Does Your Guy Care About Hair?

Hairless but handsome: Bruce Willis, Sean Connery, Vin Diesel, Telly Savalas, and Michael Jordan (shown here with his follicularly fine teammate Scottie Pippen).

Guys may even agree that these stars look good — but still want strands (and lots of them) on their own heads. About half of men suffer from male-pattern baldness. Some are OK with it. Many others are not. One tell-tale sign: the baseball-cap-when-it's-not-sunny look.

"Men are extraordinarily private about their hair loss," says Robert Leonard, founder and chief surgeon of Leonard Hair Transplant Associates and past president of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery. When men come to his office, they often park down the street. "I tease that it's like coming to a VD clinic," he says.

Families play a role in how men feel about their lack of locks. Guys tell Leonard that their kids sometimes joke about the bald spots. Wives tend to say they don't care. When they accompany their husbands, they say, "I love him the way he is," says Leonard. That may be true, but for the guys, he says, "it's a self- confidence issue."

A look at the options:

Medications. Only minoxidil (a topical product sold over the counter as Rogaine, for men and women) and finasteride (a pill sold by prescription as Propecia, for men only) get the FDA's OK. Many men take both. The newest choice: Rogaine Unscented Foam ($29.99 for a month), which lacks the smell of regular Rogaine. "It was definitely a fragrance that sometimes clashed with cologne," says Leonard, 51, who uses Propecia and Rogaine Unscented Foam himself. "Each of these two FDA-approved medications both stabilize progression of male-pattern baldness, and they also re-grow to some extent," says Leonard. "As with anything, you have to have realistic expectations." Don't wait for Elvis Presley-like or Ronald Reagan-like results. It can take four months to notice less shedding and eight to 12 months to notice re-growth, says Leonard. For more information on medications, see the federal government's PubMedHealth website and the North American Hair Research Society's website.

Low-tech stuff. There's always the baseball cap. But many men (and women) buy hairpieces, including ones that bind to natural hair and get adjusted every few weeks as hair grows. Ever wonder why John Travolta's hairdos are ever changing? Leonard suspects the star may use this option, also called "non-medical hair restoration."

High-tech stuff. Some doctors are performing laser therapy "to stimulate blood flow in the scalp," says Leonard, who performs the half-hour treatment on patients twice a week for eight weeks (and then less and less often for the rest of one year). The cost: $1,750 to $3,000 for 12 months. Meanwhile, researchers are trying to figure out how to regenerate cells — tricky since they need to match the color, texture and direction of growth. They're also trying to manipulate the genes that cause hair loss. (About 2 percent of Americans suffer from the hairloss condition called alopecia areata.) If your son wants to get an idea of whether he will inherit dad's pate, he can get an early inkling through the 23andme.com gene test. For more information on what's new, see The National Hair Journal.

Transplants. Forget the old "plugs." Today doctors move grafts that contain just two or three follicles — from the "donor area" on the backs and sides of the head, where they're genetically programmed not to fall out, to the top of the head, where they are, says Leonard. Expect to spend about four to eight hours under local anesthesia, while sitting in a dentist-like chair and watching movies, he says. The cost: $5,000 to $15,000.

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