Most men are terrified by the idea of going bald. Which is ironic, since most men do go bald sooner or later. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s perfectly natural and it can look quite well on most people with proper care. And what we mean by that is – shave those last few hairs instead of clinging onto them. While there’s nothing wrong with going bald, desperately hanging on your last few hairs simply isn’t a good look in the eyes of most other men and women.
Of course, you don’t need to be going bald to decide to shave your head – it’s such a cool look that you may as well choose to do it for the style points. Whatever the case, shaving your head for the first time can be a stressful challenge as you’ll want to do it well and avoid razor cuts.
So, how to shave your head for the first time? Let’s take a look.
How to shave your own head?
With time you’ll become quite experienced in shaving your head but for your first several attempts you’ll want to be quite careful. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you should go about it.
Trim your hair down with hair clippers
Unlike with most regular haircuts, here you don’t need to be too careful with what you cut – at the end, every single hair will need to be removed, so it doesn’t matter. Just grab a pair of sharp, quality clippers and start going to town on your hair.
Take a nice, hot shower
Once you’ve reduced your hair to a short stubble, taking a long, moisturizing shower is definitely recommended. Of course, there are other ways to soften and moisture your scalp and hair such as a hot towel treatment, but showering is usually the easiest thing to do since you probably want to do it daily anyway.
Use shaving gel or soap
Not that we didn’t mention a shaving cream together with the shaving gel and the shaving soap. That’s because shaving creams are generally inferior in almost any way. Instead, a nice and high-quality shaving gel or soap will do an excellent job at softening and moisturizing your hair, making it 100% ready to be easily shaved off.
Mirrors. Mirrors everywhere
As we said, with time you’ll get comfortable enough to do the whole process with little to no effort and with no mirrors whatsoever. However, for the first several shaves, at least, having a couple of mirrors around you can be very beneficial – it will give you a nice view over the back and the sides of your head, ensuring that you always know what you are doing. Once you get better at it, you’ll be able to shave your head in the shower with your eyes closed but it may take a while until you get there.
Shave with the grain, not against it
A lot can be said about shaving with or against the grain. And while we can agree that shaving against the grain is not without its merits in general, it’s definitely recommended to shave with the grain when it comes to your scalp. The lack of vision up there, coupled with the higher sensitivity of the skin on your head are both pretty categorical reasons not to shave your head against the grain.
Check for stubble
With or without mirrors, carefully run your hand across your entire scalp to check for any left-over stubble. There’s nothing wrong with having stubble on your head as long as it’s intentional, but having some individual stubble spots here and there because you’ve been careless – that’s just silly and ugly.
Clean up
After you’re done with the whole procedure, just clean up. Simply rinse your head under a cool shower and towel dry it.
Moisturize
Last but not least, don’t forget to apply a light moisturizer on your shaved head once you’re done with everything. A standard facial moisturizer can work just as well on your scalp as they are designed to be quickly absorbed and to leave a nice, matte finish. Just don’t use alcohol-based aftershave products as they can easily irritate the overly sensitive skin on your head.
General head shaving tips
Now that we know how you should go about shaving your head for the very first time, let’s go over some general shaving tips for the long run. These should help you out in mastering the whole process and achieving a truly good, stable and long-lasting look.
How often should I shave my head?
This is one of the first questions that come up when talking about shaving your head. The shower answer is that it’s totally up to you how often you should shave it – some men don’t mind having a light stubble on their scalp and can definitely pull it off. Others prefer to have a clean-shaven scalp to match their clean-shaven face – that’s a perfectly valid choice as well. If you’re going for the latter you will have the shave your head every day. This may sound tedious at first, but if you’re shaving your face daily already, it really isn’t that much extra effort. After all, you can do both with your morning shower in a matter of minutes.
Having a shaving schedule helps
Most of us tend to live rather busy lives. That’s one of the reasons why a lot of men despise shaving in general – it takes time out of their mornings when they are busy being late for work. Similarly to most other things you want to sneak into your hectic life, having a stable schedule here helps as well. The most standard and widely used option is to just combine the morning shower with shaving your face and scalp.
The shampoo is not out of your life
It’s a common misconception that if you’ve shaved your head you don’t need to use shampoo or conditioner anymore. That can be true for the conditioner if you’re maintaining a clean shave at all times, but the shampoo is definitely needed. The reason is simple that the shampoo is meant for the scalp as much as it is for the hair itself. The skin on your scalp requires much more moisturizing and nourishing than the hair on your face, so a standard body soap is not a good idea.
A good sunscreen will be your new best friend
Yes, a lot of men don’t realize that when they shave their head for the first time. It seems funny at first but the fact of the matter is that if you shave your head it will become very susceptible to sunburns, not to mention the many possibly disastrous health problems that can follow. So, find a quality sunscreen that you like and start using it daily.
