HOLD THAT HAIRLINE!; IT'S RALLYING CRY FOR MAJORITY OF MEN WHO DON'T LIKE GOING BALD.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

Steven Belgard's hairpiece drove him to extreme lengths. He stopped going out on windy days. He never drove with the window down. He never, ever dove headfirst into a pool.

``I wanted to look like Ted Danson,'' said Belgard, 42, a publicist from West Hills. ``But I didn't. It was plastered on like Bob's Big Boy.''

So he tossed his toupee and went boldly bald.

There's been a spate of shiny pates spotted on basketball courts and TV shows recently. Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley go hairless. Anthony Edwards, Dennis Franz, Kelsey Grammer and Jason Alexander are doing quite well, thank you very much, even with their thinning thatches.

``We believe that skin is in,'' said Jane Capps, whose husband, John, is the founder of Bald Headed Men of America, based in Morehead City (get it?), N.C.

A bald head, it seems, has never been more accepted - desirable, even.

Or is it?

Billion-dollar battle

Millions of men - and some women - spend an estimated $1.5 billion on lotions, potions, drugs, hairpieces and surgical procedures to halt or reverse the balding process, according to the American Hair Loss Council, a nonprofit organization of hair industry professionals.

Ads in the back of men's magazines and late night infomercials hawk hair-in-a-can, hai- rejuvenating shampoos made with components of blood-pressure medicine, even a clone of a sperm enzyme.

Some men are even willing to go under the knife - a six-bladed knife, actually - to have hair transplanted.

``Men for eons have been annoyed with baldness,'' said Dr. Marvin Rapaport, a clinical professor of dermatology at University of California, Los Angeles. ``Men simply don't like being bald. Even though it might imply virility, it implies aging.''

And the bald truth is, there's no signs of the battle slowing. The past few months have yielded an explosion of hair loss breakthroughs.

Researchers at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons reported in the Jan. 30 issue of Science that they had identified the first gene associated with hair loss.

The discovery of the gene, linked to a rare form of hair loss that causes complete baldness, may lead to treatments for the more common male form.

That announcement came on the heels of the Food and Drug Administration's approval in January of the first pill to fight male-pattern baldness.

One of the more novel claims was announced last week by Dr. William Regelson, a professor of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

He blames an eight-legged, microscopic parasite present on all adult heads - but more prevalent on bald heads - claiming that it burrows into the hair follicle, eats the oils inside, causes clogging and inflammation, and, ultimately hair loss.

``They are horrible looking,'' Regelson said. ``They give birth to their young alive. They have a big, long tail.''

Most common variety

More than 30 million American men have androgenetic alopecia, better-known as male-pattern baldness, a condition caused by genetics and hormones in the scalp.

The hair usually beats a retreat beginning at the temples, or the crown, or in both places.

About 20 percent of these men start losing hair by age 25, according to statistics from the American Hair Loss Council.

By their 30s, the figure is 30 percent. The figure increases 10 percent with each subsequent decade.

For many men, their angst grows with their foreheads. So here's a rundown of the many weapons in men's continuing battle against failing follicles, and the lengths they'll go to in the quest to restore lushness to their locks:

The hairpiece: Don't even mention the name Marv Albert in Ralph Sampson's North Hollywood shop, Silhouette, where he employs two woman who make custom hairpieces and wigs from human and synthetic hair. Albert's problem was a poorly styled piece.

And don't even mention those high-tech transplants, or pharmaceutical follies.

``None of that stuff ever works,'' says Sampson, who's been in business since 1967. ``A wig is the simplest and cheapest way. Anyway, if you don't like it, you can just throw it away.''

His stock toupees, with names such as ``Showbiz'' (slightly thinning, dark brown and wavy) and ``Phoenix'' (thicker and a rich sable brown, slightly wavy with a cowlick), run from $20 to $400. Custom jobs can run upwards of $1,500.

Hairpieces can be attached with double-sided tape, glue, comb clips or even woven into existing hair. A stylist, located discreetly in a back room, is on hand to show first-timers how to apply the hairpiece.

Synthethic hair, which is less expensive than real hair, holds its color and shape better in the elements.

