Really interesting post, tsker.
Good luck with the SMP. You have tried everything it seems and I hope this gives you some peace and a better outlook on life. I know exactly what that meh feeling about life is. I hope you keep posting or start a new thread about your experiences with this. My only issue with this treatment is that whilst I can usually tan in the summer ok, I am very pale in the winter months - long hard climate here, so not sure how it would look on a pale skinned blue eyed guy, (although my existing hair is very dark)
Enjoying reading the perceptions on hats. I am a receding NW3-5/pretty much 4, with diffuse now. I have gone through the cycle (apart from a transplant).
22/started receding I grew the hair out - worked until that NW1/2 ended up in a NW3.
25 noticed my hair was slowly thinning at the back - concelear work(s)/ed but now at a crucial point. Even got to a stage where I would wear sweatbands for playing sport.
28 got fed up of thinning and ****ty receding hair. Tried a wig. I lasted a day in it - it was more my fault than the wig, but I kept over thinking. In those 20 odd hours I had it on my head, I deliberately went shopping into the mall, the main street, and brightly lit dept stores to see if I got looks/stares at the hair - I didn't, and even got carded when I decided to order a beer in the evening. I just couldn't handle it at the time.
28, decided to shave my head after the wig episode. I am/was even more so back then skinny, and whilst it was a massive relief. No more concealer, sweat bands, hats, wigs, social anxiety about going to places where I may have to take my hat off etc. I got mostly good feedback although I have large ears, and it was summer. I felt older though, and it felt awkward wearing things like flannel shirts, hoodies - ended up wearing more sweaters, or plain clothes.
Then I quit a job and went traveling for a few months. I grew the hair back in gradually in between caps. I have always had caps, beanies, sweatbands, whatever at the time of hair loss needed to wear.
And now back to the start again. I work and have worked jobs often outdoors, on my own, or from home - so have been lucky that I could wear a cap when I wasn't feeling it, but there certainly is an awkwardness to wearing a cap a lot. And for the last few years, when I need to - social functions, meeting people, I cut up that wig and made two frontal hair pieces, with some liberal concealer.
After experimenting with a few options, I'm now basically using everything! Sometimes I'll even through a beanie over the top of the two frontal pieces - if I cannot be bothered with concealer.
You ain't deceiving anyone. People will be curious as to why you continue to have a hat on 24/7. Wearing a hat is not a solution, it like concealers is a stop gap for a short period. You need to research, and decide what option you feel is best for you. You may end up getting social anxiety/nervous about situations like going to a bar (where they may have a dress code, and you'll need to take that cap off), you'll never feel comfortable dating unless you tell your date everything or she is very understanding. Wearing hats constantly will also draw more attention to you than not
I have been in a couple of situations through the years where I've taken a hat off. Once after a night of chatting to a girl at a party then it came off - let's say things weren't the same and she didn't seem as interested as she once thought.
It sucks really because there is no one size fits all solution for everyone.