European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 21, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Hair today gone tomorrow associated Pressw Hen men watch their hair go Down the Drain in the Shower some of their self Confidence goes Wilh it says a psychologist who has studied the elects of balding on men. Many men identify hair Wilh attractiveness and. Masculinity says Thomas Cash professor of clinical psychology Ai old Dominion University in Norfolk a what really struck me is a tend to think body image Opples Only to women and hot men As it then Don l care cart said in an interview. In s simply not True men can have As unhappy a body image As women " Cash decided to study hair loss because it happens in most men Over so and about one Quarter of All men under 30 his study found men resort to a number of methods to Cope Witt baldness. The most popular is to conceal it often by combing the remaining hair Over the Baid spot. The so called Side Winder hairstyle might be conspicuous to others but for the Man whose hair is thinning it s away of. Denying other men grow a Beard or moustache because it. Draws Tho eyes Down or they May gel into belter physical shape to enhance their Overall appearance. A Parson Rray end loss looking belief Ihan redid Cash said another common method used by men with falling hair is Iho Jaehing of vitamins in the in founded belief such measures might Stop or reverse she condition. Surprisingly the least popular methods included wearing a hair piece getting a hair weave or undergoing a hair transplant. Most banding men he studied reported can Sipus Aboul their looks though a Pui their hair Oss noticed other men who were Bald or balding and. Up Cal much Lime looking in the Mirror Al their Heads or remaining hair. The stress caused by hair loss the study Faund is greater when the loss is More extensive when hair loss begins Early in me. When Iho Man is Young single and not Daling and when he believes his hair obvious to others most balding men surveyed wished Thuy had More hair Wilh a it turned Oul Good reason the study showed thai Whan it comes to first impressions compared with their hairy counterparts Bald men were perceived by both sexes to be less attractive less con Dent less successful less likeable and older by about five years the Only area men did t Diller on Al first glance was intelligence. But Cash reminds those with thinning hair Hal hair in t everything the reality is balding May make you lose a Hall Point on a 10-Pomt scale of attractiveness. But you Don t go irom being a Prince to a the 50s and the tur new York times. While any number of people anguish Over their 30lh Bir i Day and try to hide their 40lh, it is with the 50th thai most Start to see themselves As beginning to be old researchers Are finding. It is in heir sos Lor example thai most people first think of their lives in terms of How much time is left rather Ihan How much has passed. ,. This decade More than any other brings a major. Reappraisal of the direction one s life has Laken of priorities and most particularly How Best to use he years thai remain. The 5qs is a kind of fulcrum decade a turning Point in the aging process during which people More sharply than before Are made to feet their age David Karp a sociologist at Boston College wrote in the currant Issue of the gerontologist. -._. Yet despite its significance Iha sos area relative in. Unknown decade Little discussed and even less studied. There May be More taboo about looking at your life during the sos than any other decade said Daniel Levinson a psychologist Al Yale medical school. For Many there is a Siertl despair a pressing tear of becoming irrelevant in work or marriage with no real alternative in sight. And Lor others who Are Able 16 make Vita choices during their sos Here is a hard time of personal struggle Early in the r that struggle centers on questions Ike the value of a marriage or career or what changes will allow a More meaningful life said said Lavinson author of the seasons of a Man slide. In that Book published in 197b, Levinson found that the years of the mid-403 were a crucial transition Point for most people. He now believes that inner struggles occur with renewed intensity in the mid sos. To be sure researchers say there is to exact agent. Which these psychological changes occur their timing depends More on the benchmarks of work and lamely Lite Ihan chronological age. The struggle or despair Are not Universal but they Are particularly common during the 50s," Levinson said. Studies have found that men and women in their 50s react to aging differently. For ins Lance men often reaching the peaks of their careers May be looking Al How Many. Years they have left at work while women at the end of Miheli child rearing rotes Are often eager to plunge Inlo work outside the Home. Despite the Shock of aging the sos Are by no Means grim. Karp found. Along Wilh the Rise in reflective Ness people described a feeling of Wisdom thai they had nol hat before Many said they left Freer to enjoy life that hey Wera less irritated by things spent less Lime worrying and Fough Lesso Flen. for the men and women Karp studied lha 50s Are a time of liberation in their lives a Lime during which they Are Able to View their lives in a broader Way he said. The psychological crises that typify the 50s Are triggered by fhe quickened Pace of reminders about aging the new research is showing v v \. While Sorrie of the reminders Are Subtle others Are dramatic and Many come from other people. Karp believe that we Are As Young or of As other people make us eel. He tells of one Man for instance who suddenly Felt old when one of his younger teammates in a informal basketball game turned to him afterwards and said Nice game perhaps the starkest reminders come from the obituaries Page. During the sos people find that others their age die with some regularity Karp said. The result is thai people begin to personalize death to see it As something Hal can happen to them because in s happening to friends said Bernice Neugarten a menopause and mysterious moods Page 14 the stars and stripes tuesday my
