Thanks so much everyone for your input.

yeah, at this point my hair is VERY thin on top for the most part (see pic).

i'm at a stage where most people probably would have made the transition a while ago.

i'd like to try this taping without shaving thing but i have a patch in the front that is still thick enough to potentially make taping over it a bit problematic.

I've brushed my hair for this photo in a way that reveals as much of the baldness as possible. Obviously, I'm doing the opposite when i style my hair for use with concealers - piling all the thick hair from the sides on top of my head.

IMHO the concealers never looked 100% realistic, even 4-5 years ago when i had substantially more hair on top. Worse now of course but in bright enough light it always looked bad.

I find the "like wearing a hat" remark a bit worrying. Hats are not really comfortable to wear for hours at a time, let alone days or weeks. But since the noob "does it feel like wearing a hat" thing has been covered to death on here, i won't retread over that ground... while i care enough to bother with concealers, i wouldn't be able to keep a hat on my head for 24 hours without taking it off.

I've attempted making a template tonight (no fun!), which i will post a separate thread on shortly. So i am taking this plunge one way or another. Or at least a test drive. Thank you all again.