Many Won’t Take a Shine to New Drug

You can entice them with all manner of pills, potions and promises, but many a chrome dome out there is proud of his pate.

Consider the passionate response of John Capps III, founder of Bald Headed Men of America, when he heard that a government advisory panel Monday had recommended approval of the first drug shown to make hair grow on bald men.

“So what?” said Capps, a 46-year-old printer who heads the 18,000-head club from his home in Morehead City, N.C. The group boasts members from all 50 states--the Northeast is baldest--and 28 countries. The first and only member from Samoa just signed up.

“We believe that skin is in,” Capps explained in a telephone interview. “If you don’t have it, flaunt it.”

Inspired by a Save the Whales pamphlet he got in the mail, Capps founded BHMA in 1973 to “instill a sense of pride and dignity in being bald-headed”--and to have fun.

Capps’ list of famous skinheads includes George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower. His list of bald facts includes statistics showing that about 30% of men show some hair loss by age 30; 50% of men over 50 are losing it.