Welcome to the About Bald Guy Beard page to help you learn more about the site and the guy behind it!
Are you bald(ing)?
Are you a guy?
Do you have a beard? (Or a goatee or moustache? We’re not picky!)
If you are already part of the club or are simply thinking about joining, you’ve come to the right place.
My name is Carl and I’m a bald guy with a beard (goatee) and I’m happy you’ve stopped by.
Whether you’re bald by choice or lost your hair over time (that’s me!) this website can help you navigate various options and answer many of the questions you have.
We will also cover the topic of facial hair, too. Moustaches, goatee, full beards. We’ll talk about all of that!
And if you’re thinking of shaving your head like I do, we can help with some advice on that topic as well.
What You Will And Won’t Find On This Website
I talk a lot about my personal experiences with shaving, head shaving, hair loss, various products I’ve tried over the years and mistakes I’ve made.
If I try a product, I’ll let you know my honest experience with it.
If I mention a product that I haven’t used, I won’t pretend that I have.
There is so much information on the Internet, it’s often difficult to discern between the good and the bad. It’s easy to find information websites that tell you about the “10 best razors” and “12 best shaving creams” that end up being a list of products on Amazon that you could have found yourself. The articles tend to follow a particular style and tone and are clearly written by a writer and not by the website owner. I write everything on this website myself.
You’ll notice that the style of many pages and posts on this website talk more about pros and cons, benefits and downsides as well as my personal experiences to help you learn more about what is worth your time. I also talk about things like hair loss and how emotions and anxiety play a part in your decision-making. I felt that, too.
I’ve seen other websites talking about head shaving written by guys (and some women) with full heads of hair who have never shaved their head. I try to focus on things that I have actual experience with so I can speak about it with honesty and in a helpful way.
Why I Started Bald Guy Beard
I started noticing my thinning hair around the time I was 20 and in university. That moment when you look in the mirror and notice you can see more scalp than you remember the last time you looked…
I had really thick hair as a kid and I remember my dad telling me a few years earlier that I’d wouldn’t go bald like he had since I had such thick hair.
Unfortunately my genes did not share my dad’s optimism and a few years later, I noticed my hair thinning…
I held off shaving my head for awhile to see where things went before doing anything drastic. I thought there might be a chance that it might stop and I’d keep a fairly full head of hair.
No such luck.
For some reason I never really thought about shaving my head right away. This was the early 1990s and guys were already doing it – athletes especially – but it just never dawned on me. Another example of me failing to think outside the box I guess.
Instead, I started doing research on finding solutions to the hair loss. I tried a few hair loss products whose name I’ve long since forgotten to see if I could grow hair back or at least stem the tide. Mostly topical products that you applied to your scalp each day.
Again, no such luck.
I only bought one round of the last product I tried and gave up on it since it hadn’t been medically approved or verified so I didn’t want to waste additional money. I don’t think I even considered Minoxidil which at the time was the first and only FDA-approved product for hair loss.
Instead, what I ended up doing next was spending even more money and doing something I still to this day can’t believe I did.
I paid for a hair system.
I Got A Hair System
Yeah, I bought a toupee. A pretty expensive one.
Similar to a hair piece, I got a hair system from a well-known company that uses human hair to cover up the bald(ing) spot on my head. They use human hair weaved into a nylon base and then affixed the system onto my existing hair, matching my hair colour and texture.
As I attended university, I did it in the summer when I had a few months for people I went to school with to hopefully not notice the extra hair I suddenly had when I went back to school in September.
I hadn’t really lost a lot of hair at this point mind you. But I knew I was going in that direction. If I was going to do this without detection, now was the time.
The hair system isn’t just a get-it-and-forget-it product though. I had to get the system maintained and re-threaded with new hair and then reaffixed on my head every few months.
Trust me, I realize how ridiculous it sounds as I’m typing this, but that’s how these things work. It’s bonded to your own, remaining hair.
Hair System Maintenance = $$$ From Your Pocket
The hair replacement system is bonded to your own, remaining hair on your scalp.
Your hair grows.
That means the hair replacement system becomes loose on your scalp over a few weeks or longer.
Plus the system sheds hair just like your own head would. New hair needs to be added into the system to keep it nice looking and undetectable!
