View source for Norwood scale

{{Infobox term
| image        = Partial Norwood scale for male pattern baldness.png
| caption      = Partial Hamilton–Norwood scale (Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
| name = Norwood scale
| also = Hamilton–Norwood, NW
| field = Medicine
}}
The '''Norwood scale''' (Hamilton–Norwood) grades male-pattern baldness from I (full or nearly full) to VII (horseshoe fringe).<ref name="wp">{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looksmaxxing |title=Looksmaxxing |website=Wikipedia |access-date=11 September 2026}}</ref> It is actual medicine, unlike PSL. Looksmaxxing uses '''NW''' as a panic number. Practical stack: [[minoxidil]] / [[finasteride]] with a doctor, a [[haircut]] that fits the line, then a [[hair transplant]] consult if the line is going.

The Commons diagram on this page is a '''partial''' scale (the two common patterns: receding hairline vs vertex). The clinical scale still runs through VII.

== Grades (clinical, condensed) ==
* '''I''' — little or no recession
* '''II''' — triangular temple recession
* '''III''' — deep frontotemporal recession, first “baldness” grade in Norwood’s original paper
* '''III vertex''' — crown loss with limited temple recession
* '''IV–V''' — temples and vertex both gone, a thinning band still between them
* '''VI''' — the band is gone; front and crown meet
* '''VII''' — horseshoe of residual hair

Looksmaxxing “NW0 / juvenile hairline” is slang, not a Norwood grade. A high stable line is a big [[forehead]], not baldness.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Partial Norwood scale for male pattern baldness.png|Partial Norwood (CC0)
Alopecia scales.jpg|Male and female alopecia grades (PD)
Male pattern baldness.jpg|Temple + vertex recession, clinical photograph (CC BY-SA)
Hair follicle-en.svg|Hair follicle (PD)
</gallery>
Images from Wikimedia Commons via InstantCommons.

== See also ==
* [[Hairline]]
* [[Hair density]]
* [[Hair transplant]]
* [[Finasteride]]
* [[Minoxidil]]
* [[Looksmaxxing]]


== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Hair]]
[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Glossary]]