Use this Norwood scale chart and calculator to compare your hairline, temples, and crown against the classic 7-stage Norwood balding scale. It is descriptive, not diagnostic. If your loss is sudden, patchy, painful, or inflamed, skip the calculator and speak with a board-certified dermatologist.
Use the hairline, crown, and bridge observations below to find the closest visual range. The result is deliberately approximate: the Norwood scale describes a visible pattern and cannot identify the cause of hair loss.
Use a straight-on photo with dry hair. Compare the shape, not one thin strand or an uneven corner.
Use a top-down photo in even light. A natural whorl can expose scalp without being a bald spot.
This bridge is one of the clearest differences between the middle and advanced Norwood stages.
An adolescent or juvenile hairline. The hairline is straight or only slightly receded, with full density across the crown and temples. Most men in their teens and early twenties sit here.
The first signs of a mature hairline. Symmetric thinning at the temples creates a soft M-shape. This is not yet pattern baldness for most men and can stay stable for decades.
The earliest stage Norwood classified as clinical male pattern baldness. The temples have moved back to a deeper M, and miniaturized hair fills the gap. Stage 3 Vertex adds visible thinning at the crown.
Recession at the temples is more severe and the crown has a clear bald spot. A strip of denser hair separates the two zones across the top of the scalp. Treatment response is still strong at this stage if started promptly.
The band between the front and the crown is narrowing and thinning. The two bald regions have not yet merged but the bridge can no longer hide them. This is often when men first describe themselves as visibly balding.
The hair bridge between front and crown has collapsed. The two regions merge into a single bald area on the top of the head. The Hippocratic horseshoe is becoming visible.
The most severe Norwood stage. Hair is gone from the entire top and front of the scalp. A thin band remains around the sides and back. Surgical restoration is limited by donor area availability at this point.
The Norwood scale stages are a visual language for male pattern hair loss. They describe how temple recession, frontal recession, and crown thinning can connect over time. They do not diagnose the cause of your hair loss, and they do not predict exactly what will happen next.
For men, the most useful split is usually not “am I bald or not?” It is whether the change is mostly at the temples, mostly at the crown, or both. Stage 2 often describes a mature hairline. Stage 3 is commonly treated as the first clearly balding pattern. Stages 4 and 5 show stronger crown involvement and a narrowing bridge. Stages 6 and 7 describe advanced merging across the top.
If you are between Norwood stages, write the uncertainty down instead of forcing a label. A note like “between Norwood 2 and 3, left temple sharper, no clear crown thinning” is more useful than pretending the chart can see every detail.
The chart works best when paired with repeatable photos. Use the stage as a label, then use Folicle to keep the same hairline, temple, crown, and top-down photos over time. The stage names the pattern; the timeline shows whether the pattern is stable, improving, or progressing.
If your question is “what Norwood scale am I?” the honest answer is usually a range, not a perfect number. Compare your temples and crown against the chart, then write the closest stage plus a plain note like “left temple sharper than right” or “possible early crown thinning.”
If your question is “how do I know what stage of hair loss I have?” start with hairline recession stages, crown involvement, and whether the two areas are still separated. The Norwood scale men use most often is a pattern label, not a medical diagnosis.
The Norwood scale is useful because it gives a shared language for hairline recession and crown thinning. It is not a diagnosis, a forecast, or a treatment plan. Two people can both look like Norwood 3 and still have different causes, timelines, family history, scalp symptoms, and treatment options.
Use the stage as a label for the pattern you can see today. Then use repeatable photos to answer the more important question: is the pattern stable, improving, or progressing across comparable checkpoints?
If you are between stages, write down both. A clean “Norwood 2.5” does not exist clinically, but it can be useful in a personal tracking note. For example: “between 2 and 3, left temple sharper than right, no clear crown change.” That sentence is more useful than forcing certainty.
Folicle fits after the scale. The calculator helps name the pattern; Folicle helps keep the visual record consistent. Pair this page with the hair photo alignment guide, the minoxidil progress guide, and real hair loss stories if you want context beyond a stage number.
The stage number also should not become your identity. A person can be a Norwood 3 and feel calm, or a Norwood 2 and feel devastated. The visible stage and the emotional impact do not always match. That is one reason clean tracking and real medical context both matter.
If you use the calculator more than once, keep the same photos beside the stage notes. “Norwood 3” by itself is easy to forget or reinterpret. “Norwood 3-ish, left temple sharper, no vertex change, dry hair, same bathroom light” is much more useful three months later.
If you are tracking treatment, keep the Norwood note beside your routine log so the visible pattern, adherence, side effects, and clinician questions stay in one place.
Do not use a stage chart to explain sudden shedding, round patches, scalp pain, heavy scaling, redness, medication reactions, or rapid changes after illness or major stress. Those patterns need medical context. A board-certified dermatologist can decide whether labs, dermoscopy, biopsy, or a different diagnosis should be considered.
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<iframe src="https://folicle.app/embed/norwood-scale" title="Norwood Scale Self-Check by Folicle" width="100%" height="820" loading="lazy" style="border:0;border-radius:16px;max-width:760px"></iframe> <p style="font:13px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif;color:#6B5547;margin:8px 0 0"><a href="https://folicle.app/tools/norwood-scale">Norwood Scale Self-Check</a> by <a href="https://folicle.app">Folicle</a></p>