When the advertising slogan "Be Like Mike" caught America's fancy, it wasn't because every man decided to go for the Michael Jordan look by reaching for a razor and shaving his head.

Sure, men like Jordan, Charles Barkley, and "Star Trek's" Patrick Stewart are part of a small minority who are proud of their baldness. But combating and covering up hair loss hasn't turned into an estimated $1 billion-a-year industry because Americans like the idea of hair collecting in the shower drain.

"It probably represents aging," says Ken Washenik, M.D., director of dermatopharmacology at New York University Medical Center. "I think our concept of a bald person is of an older person. I think anything that reminds us in the mirror every day of the inevitability of aging is less than optimal."

When you talk about restoring hair, you're essentially looking at three different approaches. The first is to medicate, using a 2 percent solution of minoxidil found in Rogaine (and other brands since Pharmacia & Upjohn's patent expired in February 1996). Minoxidil is the only drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for regrowing hair.

That doesn't mean minoxidil is by any means the panacea that men have been searching for since at least 1150 B.C., when Egyptians covered their baldness with a mixture of fats from ibex (a mountain goat), lion, crocodile, serpent, goose, and hippopotamus.

Surgical procedures, including hair transplantation and scalp reduction, are another modern-day approach. And, finally, there's the solution that Julius Caesar, according to legend, used in ancient days--cover it up. The most powerful man in the Roman Empire is said to have turned to the ceremonial wreath of laurel leaves to hide his ever-emerging scalp. The modern alternative is the hairpiece.

Index of Information

Uncovering Baldness
Minoxidil
Surgery
Hairpieces
Health-Related Hair Loss
Mythical Treatments For Hair Loss
The Thick and Thin of Hair Cosmetics
More Information About Baldness

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