My wife has just turned 40 and she too is suffering from hair loss, and although to me it is minimal, to her, she is losing, 'a lot'.
She has longish hair about shoulder length, maybe a little longer and I have said to her many times that if she were to cut her hair short, she would encourage growth. But while she has it 'trimmed', occasionally, she won't go for the short, 'Bob' style that many western women will adopt, simply because,
a), her hair has 'always' been long
b), because she believes people will think she is a 'Tom'.
I try to encourage her to keep it short as I read somewhere, many years ago that when your hair, (Women, I am mainly referring to), is longer then the weight of their hair, hanging down is actually placing stress on the roots, not to mention the 'top knot' that many Thai women favour sometimes when working, or the swept back from the forehead fashion, also adopted by Asian women that stresses the roots as well.
Yet I know she would look really great with short hair and very cute. But, as the saying goes, "You can take a horse to water - but you can't make the horse drink it", right?
however, often repeat my advice for a short style. Maybe one day she will listen - but perhaps I am wrong - yes?