It is true that androgenetic alopecia is the most common hair loss suffered by male. However, there are other causes of men's hair loss that you need to be aware of:
- Alopecia Aretea-autoimmune disorder which will cause "patchy hair loss", often in small circular area in different areas of the scalp.
- Alopecia Totalis - total hair loss of the scalp, This is an advanced form of (1)
- Alopecia Universalis - Hair loss of the entire body, also an advanced form of (1)
- Traction Alopecia - hair loss caused by physical stress to hair such as prolonged use of hair weaving
- Anagen Effluvium - hair loss attributed to toxic substances internally administered.
A good example would be chemotherapy agents.
All of these only represent ~5% of the hair loss found in general male protection; androgenetic alopecia is the norm.
If you fact experience androgenetic alopecia, more likely than not your hair loss will be limited to the top of the head and may or may not involve thinning and/or receding hair lines.
Most hair loss in men follows a pattern that has been codified in a table called the Norwood Scale
(see figure 1)
Norwood patterns are determined genetically. There are seven patterns of hair identified in the Norwood Scale:
- Type 1 being a normal head of hair with no visible hair loss
- Type 2 showing the hair receding in a wedge-shaped pattern
- Type 3 shows the same receding pattern as Norwood II, except the hairline has receded deeper into the frontal area and the temporal area
- Type 4 shows a hairline that has receded more dramatically in the frontal region and temporal area. Additionally there is a balding area at the very top center of the head, but there is a bridge of hair remaining between that region and the front
- Type 5 on the Norwood Scale shows that very same bridge between the frontal region and the top center, also called the vertex, beginning to thin
- Type 6 on the Norwood Scale indicates that the bridge between the frontal region and the vertex has disappeared
- Type 7 shows hair receding all the way back to the base of the head and the sides just above the ears
Figure 1:
The Norwood Scale for Male Pattern Baldness:
