It seemed like he went bald fairly quickly.

https://www.closerweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ron-howard.jpg

He said he noticed his hair was coming out a lot during showers, and knew he had to accept being bald sooner than expected.

I don't think so

The pic doesn't look like a toupee

Evidently, male pattern baldness runs early in life in the Howard family, what with Ron, father Rance and brother Clint all experiencing hair loss as younger men. And Ron probably started to lose his hair in his early twenties.

Ron seems to have taken his hair loss in stride, since he never wore a toupee unlike so many other actors (who shall remain nameless) did when they started losing their sweeps.

I think the late, great comedian Rip Taylor displayed the right attitude, when he would ask an audience, “Is it on right?” before pulling off his all-too-obvious rug to great amusement and laughter by the audience. Can you imagine Captain James T. Kirk or that “wild-and-crazy-guy” from SNL doing that on camera?

No he wasn't wearing a hair piece.

Some men just go bald early in life and sometimes it happens rapidly. Prince William is 40 and he’s been bald (like Ron Howard on the right photo) for a few years. But look at photos of Prince William at age 30 and he has a full head of hair.

Ron Howard wouldn’t have worn a toupee in Happy Days (including his return in 1984). He just lost his hair quickly.

His appearance on SNL from 1982 is on Youtube. And he still has quite a bit of hair then. It's not a toupee either.