The message?  No hair, no action.

For many men going bald signals a loss of youth and sex appeal.  They feel that they look older than they are and that young, attractive women won't be interested.

As one guy, Tom, put it, "It's like a big sign on top of your head that says, 'I'm going to need Viagra."

Dr. Robert Leonard, a top hair restoration surgeon says, "Society views hair loss as a liability, and given a choice, will pick the person with better hair. This occurs in the workplace, in dating and in politics."

And a study in Psychology Today found what any guy who's watched clumps of his virility collecting in the shower drain already knows: men are terrified of losing their hair.

"Men with full heads of hair were a narrow majority (53 per cent). Ironically, they were the most worried about hair loss: 38 per cent indicated they would be "very upset" if they discovered they were rapidly losing hair. But anticipation may be worse than reality, since only 23 per cent of men with thinning hair answered 'very upset' on the same item."

But men seem to be worrying for nothing.  According to Gersh Kuntzman, author of Hair! Mankind's Historic Quest to End Baldness, 70 per cent of women found bald men attractive. Kuntzman says, "Only 30 per cent of women who responded to the poll thought of bald men as old or unattractive, while a whopping 69 per cent of male respondents described bald men with the same unflattering terms.

Only 30 per cent of women thought that a man becomes less attractive as he loses his hair, while 60 per cent of men thought so. Two-thirds of women said that a bald man and a man with hair are equally attractive, while only 36 per cent of men felt the same way. Men are much more inclined to think of bald men -- and therefore themselves -- as less sexy."

According to one woman, Becky, "It is not the lack of hair we find attractive, it is the attitude. Have you ever noticed the attitude of bald men? Most are confident and sure of themselves. That is what is sexy."

Another woman, Kristy, says, "It's not necessarily an automatic turnoff."

According to the article in Psychology Today, "Apparently balding is easier to watch than experience, as women were relatively unconcerned about male hair loss. Of those whose partner had a full head of hair, only 13 per cent would be "very upset" and 24 per cent "somewhat upset" at the prospect of his hair thinning. A mere 18 per cent of women whose partners had already lost some hair acknowledged being very or somewhat upset."

And many women do find bald men sexy.  In fact, every week, dozens of women nominate their favorite Bald Guy of the Week at www.baldguyz.com

For those who are concerned, however, what causes baldness, and can anything be done about it?

Baldness is caused by testosterone. Kuntzman says, "Testosterone gets broken down and if you are genetically predisposed toward baldness, that byproduct of testosterone, DHT, chokes your follicles." 

And while products like Propecia and Rogaine can sometimes help, they must be used on an ongoing basis, or all the re-grown hair falls out.  The only permanent cure for baldness? Castration.

Kuntzman says, "They figured that out by studying castrated men in prisons in the 1940s. That was the typical punishment if you were a sex criminal. This doctor, who was studying genetics, was in a prison cell studying this guy. His identical twin brother comes in and he's bald. The guy in the cell who has no testicles is not bald. The doctor realizes they have the same genes, but the difference is that one guy is producing testosterone and the other wasn't."