Sly Bald Guys Forum
Discussions About Being Bald => General Discussion => Topic started by: sailor61 on April 03, 2011, 10:33:32 AM
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Not quite sure what section this belongs in, and also not sure it wasn't posted at some point in the past, but here's a chart that shows the stages of MPB on the Norwood Scale. It gets referenced somewhat frequently so, for the benefit of us newbies, here's a copy of it;
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and here are the written descriptions of the seven levels;
Androgenic Alopecia (fancy name for MPB) can be categorized according to the extent of balding. There are seven levels of loss according to Norwood scale of classification:
Norwood1: Normal head of hair with no visible hair loss.
Norwood 2: The hair is receding in a wedge-shaped pattern.
Norwood 3: Same receding pattern as Norwood 2, except the hairline has receded deeper into the frontal area and the temporal area.
Norwood 4: Hairline has receded more dramatically in the frontal region and temporal area than Norwood 3 and there is the beginnings of a bald spot at the back of the head.
Norwood 5: Same pattern as Norwood 4 but much reduced hair density.
Norwood 6: The strip of hair connecting the two sides of the head that existed in Norwood 4 and 5 no longer exists in Norwood6
Norwood 7: Norwood 7 shows hair receding all the way back to the base of the head and the sides just above the ears.
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It wouldn't surprise me to find out that a firm of "hair doctors" teamed up with an ad agency to exploit (maybe invent?) this chart. The best way to instill panic over something of very little importance is to provide an obscure document which reports yet another "medical" syndrome and leave it out there for the public to find. Once the document is "unearthed" the panic starts to spread. End result people with thinning hair are soon to have thinning wallets as well. Winners: Hair Doctors and Advertisers!
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My curiosity got to me about who and when with the Norwood scale. It was developed in the 50's by a dermatologist named Norwood.
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I think the Norwood categories are very rough estimations at best. They show the patterns of recession but they don't really take into account the thinning that occurs. I know I was at about stage 3 at one point, but then the recession sort of stopped and I thinned out all over and seemed to skip over stages 4 and 5 and went straight to 6. :D Then again, it's more difficult to track after the head is shaved.
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The Norwood-Hamilton scale can be useful to help a guy who's dealing with the onset of mpb to see what his own degree of balding is in comparison to the general mpb condition--it's a general view but can be helpful IMO.
But Razor's absolutely on point about shaving making the progress hard to track--and for me, at least, that's a benefit--balding is the sh_ts, being bald is no problem at all, and I enjoy it. Letting it grow out for only a week can start to bring all the angst of balding back for me--and so, except for twice in nearly four years, it's a daily hide the issue in plain sight by shaving.
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I have had a hard time determining where I am on the Norwood Scale myself. When I had my surgery in December, I grew my hair out for two weeks. But my crown has very little hair on it. But the rest of the top is pretty thin but not slick bald. I am kind of thinking I am a Norwood 4-5. But could I be a "fuzzy" Norwood 6? Here is my pic along with the Norwood Scale. So where you guys say that I am?
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I was going to say 5 or 6, but it's hard to say because we can't see how much hair you have up front in that photo.
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I would say you're between a 5-6. The scale is only a gauge and most men don't fit in at exactly one number.
The buzz doesn't look bad marsh.
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Here is a frontal pic of my head taken with 2 weeks growth of hair. It was taken at the same time as the side view. As you can see, there is a reason I went back to being sly. So Razor, where do you think I am on the Norwood?
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Still looks like a 5 or 6.
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Thanks Razor! As I said before, when you shave your head it is difficult to determine at times where you are on the Norwood Scale. When I shave, the only smooth areas are the front and the crown. But taking a greater look at the Norwood, I can see that they take into account those of us who are not slick bald. At least to a small extent. It looks like you can be a Norwood 5 or 6 and not have those areas totally smooth. While I would be totally fine being a slick Norwood 7 and have less areas to shave, I was still surprised as to the amount of hair that I had lost. But about a year earlier one of my friends said to me, even though I had no stubble, "I can see why you shave your head, looks like it's getting pretty thin." And when I had grown my hair out after surgery, I said this to one of my sly friends, "Well now you can see me with some hair for the first time". His reply was, "There not much up there!" That should have been a hint! So I am out of denial and happily a Norwood 5-6 and sly for life!
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I don't know if anybody ever gets completely smooth on top. My crown still feels smooth at the end of the day when everything else is getting sandpapery, but if I let it go for a day or two, I do start noticing a very slight amount of growth. A lot of bald guys seem to have some resistant stray hairs, and as far as the ones who don't are concerned, I'm not sure if that's natural or if they get their barbers to mow them down. It would be nice to have less surface area that needs shaving in the morning, but I'm not sure that will ever happen.
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I can tell you that one of my best friends....27...who is almost through the Norwood 7 balding process, bare clipper blades his entire top and then just uses a 2 on the sides/back. He didn't start doing that to the top until about a year ago as thats when the entire top started to look like a plucked chicken. I have to say it does look a lot neater than with the random "wisps" He hates being bald, but for him I think it was like a sense of finality in dealing with the whole situation. I keep trying to get him to the shave the ring around the sides and back, but still a no go lol
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iam at a norwood 4, when i had my last barbershop head shave, i was told that iam at the 4th stage