Norwood Stage 6

Norwood classification 6

This occurs when the bridge of hair separating the crown from the frontal tuft in Norwood 5 disappears leaving a large bald area. The temples have often receded but the sides above the ears and around the crown remain high.

At this stage donor hair is limited but the FUE method is able to harvest hair high in the sides above the ears (lateral humps) which the strip surgery method would not be able to harvest.

The main priority with any design is always naturalness. The high sides in a Norwood 6 give a point at which the new hairline can be joined to the existing hair. Hairline position is key to naturalness, a lower hairline will require the reconstruction of the temples and this can use up a lot of grafts at the expense of the crown.

The amount of available donor hair is reducing whist the amount of bald skin to cover is increasing. The forelock and the bridge have now gone but the high sides above the ear that held the bridge in place are still intact.

A Norwood 6 can be reverted in to a Norwood 5 or 4. You can take the bald look from the crown with a small amount of grafts scattered over the crown. But this only looks natural when the forelock has been re established, as such extensive hair-loss wouldn’t naturally come with a thinned crown.

Norwood Stage 6 Pattern of Hair-loss.