Male pattern baldness is a progressive hair loss condition that, if left untreated, can advance to complete frontal balding and near total loss of hair at the crown. This is Norwood stage 6 hair loss, and it’s the second most advanced stage of hair loss on the Norwood Scale.
If you’re concerned about hair loss, you should start looking into treatments before your hair loss gets this far. If you’re just embarking on your hair restoration journey, you may still have some options.
In this article, you’ll discover:
Norwood 6 hairlines are extremely thin. Almost all the hair is gone from around the temples and mid-scalp. Crown hair loss is advanced, but there may still be some remaining hair around the sides of the scalp vertex.
Prince William and actor Ed Harris have both reached stage 6 on the Norwood Scale:
People who are at stage 6 on the Norwood scale may already appear almost completely bald. So it’s disheartening to learn there’s actually a further stage of hair loss: Norwood 7.
At stage 6, while your baldness is substantial and near-complete, you may still have some coverage around the crown, and some thin hair through the mid-scalp. At stage 7, this has completely disappeared, leaving you with just the hair remaining around the back and sides of the head.
Finasteride can help stimulate some regrowth even if your hair loss is severe. One study found that Finasteride is better at treating severe male androgenetic alopecia (male pattern hair loss) than Minoxidil, though it’s not as effective as Dutasteride [1].
Minoxidil is most effective in the early stages of hair loss, so it’s less likely to have a substantial impact on regrowth at Norwood stage 6 [1]. This is especially true when compared with Dutasteride and Finasteride.
When your hair loss progresses to Norwood 5 or later, you’ll almost certainly need a hair transplant to restore your hair to a reasonable level of thickness. At this point, hair transplantation can only achieve so much. Therefore, it’s recommended that you temper your expectations if you have severe hair loss.
That said, many hair transplant patients see huge increases in hair density even if they’re almost completely bald. So if you’re unhappy with your hair, it’s worth talking to a hair transplant specialist to see how many grafts you’ll need, and whether this is an appropriate treatment for you.
Men at stage 6 on the Norwood scale will need a substantial number of hair grafts:
So you could be looking at a 4,000 graft hair transplant or more at this stage of hair loss.
The exact number of hair grafts you need is calculated based on the amount of hair loss in each of the six scalp zones:
At stage 6, the hair has typically disappeared from all zones except zone 5, where there’s still some lingering coverage.
Because of the high number of grafts required at Norwood stage 6, FUT is generally recommended over FUE. With FUE surgery, hair follicles are more likely to become unusable over the course of a long hair transplant session [2].
While FUE is possible, many men still opt for the FUE hair transplant procedure even at stage 6. It should be mentioned that you may need to have multiple sessions to get the coverage you want. Some men choose a combination of FUE and FUT to get the results they want with minimal scarring.
Below are the hair transplant results of two Norwood 6 stage Wimpole Clinic patients:
Procedure: FUTGrafts: 2,800
Procedure: FUT & FUE combinationGrafts: 3,000
Our skilled surgeons have substantially restored these patients’ hair. Using donor hair from the back and side of the scalp, it’s possible to enhance or create density across the top of the scalp, even if you’ve lost almost all your hair.
All male pattern baldness treatments are more effective the earlier you use them. So don’t lose any more time — speak to the team at the Wimpole Clinic to start your hair restoration process.
We’ll explore all the options with you, from Finasteride to non-surgical hair loss treatments to hair transplants. If you’re at Norwood stage 6 already, a hair transplant is probably necessary. But if you’re treated sooner, you may be able to regrow lost hair with medical therapy alone.
Book a free consultation with our trichology team to find out more.
Simply fill in your details in the form below and we'll get in touch with you shortly.
Δ
