shaving down to cueball (advice wanted)

[cuebreeze]

I think im gonna take the plunge and shave my head real soon. I was just wondering once i do this is wether i should change up my regimen? Obviously topicals are gonna be alot easier to apply but what shampooing etc? how often?

Also will shaving too short cause the hairs to die off?

[hapyman]

If you are planning on growing it out in the future I would use a blade to cut it down to skin. Just my opinion. You can get it pretty short without shaving.

As for shampooing I would probably wash at least once a day as sebum will probably build up on your scalp more readily now that you have no hair. Also if I were every to shave my head I would rub my head with aloe at least twice a day. Something like a 99% gel. Also I would use Coconut Oil a lot more as well. If you use a little dab I am sure it would spread and soak in real nice.

[Anxious1]

i have shaved in all ways b4, yrs ago when i was freaking out over my first signs of hairloss. so i feel i can give u good advice, but u also need advice from someone who has shaved with a razor long term, perferably someone who did it with no loss, and someone who did it after balding commenced.

anhow heres my advice.

- no. 1 blade on clippers would be best.

- if u must then use 0 blade on clippers , but keep it slightly angled, so ur not esseentially scraping away at the hair. this probably doesnt matter in areas of full hair, but if u scrap away at the hairline, it will reced further, IME it does do some sort of damage, although i realise dermatologists and lots of people will deny this, and also people that start doing it with their hairline intact may be safe.

- i dont know wats going on here, it may be to do with scraping away or doing damage to the cells that produce the hair, or it may be to do with not having any hair shaft to guide the oil out, so it plugs up the follicle, or it may be to do with not being able to get sufficient forms of light such as UV or infrared light down the shaft, ( i think this is valid, cos its some peoples opinion that a deficiency of light is the problem and lasers correct this, at least for one form of light i.e. 650nm)

- all i can really say, is that after i developed a receding hairline 10 yrs ago, i went down to using a razor, and basically scraped away all the weak hairs in the mpb areas, and now thats the area i just cant seem to grow back, no matter wat i try, maybe i would have lost them anyway, but i think i would still have some of them, instead of a perfectly shiny patch.

-bottom line is, unless u have a full hairline, i think shaving with a razor will only accelerate the recession, and so, its better to use either no blade (very carefully, so it doesnt scrap away cells, ) or use blade 1. i think the only time ur resistant to this 'scraping', is when the hairline is full.

-theyre r so many contradicting factors that people will undoubtably come up with, such as why u can scrap away the facial hair as much as u want, and it always comes back, or why u see people with no hairloss, that shave their heads with a razor, and then it grows back perfectly each time, etc etc, i dont have answers for these, i only know , that if u r receding, shaving with a razor will make it worse.

MY OPINION ONLY! - DONT RISK IT, use blade 1 or , no blade.

[TheFunkyStumpfighter]

If youre going to shave down to straight cue ball, then first and foremost, do NOT use one of those 4 and five blade razors. They leave far too little space between the blades, and the buildup between them will cause you to have to push a bit harder to get a close shave. A 3 blade razor, or a good 2 blade razor is what youre going to want to pick up. Also, if you find a stick razor is a bit too clumsy to use, look into buying a headblade. They take some getting used to, but they work really well with minimal effort.

When choosing a shaving cream, save yourself some money and buy a big bottle of good hair conditioner. Shaving cream/gel works well on facial hair, but its a bit overkill for scalp hair. For half the price, you can pick up a large bottle of conditioner, and it will work just as well. I have used the Nioxin conditoner to shave my scalp, and it has garnered results just as good as the gilette gel I used before, and it lasted farrrrrr longer. Just make sure to let it sit on your head a minute or two before you start shaving away.

Hapyman hit the nail on the head with the aloe vera gel. This is an absolute MUST if you plan on shaving your head blade style. Youre going to want to keep your scalp moisurized as well as you can, and Ive found that lotions are absolute GARBAGE compared to a good aloe vera gel. Your scalp will thank you. Also, I used that Thylox natural sulfur soap to wash my scalp, as it seemed to do a really good job at clearing the sebum away. I dont swear by the stuff, but its cheap as hell, and gets the job done.

One thing I cant stress enough is that you will have a shadow at all times, and people will still know that youre balding. Im not assuming you dont already know this, but I can say that it was something that came as a surprise to me. Seeing bald heads on tv gave me the impression that shaving my head would leave it unformly flesh colored. This was fine when I was shaving my non balding teenage scalp, but it became the reason I stopped shaving when I started balding. In any case, good luck with the shaving, and remember, if a blade isnt for you, you can get a shave almost as close with a good remmington.

[Anxious1]

One thing I cant stress enough is that you will have a shadow at all times, and people will still know that youre balding. Im not assuming you dont already know this, but I can say that it was something that came as a surprise to me. Seeing bald heads on tv gave me the impression that shaving my head would leave it unformly flesh colored. This was fine when I was shaving my non balding teenage scalp, but it became the reason I stopped shaving when I started balding

this is the whole problem with it, and was why i stopped shaving it.

i agree that u always have that shadow, (darkness depends on the colour of ur hair), but shaving with a razor does let u try and blend the receding temples into the flesh so it doesnt look as bad. At least thats wat i found, instead of flesh one side and lil hairs other side, u get to blend them in together.

but it was this that drove me to keep scraping into my temples, making it worse, and in an attempt to keep it as 'fleshy' as possible, with the shadow as minimal as possible, i found myself shaving every day, which to get even may take 10 minutes, + lots of cuts, and it will expose any scars u have under there (i had lots, i was totally uinaware of.

anyhow, i eventually realised that instead of hiding my balding i was exposing it, and it was costing me time and effort every day, + it was making me reced faster, so i stopped grew it back, and now i can cover up my temples with hair, and i only cut it every 3 months or so.

so i wouldnt start unless ur ready to do it everyday for the rest of ur life. sorry, but if u cant tell, i am against it, unless u are already too far gone. the people on tv without the shadow, are just completely bald people shaving.

[ShaveTail]

Having done this a few times, I'll say that I don't think it likely that shaving your head will 'damage' your scalp with the blade, as implied above, though most shaving creams have some pretty funky stuff in it. The last one I bought had propane in it for some reason. That's not so good for the scalp. When I shaved my head completely bald I used clippers first, then my electric razor, and finished up with shaving cream just for the novelty of it.

Keep this in mind though: don't freak out during the grow back. In my case a lot of my weaker hair took awhile to grow back in, like twice as long as the rest to even show at all, so my hair looked really, really thin for a few weeks after the blade shave. Clipping is one thing, as you are cutting it all down to an even length--that usually looks thicker, as the strong and weak hairs are the same length. But bare shaving takes off everything, so the difference in the length is immediately noticeable as soon as the stubble starts; not just to me either, I got some comments on it. Enough so that when I shaved my head again (this week as a matter of face) I just used the bare clippers to avoid this. Since you are talking about continuing treatment you clearly don't want to make the change permanent, so just something to keep in mind.

--oh, and FYI: liquid minox is really, really messy on a bald head--and stings like a bitch on a freshly razored scalp!