David Borenstein '05 is rarely seen without his distinct, golf-style cap. He said he started wearing it for religious reasons, but it also covers his thinning head of hair."If I don't wear a hat, it's very difficult to comb my hair in a way that looks decent," he said. "It's either a combover or a failed combover."

Borenstein is not alone in dealing with premature baldness. According to Dr. Robert Leonard, founder and chief surgeon of Leonard Hair Transplant Associates, one out of every two men and one out of every four women experience hair loss. This statistic is the average among all ages, but Leonard said he treats many college-age patients.

"A lot of people in college [come to me]," Leonard said. "It's very common in the late teens, early 20s."

Leonard pointed out that balding is a genetic condition and therefore more insightful youths might catch an early vision of what's to come.

"I think I realized I was going to be bald around the age of 10 when I looked at my grandparents and my dad and I was just like 'Oh man,'" Sam Greenblatt '06 said.

Greenblatt said he started to lose his hair when he was 14, but his father had been completely bald by the end of high school, so this initial loss was not unexpected.

"I knew it was coming," he said. "It wasn't some huge trauma."

Borenstein, who began to go bald when he was 15 or 16, also looked to his relatives to figure out when he should expect hair loss.

"It's passed down through the mother and my [maternal] grandfather is bald, so I was doomed," he said.

For Borenstein, realizing that he was losing his hair and noticing it becoming thin occurred at two different ages. According to him, he had thick, curly hair until 14 or 15 years of age, at which point he began balding. He said he did not recognize this until a year later, and he alone could tell his senior year, but come sophomore year in college, it was obvious to everyone.

"[There was] definitely some joking about it," he said. "It hasn't affected my social life, except for being the butt of jokes, but I have met wonderful girls. It has not been an impediment."

According to Josh Gondelman '07, who noticed last year that he has been balding, the hair loss has not hindered his social life either. Gondelman does stand-up comedy outside of Brandeis and improv on campus. He said he incorporates his premature hair loss into his routines.

"My friends and I joke about it," Gondelman said. "Sometimes my best humor comes from it."

All three students, Gondelman, Greenblatt and Borenstein talked about personally joking about their baldness and enduring others' jokes as well. Leonard insists that balding, pre-mature or otherwise, is a very embarrassing condition and humor is a coping mechanism for those who employ it.

"It's out of the norm [for balding people to be comfortable with their baldness]. Humor is a defense mechanism," Leonard said. "Balding bothers young men an awful lot. It's horrible for a guy to lose his hair and 100 times worse for women to lose their hair. It is unusual for them to think of it as a joke especially with the images in this world; [they are] very self-conscious."

Borenstein consistently wears a hat, while Gondelman and Greenblatt said they only wear one occasionally and because they like to don a cap, not because of their balding patterns. Leonard said that hat-wearing is a sign of a deeper problem.

"If they're wearing a baseball cap morning, noon and night-and baldness is not caused by the hat-it's a crutch," Leonard said. "When you go to a nice restaurant or church or synagogue and can't wear a hat, that's the beginning of a psychological problem."

Leonard said he does support treatment of some sort because hair loss is a progressive condition, which is why he believes it is important to diagnose, evaluate and treat early.

"I do advocate treatment of some kind. If you do nothing, you will have less hair next year than this year," Leonard said. "But there are both ends of the spectrum: People come in who have lost three hairs and want surgery."

Currently on the market for treating hair loss are Rogaine, Propecia, Luce and hair transplant surgery. Rogaine and Propecia must be taken consistently for as long as one wants to stave off baldness, but Luce and hair transplants remain effective after treatment has ended.

Although Leonard said some college students choose hair transplant surgery, he said he dissuades them from surgery until they get older. According to him, the most popular form of treatment for college students is Propecia because it's easy; it is just one pill a day.

Greenblatt currently takes Propecia and plans to continue through college or maybe a year or two beyond.

"I figured I'd hold on to what little bit I have left for a couple more years," he said.

Yet, he insists that he is very comfortable with the fact that he is balding and that he is not sensitive about the issue at all.

Neither Gondelman not Borenstein use Rogaine or Propecia. Gondelman said he is not planning to start because he has accepted his situation.

"It's my present. It's going to be worse in the future," Gondelman said. "It doesn't cause me anxiety because I've accepted it. I feel like if I tried any preventative measure, it would get me worked up."

Borenstein's doctor suggested Propecia, but he has decided against the medicine.

"My doctor gave me a prescription for Propecia," Borenstein said. "I walked in for a physical and he said, 'Boy, you're going bald, you better start wearing a hat or taking Propecia.' The only thing is, if you want to start having kids and your wife touches the pills, your children can have birth defects. It's not worth it to me."

Despite Leonard's and other doctors' recommendations, Borenstein, Greenblatt and Gondelman all said they are fine with their balding. One anonymous Brandeis sophomore, however, who shows no visible signs of balding, finds the idea of hair loss personally scary and visually repulsive on others.

"I dreamt I woke up and went to brush my teeth and I looked in the mirror," he said. "I get really grossed out when I see guys that have really high hair lines and comb forward their hair-it's gross. I dreamed mine was like that, this combed forward bang-job. I woke up in cold sweats. That was last semester."

This sophomore said that balding runs in his mother's side of the family and that only he is aware that he is losing his hair, although his mother has been wanting him to take action against the supposed hair loss.

"[My mother's] been wanting me to use Rogaine for two years now because she thinks I'm losing my hair-probably because she doesn't want me to end up looking like her father or brother," he said. "I don't want to take it because I'm not sure I need it and also that's admitting to yourself it's a problem and that's scary.

"Considering my family history, no, I don't think my fear is irrational," he said. "It's something no one wants to talk about; it's the next worst thing to not being able to get it up."

For those on campus who show visible signs of balding, their philosophical agendas differ greatly. From joking to saying it's just not something they notice that much, Greenblatt, Gondelman and Borenstein seem to have come to terms with their lack of hair.

"Being a bald man is not bad," Borenstein said.