shaving your head - does it accelerate balding? pics include

[fashionable_male]

I'm a 1.5-2 on the Norwood scale. I definitely have some thinning out at the crown and the tiniest, tiniest beginnings of a bald spot. Only from certain angles can you really see it. I've been using minoxidil 5% for about 6 weeks. Too early to notice a difference. I've been unemployed and finally got a job so I am making a doctors appt real soon to get a prescription for finasteride. My question is this: I shaved my head because with my receding at the temples, my hair no longer looks good parted and I wanted to "train" it to be swept back, like Bill Murray in the Life Aquatic or Kevin Spacey. I got so tired of parting it at weird angles and spending so much time in front of a mirror to get it to look acceptable. I've seen some celebrities who obviously go to a stylist and look good with a receding hairline. I shaved it without a guard a week and a half ago. Looking at the crown, there's definitely more flesh toned skin around there than elsewhere. However, there is continuous hair throughout, no completely exposed scalp. Does shaving your head accelerate balding? My concern is that if some of your hair is in a resting phase and is going to eventually fall out and not be replaced because the follicle it belongs to is shutting down, does shaving your head accelerate this thinning process?
Am I just panicking at how short it is and I'm going to basically grow back what I had after 4 months and any balding or thinning takes place regardless of shaving your head?

Before:

http://flickr.com/photos/mustachio/53971260/

http://flickr.com/photos/mustachio/5397 ... otostream/

http://flickr.com/photos/mustachio/5397 ... otostream/

After:

http://flickr.com/photos/mustachio/53973519/

 

[The Gardener]

Shaving your head will have no negative impact on any potential balding occuring on your scalp.

Frankly, and this is just from personal observation and not anything scientific, shaving your head might actually be GOOD for the scalp environment of an male pattern baldness sufferer.

 

[fashionable_male]

well that's a relief. I shaved my head about 2 years ago for the summer. I live in Texas and it gets hot and I don't want to deal with it. Plus, after about a month, 6 weeks, I think it looks pretty good all the same length. I went on a vacation a year and a half ago and when the pics were developed I noticed a lot more thinning and that's when I first realized I was suffering from balding. Up until then bald was what happened to other people. Because I had recently shaved my head, that was the first link I thought of. I know it's mainly genetic, but I have been under a lot of stress the past 3 years -- family, job or lack of job, and the last time I got a haircut the stylist mentioned stress as a factor that can exacerbate balding.

Here is my dad and an example of working with your baldness. I like what he does with his receding hairline. He has never done anything as far as minoxidil or propecia. He's always accepted it and he's not vain like me. I kind of want something like this instead of parting it. He said when he started losing his hair he began combing it back and he had to train it:

http://flickr.com/photos/mustachio/53975794/

http://flickr.com/photos/mustachio/5397 ... otostream/

 

[JayB]

lol why would u delete your pics in the same day

 

[Radio]

Shaving your head can cause you to lose your hair.

 

[misterium]

^ It can?

 

[Armando Jose]

HI guys;

Acording to my theory, repeteatedly shave of hair scalp is not a good way to avoid premature hair loss. In ancient times, when soap and detergents don`t exist, certain religious orders used "Tonsure" to make baldspots. Do you know another method to develope comon baldness? I don't.

Armando
(*) http://www.againstalopeciaandbaldness.com

 

[SE-freak]

^ It can?

Only if scarring is involved. Radio was just kidding.

 

[ikaponthus]

I have shaved my head ever since I first noticed I was going bald. As soon as I noticed it was No.0 or No.1 shaved all over. That was years ago. Nowdays many of my friends that laughed at me back then are now much much balder than me and trying to cover it up with gel and hairspray. Hahahaha.

Personally I think it has resulted in a healthy scalp which has slowed my baldness drasticly. I dunno, maybe just a coincidence though. But I have lost little or no hair since I started shaving it anyway.

 

[Radio]

>>> Shaving your head can cause you to lose your hair.


^ It can?

Of course it can, do this simple test to prove my point.

Stand directly in front of a mirror, shave your hair off, now, do you think you have just lost some hair?