Norwood scale

Norwood scale

Partial Hamilton–Norwood scale (Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
Field	Medicine
Also known as	Hamilton–Norwood, NW

The Norwood scale (Hamilton–Norwood) grades male-pattern baldness from I (full or nearly full) to VII (horseshoe fringe). 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

• 
  Partial Norwood (CC0)
• 
  Male and female alopecia grades (PD)
• 
  Temple + vertex recession, clinical photograph (CC BY-SA)
• 
  Hair follicle (PD)

Images from Wikimedia Commons via InstantCommons.

See also

• Hairline
• Hair density
• Hair transplant
• Finasteride
• Minoxidil
• Looksmaxxing