I am looking for the author/name of a novel, published in the fifties/sixties,
about a bald-headed, well-to-do, attractive woman, who lives, I
believe, in New York. After many disappointments, she finds a man who
shares her appreciation of Picasso's bald women, and for whom as they
move to be lovers, she removes her wig.  He says, You don't have to do
that [i.e., shave your head] for me, and then recoils when he realizes
that she is congenitally bald and leaves her.  She then cuts her
bald-woman Picasso from its frame, rolls it up, and goes to live under
a bridge.  As I recall, this was one of two novellas in the same book.

Hello.

I have determined that the story that you're seeking is, in fact,
Hortense Calisher's novella, "The Railway Police" (1966).

See this description that appeared in "The Nation" magazine in 1997:
 
"'The Railway Police' (1966). This is the dazzling story, told in her
own wry first-person voice, of a social worker's frustrated
progression through a series of admiring men attracted by the colorful
wigs she wears, then repelled by the fact of her baldness (from a
hereditary disease). One day, upon seeing an obviously homeless man
ejected from a train, she throws away her piles of fake hair, gives
all her money to her indigent clients and goes forth to sleep in the
streets, embracing the anonymity of those who have been discarded, as
she now discards herself ('I wasn't out to be a heroine.... I just
wanted to be ordinary')."

The Nation,  December 1, 1997,  No. 18, Vol. 265; Pg. 34; ISSN:
0027-8378,  1914 words,  The Novellas of Hortense Calisher; book
reviews,  Allen, Bruce
Available on Lexis-Nexis by credit card (search "hortense calisher";
additional term: railway)
http://web.lexis.com/xchange/Forms/uas/retrieveform.asp?_ref=generalnews&_sect=lncc

Thus, "The Railway Police" has all of the elements that you describe:
an attractive  woman, a series of romantic failures, a man repelled by
the fact that her baldness is congenital, and the woman finally
discarding her lifestyle and living as a homeless person. 
Additionally, the fact that story was one of two novellas in the same
book, published in the '60s assures that is the exact story that you
are seeking.

The story is available in the book "The Novellas of Hortense
Calisher," available from Barnesandnoble.com:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0679602496

For a more vintage copy try Alibris:
http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=5530115&ptit=The%20railway%20police%2C%20%3A%20and%20The%20last%20trolley%20ride&pauth=Calisher%2C%20Hortense&pisbn=&pbest=4%2E95&pbestnew=1000000%2E00&pqty=36&pqtynew=0&matches=36&qsort=r

search strategy: "bald headed woman", novella

I hope this helps.

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 16 Dec 2002 14:51 PST

Thank you very much for the tip.

I received two answers to my question--the  first not quite complete,
but with enough detail that it correctly identified the book.  The
second was complete and full of detail, and confirmed the first.  I
thank both Researchers, and am delighted to find this service

I'm pretty certain this is *not* the book you are looking for, but
there was a 1966 book by Hortense Calisher that contained two
novellas, one of which was called "Railway Police" was about "a
bald-headed woman who walks out on her job, throws away her wig, and
becomes a hobo."

Excellent, quick service!  Many thanks.

Another Researcher replied, with more detail about the book, which
confirmed your answer.

Overture, good to hear that you got the right answer!  Sounds like an
interesting story.  I guess I feel stupid now for doubting myself.  Oh
well....