shampoo until something better (like non-systemic treatments) comes out.

Good luck.

[DAVE52]

If you are comfortable buzzing then do it .....and then move on .
You don't want to spend the rest of your life worrying about and treating your hair loss

[Shelley79328]

I agree with Dave. You do not want to become a slave to meds. They can also have some pretty nasty side effects. Your buzz cut looks great and I think it is time for us to stop measuring men by their hair or lack of it.

[Notcoolanymore]

I think it is time for us to stop measuring men by their hair or lack of it.

When this happens make sure you come back and let us all know so we can stop taking meds and proceed with going slick. Until then, the fight continues.

[35YrsAfter]

My dad (who went bald in his mid twenties) has always joked with me that there would be a cure for baldness by the time my hair were to start going. Obviously, we're not at that point yet.

Is there much hair loss on your mother's side of the family? How about your mother's father was he bald? When I was 14, I first noticed recession and that was the least of my worries. My hair didn't recede much but instead thinned. Back then there were no effective treatments.

I wouldn't take propecia myself but a lot of men use it without any downside. I have not mentioned this before in the forum, but there is a law firm soliciting Propecia users to enter a class action law suit of sorts. These mainly benefit lawyers. The reason for the law suit is concerning, but could possibly be an accusation based upon less than solid evidence.

35YrsAfter also posts as CITNews and works at Dr. Cole's office
forhair.com
Cole Hair Transplant
1070 Powers Place
Alpharetta, Georgia 30009
Phone 678-566-1011
email 35YrsAfter at chuck@forhair.com
The contents of my posts are my opinions and not medical advice
Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. Ask for Chuck

[Mike K]

The buzz cut looks good on you man, if you like that style do it. However, it may not look nearly as good when you've lost a couple norwoods so you might want to start trying out some treatments. I don't see why not start at 18 personally.

As far as why doesn't everyone just rock a Jason Statham buzz cut - I've had this hair my whole life until recently and I aim to keep it! It's MY hair and I want it! Besides, have you ever seen the movie Revolver? Jason Statham has hair in it and he looks way better with that hair than he does now in my opinion. I would so rock long hair like that if I hadn't started losing my hair.

Whoops just saw the date on this and realized it had been bumped. Sorry about that.

[vcity]

i started propecia at 17 ..

no major sides to worry about .. i thought about it and i'd rather keep what's left than the be slick bald by the time i'm 20

(i'm 23 now, i still have hair on top of my head although it is thin, it would have been completely gone i'm sure if i wasn't on propecia)