If you're already losing your hair and that bugs you, the sooner you start treatment the better. "It's easier to stop losing hair, than to replace hair that's gone," says Dr. Richard Strick, a dermatologist and UCLA clinical professor of dermatology.Before a hair follicle shuts down, it first gets smaller and produces finer hair. So when you first notice that the hair on the top of your head or at your temples is finer than the neighboring hair, see a doctor. "Once the follicle has shut down it's difficult, sometimes impossible, to re-stimulate," Strick says.
There's always another option: accepting your baldness. If you go that route, avoid long, compensatory ponytails or bushy beards. They don't make you look more virile. And don't drape long strands over your bald spot: There's no woman on Earth it will fool. "Be nice to us, have a good sense of humor, buy us a piece of jewelry now and then, and we'll embrace your baldness," says dermatologist Dr. Mary Lupo, medical director for the Lupo Center for Aesthetic & General Dermatology in New Orleans. "But whatever you do, don't comb over."