People start to shave their heads for many reasons. It may be because they just like the bald look or are going bald or have gone bald and decide to shave their heads.
So, everybody has a different story of why they are shaving their heads. Just like that, the frequency at which they shave their heads is also different.
It is more down to your personal choice. It may be every day, once every other day or once a week to even once a month. There can be a lot of different time lapses between shaving one’s head.
However, this personal choice is affected by many factors and these factors are the reasons behind the varied head-shaving frequency we see.
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Factors Determining Frequency Of Head Shaving
Today, we will discuss all these different factors and how they affect people’s opinions about how often they should shave their heads. So, let’s find out.
1. The Style You Want
One of the biggest reasons behind the large parity we see in people’s head-shaving frequency is the different preferred styles.
So, if you want a clean-shaven head, you would want to shave from every day to at least two to three times a week.
On the other hand, if you prefer a buzz cut, the frequency may go down from once every week to every other week. So, you can shave the buzz cut less often and it looks better for longer.
If you are going bald, the extent or pattern of your baldness determines your style. For example, if you are going bald in the middle and have good hair growth on the back and sides, you can have a couple of different styles.
You may go with shaving your back and side hair more frequently than the top. Or, you may go completely bald with a shaven head. So, your balding pattern does determine your style.
In short, the style you want goes a long way in determining how often should you shave your head.
2. Rate of Hair Growth
This is another reason that establishes at which rate you should shave your head. Independent of your style, the rate of hair growth is different in different individuals and different factors affect this.
Age is also a determining factor in which hair growth rate slows down with age.
So, all in all, depending on their gender, race, and age, people tend to grow hair at different rates and hence different frequencies of shaving their heads.
3. Sensitive Scalp Or Not
You may want to shave from every day to every other day at max, but you don’t have a tough enough scalp to support that. In this case, you will have to revert back to shaving less frequently.
Sensitive scalps are more prone to irritation, razor burn, ingrown hair, and folliculitis among others. One way to get relief from these conditions is to shave less often.
However, there are ways around it by using different shaving products before and after shaving and adjusting your shaving technique. Nonetheless, it is a factor that would affect your head-shaving frequency.
4. Maintenance And Time Constraints
You may have a style that requires a high level of maintenance. For example, if you want to maintain a completely shaven head, it would require you to shave every day to every other day.
But, you may not have the time required to achieve that.
For such situations, you would be better off with a style that requires less maintenance. An example of such styles is the buzz cut or having a bigger length than a completely shaven head.
Thus, whether you have enough time to maintain a style or not determines your style and that goes on to determine your shaving frequency.
5. Your Shaving Tool
Independent of your style, one factor which will determine your head-shaving frequency is your shaving tool.
Different shaving tools cut hair to different lengths. For example, traditional razors in the form of a straight razor, double edge razor, or a safety razor can effectively cut hair below the scalp. This is different than electric shavers which cut hair on the skin. There are also trimmers and clippers which cut to a slightly higher length than shavers.
Plus, there are guide combs for shavers and trimmers which enable them to cut hair at varying lengths.
So, if you have shaved your head with a traditional razor, the head may take a long to grow hair back and thus relatively long interval between shaves. However, for the same style, you may get hair back rather quickly after shaving with an electric razor.
6. Your Hair Texture and Color
If you like the bald look and you have dark hair, it will start to show up quickly than, say, light hair.
Similarly, curly or kinky hair tends to be apparent rather quickly.
So, if you don’t want that sandpaper feeling, depending on your hair texture and color, you will shave every day if you have dark hair, or every other day to every third-day max if you have light hair.
Beyond average, if you have very coarse and dark hair, you may have to shave it a couple of times a day as well, once in the morning and once in the evening.
Of course, this varies with the style or the length of hair you want.
7. Where You Are In Your Head Shaving Journey
Our body has a tendency to adjust to different factors it is exposed to, but it takes time to do so.
Thus, If you will suddenly start shaving every day, you will most likely experience irritation and razor bumps. Therefore, it is advisable to start off your head shaving journey gradually. Start off with, say, every couple of days and then after a month or so drop it every other day and finally to every day.
That will allow your scalp to adjust better and you will experience less irritation when you eventually are shaving every day.
Conclusion
So, the answer to how often should I shave my head depends on personal style and preference. However, your style is determined by a lot of factors.
Ultimately, these are your style, the different reasons behind your style, and different lifestyle factors that determine your head-shaving frequency.
If you have a busy lifestyle, the preference should be to go with a style that demands shaving at a lesser frequency. And for such lifestyles, we recommend a military cut or a buzz cut at most. Obviously, if you can work your way around your time constraints, you can go with more demanding styles like the completely shaven head.
Combined with your style, your hair growth rate also determines your head-shaving frequency. If your hairs grow fast, you would need to put a razor on them ever so quickly. Generally speaking, Asian men grow hair the fastest followed by Caucasians and black. Plus, your rate of hair growth tends to slow down as you age. So, older men will have to shave less frequently than younger men.
Another important factor that will have a bearing on your shaving frequency is your skin type. If you have a sensitive skin type, you would hate to put your scalp under regular tests. Sensitive skin is more prone to irritation and the more you will shave it will be more susceptible to. Thus, decrease your shaving frequency if you have sensitive skin.
So, in a nutshell, again, your preferred style, lifestyle factors, and preferences will determine how often you will shave your head. It may vary from even a couple of times a day to once a month.
