DIE, MICROSOFT WORD, DIE!!!!

Did you put a check mark next to "different first page" under Headers?
ETA: most likely you did, since you've read various tutorials. Sometimes saving your work, closing it, reopening it, then right away clicking "different first page" before typing in the header will take care of any glitches. It has happened to me.

For next time . . .

There is two or three ways to do this. If you just need a different first page, just go to File > Page Setup > Layout and select the Different First Page option (it might be slightly different depending on what version of Word you're using, but that's the general idea). If you need several pages to be different, insert a section break at the end of those pages.

What version of MS Word is it?

Do you see the check box for "Different First Page"?

If you insert a continuous break between 1 and 2, you should be able to define a different (no) header on page 1.

Um, it's a section break. Don't use page break. Be sure the link at the bottom of the 2nd page header does not link back to the 1st page (there should be a little orange box at the bottom of the 2nd page geared which says "link to previous" or something like that). I've had to learn section breaks to format mixed landscape and portrait style pages numerous times.

MS-Word has forever been strangely difficult about things like headers/footers/pagination. To make things worse, they tinker with the placement of the options, but never seem to make them simpler, always the opposite. And the clones (LibreOffice, as an example) just seem to follow the MS-Word example.

Upshot being, you just need to learn the arcane method MS-Word has concocted for performing this operation, which ought to be a lot more simple and intuitive.

caw

blacbird, you are correct. What butt-monkey decided the MS Word/Excel options needed to be rearranged from the '03 version to today's ought to be publically flogged and then impaled in the public square. Having to relearn where all my controls are (even to the point of being able to open a new document) is not the reason I upgrade (but is a reason I use Open Office or even Pages whenever possible).

Microsoft programmers - rearranging the controls in MS Word/Excel does NOT make the user interface better you freaking morons.

I just find this odd. I've used nearly every version of word and if you click on "different first page" for headers and footers in Page Setup, that works and you shouldn't need to create extraneous section breaks.

Did you go up to the header on the first page and physically delete the information inside it? It doesn't automatically disappear just because you clicked different first page.