Hi everyone,

I'm new to this site - it's so comforting to see women who are going through similar issues as me.

A bit about me: 29, female, in a relationship, live in the DC metro area. I've had androgenetic alopecia probably for a good 9 years, but just didn't realize it until about 5 years ago (and it's been getting worse). 

My hair is currently thinning around my part and about halfway down my head. The front part is particularly bad, and I usually fill it in with eyeshadow or Caboki. Really only the base of my skull is "full". I usually use Rogaine (5%) once every evening pretty religiously, and I think it has helped some.

Not one day goes by that I don't look at myself in the mirror and think "Sh*t," or look at other women with full heads of hair and feel this anger, jealousy, and sadness. I can't do anything with my hair. When it was long, sometimes I'd have to put it up in a (sad little) bun at the top of my head just to cover up the scalp showing. When I get sweaty it is absolutely terrible. Now that I've cut a lot of it off (to chin length), I'm sort of terrified to work out or go hiking for fear that I won't be able to cover everything up anymore. I can barely pin it back since any kind of pulling exposes my scalp and thinned out areas.

Anyway... I have been thinking about shaving my head. I've always like the buzzcut look (not completely shaved bald for myself), but I'm worried that if I do that, my thinning spots will be painfully obvious. I've seen men with thinning hair who have buzzcuts, and you can usually tell which areas are thinning. Is this going to be the case with me?? Any way to avoid this? My hair is also light brown, and of course the hair coming in is more translucent, so I feel like that will not help any...

Your thoughts and experience welcome :)