Norwood Hamilton Scale

The doctors, medical teams, and trichologists working on hair loss treatment classify the male pattern baldness with a particular code. This code is determined by the Hamilton Norwood Scale. In the 1950s, Dr. James Hamilton introduced the scale, and later in the 1970s, it was updated by Dr. O’Tar Norwood. Dr. O’tar Norwood has modified the stages and added new classifications.

The Hamilton Norwood Hair Loss Scale is a tool to assess how severe a man’s hair loss, in other words; the level of baldness.

Men lose hair in different patterns. Some may lose hair only from temples, some may suffer from hair loss at the back of the head called the vertex, or some may have a receding hairline and at the same time hair loss at the back.

To have an idea about the Norwood Hamilton Scale, you can easily spot your hair loss type on the scale by examining the pictures and explanations below.

Stage 1 is for the least amount of hair loss in the hairline. Hence, there is no need for treatment. However, if you already have genetic hair loss in your family, please follow your case and decide the appropriate time for the treatment with an expert.

This stage is for hair loss at the front temporal sides, the shape is like triangular at both parts. A small amount of hair loss also appears in the middle of the front head. At this stage, it is better to understand the reasons for this type of hair loss; whether it is male pattern baldness or there is any other underlying reason for hair loss.

After stage 3, we can start to talk about baldness although it is scaled as a “small to moderate” degree of hair loss. Baldness in the temples is now clearly visible with a symmetrical recession and it may be disturbing. A small amount of hair loss in the crown area may also occur in this stage.

Moderate level of hair loss in front temporal sides, receding hair, and a small open area can be seen in the crown part, also known as the vertex area. Starting from the hairline to the crown, in the middle of the scalp, there are natural hairs with moderate density.

A “moderate to large” amount of hair loss is visible in Stage 5. Hair loss at the back (vertex area) and in the front temporal parts are still connected with natural hair. However, the balding at temporal and vertex regions are larger than before.

Now we can talk about a large balding area and a considerable amount of hair loss. Starting from the hairline to the crown area, the balding area has only very thin natural hair. Also, hair loss on the sides is increased.

This is the highest point of baldness. The hair is almost only present at the back of the head from one side to another. Since the bald area is very large, hair transplantation will only cover a certain part, not all of it. So, this kind of baldness may require more than one session of hair transplantation.