The stages at a glance
Norwood 1
Minimal recession
A relatively preserved front outline.Norwood 2
Early corner change
More visible temple recession without the deeper stage 3 pattern.Detailed guide →Norwood 3
Deeper temple recession
A more pronounced frontotemporal pattern.Detailed guide →Norwood 3V
Vertex emphasis
Visible crown involvement with a less advanced frontal pattern.Norwood 4
Front and crown areas
More pronounced recession and vertex loss separated by a band.Norwood 5
Narrower bridge
Front and crown areas are larger and the separating band is reduced.Norwood 6
Connected areas
The front and crown areas merge across the top.Norwood 7
Most extensive pattern
A narrower horseshoe of hair remains at the sides and back.What is the Norwood Scale?
James Hamilton developed an earlier pattern classification; O'Tar Norwood refined it into the commonly used seven-type system in 1975. The original publication emphasized a reproducible standard for describing male-pattern baldness. [source]
Is the scale a diagnosis?
No. A stage label summarizes visible distribution. It cannot determine why hair is changing, whether it will progress, or which treatment is appropriate. People can also show diffuse, asymmetric or mixed patterns that do not fit a single illustration.
Can hair loss skip stages?
The scale is not a timeline that every person follows step by step. It is a set of visual pattern categories. A crown-predominant pattern, diffuse thinning or a pattern outside the classic illustrations can make stage-to-stage comparisons less useful.
How Baldly uses visible patterns
Baldly may estimate which visible range a guided photo set resembles and shows confidence alongside it. The output remains an informational estimate, separate from risk context and professional evaluation.
Sources
- Male pattern baldness: classification and incidence. Southern Medical Journal, 1975.
- Hair loss: Who gets and causes. American Academy of Dermatology, 2024.