None of Sampson's customers were willing to be interviewed. Sampson, who wears a silverly gray hairpiece, thinks their shyness is a bit silly.

``It's nonsense that people make fun of wigs,'' he said. ``It's like making fun of a hearing aid or glasses or false teeth.''

The pill: When Mike Schwartz was in his 20s, his friends made fun of his receding hairline.

Now, at 42, ``I'm passing my friends,'' said the salesman from Westwood. ``They're losing their hair and I'm growing mine.''

Schwartz has been taking on Propecia, the new drug manufactured by Merck & Co., for two years as part of a clinical study.

The drug has been shown to grow hair on bald spots on the top of men's heads and prevent receding hairlines.

In ongoing studies of more than 1,800 men with mild to moderate baldness, those taking Propecia reported more positive self-assessments of hair growth on the back of their head, the top of the head and on the midscalp area after two years, compared with men taking a placebo pill.

Additionally, 83 percent of the men taking Propecia had the same or higher hair counts after two years, compared with 72 percent who lost hair while taking a placebo.

``It gives me that much more added confidence,'' Schwartz said. ``I can get out of the pool and not look like an old man.''

The downside: To maintain the benefit, men must continue to take the medication. Available by prescription, the drug is expected to cost $45 month.

A smaller number of men - about 2 percent - reported decreased sexual desire and difficulty achieveing erection.

Its active ingredient, finasteride, is used in larger doses under the name Proscar to treat enlarged prostate glands in men. The drug is for men only, because it is known to cause birth defects and, therefore, has never been tested in woman as an aid to hair growth.

The transplant: Don Gumm, 61, of Torrance had a thick head of reddish-blond hair until he hit 35. Like a cruel joke, Gumm spent his days running his fingers through others' luxurious locks on the job as a barber.

``I was completely bald on top,'' Gumm said. ``And I plain did not like it.''

To disguise his own baldness, he grew the hair on one side of his head extra-long and tried the (don't laugh) ``comb-over.'' He used gels and sprays, blow-drying his hair to give what was left some lift.

Finally, he went to the Hair and Image Restoration Center, which has offices in Tarzana, Camarillo and Redondo Beach, for a transplant.

``The first time I went in there and got the transplant, I was uplifted,'' Gumm said. ``I knew I was going to have hair again.''

The procedure involves slicing strips of skin from near the nape of the neck and then moving them to the bald area, one to five hairs at a time.

Dr. George Cohen, a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon who runs the image restoration center, said the procedure, called ``micrografting'' or ``minigrafting'' is much improved from the early days of transplants, when larger chunks of scalp were moved, giving a cornrow appearance.

Cohen charges $3.50 a graft. A man with significant hair loss requires 2,400 to 6,000 graphs done in two to four sittings.

After a period of dormancy, the scars heal and the hair begins to regrow in three to five months.

Acceptance: When Steven Belgard tore off his toupee, he celebrated his new-found freedom by buying a covertible.

``It was like I was a prisoner to my hair. When people would look at me, I'd think: `Are they looking at my hair? Do they see something?' It's like paranoia.''

``After I shaved my head, I discovered my head was shaped really nicely.''

Dave Beswick fully supports Belgard's decision. Beswick was a teen-ager when the first strands started appearing in the shower drain, in the sink and on his pillow.

``I was horror struck,'' said Beswick, author of ``Bald Men Always Come Out on Top: 101 Ways to Use Your Head and Win With Skin.''

Beswick eventually embraced baldness, and the 30,000 members of the bald-headed men's group welcomed him with open arms.

Now, he advocates a new vocabulary to describe a state of hairlessness in a more positive way.

Instead of chrome dome, try aerodynamic brow.

Instead of follically challenged, try follically natural.

``The only totally free and painless way to deal with baldness is acceptance,'' Beswick said. ``Accept your head. And make the most of it.''

After all, he says, bald men never have a bad hair day.

CAPTION(S):

Drawing, 2 Photos

Drawing: (Cover--Color) The Bald and the Beautiful

A pill, a gene and new hope for the hairless

Photo: (1) Wearing a hairpiece made Steve Belgard, 42, feel like a prisoner and cramped his lifestyle, so three years ago he threw it away and shaved his head.

(2) A driver's license photograph shows Belgar with toupee.