So every few months, they removed the hair system from my head, shaved my head where the system was attached and then reattached the system. Each visit cost more $$$ out of my own pocket.
What a mistake.
Notwithstanding the ongoing cost and inconvenience of having to go back for costly maintenance – more often that the advertised timeframe – I had constant anxiety that someone would notice that I was wearing “something” on my head and became very self-conscious about it.
I actually felt worse about the hair system than I did when I just worried about the thinning hair. All the jokes about guys wearing toupees, hair pieces, etc. Comedy bits in movies basically.
Plus, because this thing is basically glued to your scalp, it’s difficult to keep clean especially if you have oily skin and/or sweat a lot.
Gross to hear I know, but it’s the reality. And a consideration if you’re thinking of getting one.
Imagine putting a cap on your head and washing your hair. That’s what it was like. Except this cap doesn’t just come off.
Then I had to buy a replacement hair system – they wear out after a few years and have to be completely replaced – and that occurred quicker than the advertised timeframe, too. Again, more $$$ spent by me on something I didn’t really like and now realized was a mistake.
I Got Rid of My Hair System
I noticed that the replacement system (the second one!) started to wear quicker than what I’d expected as well, to the point where if I combed my hair the wrong way, part of the nylon mesh would show!
The final straw for me was when someone I worked with during the summer holidays asked me out of the blue one day “do you wear a hair piece?” I lied and said no, but that was it for me. I knew I had to get rid of this thing.
All in, the entire endeavor cost me over $4,000 for the 2 years that I had the system. I can’t even remember exactly how long I had it. I think I may have spent more than $4,000 too come to think of it.
After I finished university, I decided to get rid of the hair system at a time when I was planning to move overseas. I waited until the day before I flew out to remove the system myself. Since I hadn’t bothered to go for a refitting session in several months, the system was pretty loose on my head at this point.
I got a haircut to fix up my remaining hair, which had continued to thin out in the prior 2 years while wearing the system.
Boy, I hated my look but I had to focus on packing and moving. I was just glad to be rid of the cost and anxiousness that the hair system cost me.
When I Became Bald Guy Beard
After I moved overseas, I decided to give head shaving a try. I have classic male pattern baldness where the crown (top) of the head thins while hair around the fringes of my head remains. So I had a fair bit of hair but the top part had thinned by this time.
To me, shaving my head was like giving my hair the finger. You want to fall out? Fine. I’ll beat you to the punch and shave you off completely.
I remember the first time I shaved my head in 1995 and wondered what it would look like.
How quickly would my hair (what I had left of it!) grow back?
What if I didn’t like the result?
I figured I’d give it a try over the holidays at Christmas. Then I’d have a few weeks for it to grow back if things didn’t go well!
I didn’t consider the number of times I would cut myself the first time I shaved my head. I used a cheap disposable razor that I’d already used several times previously on my face.
What a funny feeling when you run your hands over your scalp for the first time and it is completely clean shaven!
Fortunately, I liked the result. After applying small amounts of shaving cream on the affected areas to clot the bleeding, I got better with experience. I shave my head every few days ever since without any/much blood letting.
Facial Hair
Do you have facial hair or are thinking about growing some?
As I began shaving my head, I compensated for my lack of head hair and grew facial hair. Having never grown facial hair before, I winged it and went with what I thought worked.
I can grow a full beard but that look doesn’t appeal to me so I grew a goatee instead.
I just stopped shaving that part of my face and trimmed around it until the goatee grew in.
I’ve been going with this look ever since!
I’ve experimented with a few different goatee styles over time, different razors and shaving creams and I’ll share my experiences on this site. I’ll also share product recommendations and reviews of what I’ve tried.
Men’s Grooming
Men have skin, too! I heard that somewhere recently.
Part of being bald and having facial hair involves actually getting there: if you’re shaving your head and face to some degree, you might have questions as to the best way to do it, especially if you haven’t done it before.
You might wonder about things that often get associated with women like skincare products, essential oils and things of that nature. But these things can be used by men too. Many modern men’s shaving product include soothing ingredients like aloe vera but you need to be careful because some ingredients like coconut oil have side effects for guys with oily skin, for example.
I can help as I’ve been shaving both my head and face for years! And there’s more about Bald Guy Beard than just shaving!
Thanks again for stopping by Bald Guy Beard and do visit often as the site is updated regularly!