While most boys going to the prom take it in stride -- they rent a tux, polish some shoes, grab a couple flowers on the way to their date's house -- girls tend to take things much, much more seriously.

While most proms aren't held until late April or early May, girls can start shopping for a dress even before they have a date.

Helen Freed's owner Gregory Balakoff said girls sometimes come in to the store in Sharon as early as October to put their prom gowns on layaway.

"They'll come in for a homecoming dress and see one they want for prom," he said. "We started with more than 500 dresses after Christmas," he added.

But there are always a few who wait until the last minute.

"Every year, we get one or two girls who come in the night before prom and need a dress," he said. "It has to fit perfectly, because at that point there is no time to alter it."

Most girls, however, want to have their dresses firmly in position by late March.

Larene Amos, a senior at Sharon High, tried on several dresses at The Winner one afternoon in early March. She started out with a picture of the perfect dress, one she clipped out of a magazine.

The store in Sharon, which carried dresses by the designer, didn't have that particular dress.

Somewhat crestfallen, Larene started out from square one, and over the next couple hours tried on a plethora of dresses running the entire length of the color spectrum.

She started with a slinky gold number, covered with sequins, but it didn't fit quite right. Next came a spicy purple dress inspired by a Latino salsa dancer's couture.

That still wasn't quite right.

Moving on to another floor, Larene tried on blues and pinks and finished with a shimmering white A-Line gown, decorated with red, white and blue beading in an American flag pattern.

"This might be it," she said. "It makes a statement, and I think that's important right now."

She ended up buying the white satin, mostly for the statement, and also for the color.

Prom dress shopping sometimes can turn into a group activity.

Lauren Sauer of Lakeview High School took her mother for a Saturday morning full of prom dresses at The Winner. Concentrating on blues, Lauren decided she didn't want anything that looked like last year's dress.

All hues of blues, from deep sapphire to a shining turquoise, got a chance. She waited for almost an hour, arms stacked with gowns, as dozens of other girls waited their turns in front of the mirrors.

In the crowded dressing room, mothers, daughters, friends and perfect strangers passed judgment on the fancy frocks and murmured compliments when due.

One girl tried on a lacy white gown, beaded and frilled and sparkling.

"You look like a bride," her mother said. "Get back in there and take it off."

Lauren tried on dress after dress, debating the fine points of each gown before taking it off. This one with the beads didn't fit right about the hips, the embroidery on that one made the stomach area lay funny, this color wasn't quite right.

After about 2è hours of patient trying on and trying out poses in front of a mirror, she finally narrowed her favorites to three, all of them blue.

She ended up buying a light turquoise dress from a shop in Butler.

"The material is light and flowing," she said. "It just made me feel pretty."

Every year at prom time, said Helen Freed's manager Clara Lambrose, girls start coming in and trying on dresses that will impress everyone who sees them.

"On a busy night, the girls try on the dresses, come out and model on the mirror at the top of the stairs," she said. "Everyone oohs and aahs when they see a girl that looks good."

After the perfect dress is found, it still has to be tailored to fit just right -- it has to be pulled in, hemmed, trimmed and above all, it has to stay up.

"I've got my dress, my shoes, my date," said Gina LoScalzo, a senior at Hickory High School in Hermitage. "After that, I don't know."

Gina was fitted for her dress at the end of February. She walked into Toula's Bridal in Canfield, Ohio, where she had bought her gowns for school dances for two years and found the perfect dress right away.

Gina held up yards of material that made up the white tulle ball gown with its satin beaded top, as Toula Kostoglou pinned hems. Ms. Kostoglou has owned her shop for 15 years.

"We were selling prom dresses January 1 this year," Ms. Kostoglou said. "It started really early."

This year, ball gowns with full skirts are definitely in, but so are tight, slinky numbers, Ms. Kostoglou said.

"I went to Spain this year to buy dresses, to make sure I had dresses no one else had," Ms. Kostoglou said.

A bright spot of white in a sea of bright blues, reds, purples, sparkling fabrics and frilly skirts, Gina stood in front of three mirrors, turning this way and that as the hem was taken up and the top taken in. All around her, rack after rack of party dresses hung limply, waiting for other girls to come in and find the perfect one.