The Diagnosis of Progressing Baldness

In order to standardize the diagnoses concerning their patients’ head of hair state, doctors have worked out 2 basic charts with appropriate data (scale). The one chart, called Norwood-Hamilton (Nw.), describes the androgenic progressing baldness of men. The other chart, Ludwig scale, describes the androgenic processing baldness of women. Both charts present thoroughly the process of progressing baldness with the use of large-scale pictures of patients. However, there are cases of excessive casting of hair which cannot be documented according to either the Norwood-Hamilton or Ludwig scale. The large-scale pictures mentioned above describe just the process of androgenic progressing baldness which is proceeding in specific and predictable way, which can be called "a pattern".
It is characteristic for men that their process of androgenic progressing baldness is usually long and in the case of individual patients, it develops in a similar way, as a pattern. The beginning phases of male pattern alopecia are connected with the formation of so-called pilonidal sinuses (Nw. 2-2A) that is loss of hair in the front parts of a head. In time the primary hair line gets thinner and thinner and it moves up (Nw. 2A-3A). In this way the so-called "high-forehead" is formed which is the characteristics of male progressing baldness. If the process of excessive casting of hair cannot be stopped by the proper hair treatment, and a patient’s hair is also sensitive to DHT, then the patient will notice progressive balding in the middle and the top part of his head (Nw. 3V-5).
In more advanced phases of baldness (Nw. 4-5), miniaturization affects hair on all over the head. The last phases (Nw. 5A-7) present the complete baldness. Miniaturization very often does not concern the hair which grows in circumferential parts of a head, i.e. its occipital and temporal parts (Nw.5A, 6, 7), and if it does concern, then to much lesser scale. It has been discovered that there is the genetic dissimilarity between occipital and temporal hair and the hair which usually fall out. It turns out that the hair which usually remains on a head (Nw. 5A, 6, 7) is resilient to DHT which is a kind of active testosterone type responsible for androgenic progressing baldness. This resilience stops hair from falling out as easily as hair in sinuses or in the middle part of a head. This discovery was very important for the development of hair restorative surgery. (The topic of grafts will be described in detail in the new section).

Nw. 2-3A

Patients from this group are classified as those with relatively small diminution. In most cases, the process of baldness has not been going on for very long yet. At this stage the anti-baldness hair treatment is usually the most effective. A patient can expect that the process of baldness will be stopped and that new hair will appear. However, it is also dependent from the individual predisposition of a patient. Men from this group are not the best candidates for the hair graft. It happens because the baldness is the proceeding process which makes it difficult to estimate how a given patient may be classified according to Norwood rate in 5 to 10 years. In other words, at the early stage of baldness it is very difficult to predict a patient’s hair condition at his advanced age. At the same time, adapting the proper amount of "grafts" for the transplantation is highly difficult. For those of you who qualify as Nw.2-3A patients, at www.beauty-tips.net we recommend to concentrate on treatment based on natural and pharmacological medicine. As a rule we would strongly advise you not to do the hair graft at this phase because it could be too extreme.

Nw. 3V-5

According to the classification patients belonging to this group are those with medium and advanced processing baldness. The process of falling hair has been going on for a few or for several years. Unfortunately, it may even happen in some cases that patients will reach the stadium Nw. 3-4 within several months. The effects of therapy among the patients from this group are very different: from such patients whose progressing baldness will not become much slower to those patients for whom the processing baldness will be stopped entirely and who will even have some hair of new growth. Nevertheless, all patients who belong to this group (Nw. 3V-5) should have only practical expectations. It is almost impossible that these patients can renew their hair entirely only with the use of natural and pharmacological remedies. Even with the transplantation techniques the thickness of hair can never be made the same as when a patient was a child or an adolescent. In future such an effect may be reached only when the technique of cloning or /and duplication of hair will become applicable. Even if the hair transplantation may be taken into consideration by a patient, it is necessary to remind any patient that the transplantation cannot replace the treatment which should be taken as the first step to prevent a patient from the processing baldness.

Nw. 5A-7

Patients who belong to this last group are those with the very advanced processing baldness. This Nw. 5A-7 can be called the final stadium of androgenic processing baldness. Men who suffer from such an extreme alopecia should be aware of the fact that they must take necessary steps to achieve the visible, cosmetic improvement. Yet, also in this case, their expectations should be real. The effects of any of the available treatments offered nowadays are, of course, limited. Therefore, in cases of the patients belonging to the last group, it is assumed that professional surgery may in fact improve the patient’s appearance. For this reason, the patients from this group seem to be the best candidates for the graft taking. They may achieve the best results and the most visible cosmetic effect after the surgery in comparison to the patients classified as Nw.2-3 type. In addition, the natural treatment may not bring the satisfying effects for the Nw.5A-7 patients. However, this does not mean that transplant surgery is the only method which is effective for them. On the other hand, the majority of Nw. 5-7 patients who decide to go on a non-surgical therapy are not satisfied with the effect they achieve. That is why people who decide to fight their progressing baldness at this late stage, will often use the surgical method of hair restoration.

For women the pattern of androgenic progressing baldness is quite different than for men. As it can be observed on the Ludwig scale, female androgenic progressing baldness will proceed gradually and it is disseminated thinning of hair all over the head. It is very rare for women to suffer from advanced forms of baldness as it is quite usual for men. It is the same with the androgenic baldness which is also very rare in case of women. The reason for this is that the level of male hormones (e.g. testosterone) is much lower for them.
In conclusion, it should be underlined that every case of exceeding falling out of hair is different. It is never determined that all men are destined to become bald (Nw. 5A-7). The Norwood-Hamilton scale reveals more or less precisely the pattern of development of androgenic progressing baldness for a particular patient. However, one should remember that in the case of uncongenial factors such as: genes, a family history or high sensitivity to DHT, also you, dear reader, may become a victim of a very advanced stage of processing baldness (Nw.4-7, Ludwig III, Advanced).