Is This Already Norwood 3 Or "only" Norwood 2?

[Niki99]

I'm 20, turning 21 in early February. My father is balding now heavily at 51 but he doesn't care. He's on NW3,5 or 4 I think (relatively small bald spot on the crown, front hair is very thin and sparse while the temples are receded to a NW3. Hair in the middle still thick). My Grandpa from my mothers side had relatively good hair until the end. My uncle from my mothers side is not bald but he was balding at around 30 so he shaved it off since then because he had very thin hair and just didn't look good. My Grandpa from my father's side had really good hair until like 60 but he always buzzed it. I don't know exactly at what point he was balding tho because nowadays he is more of a norwood 4

I'm aware that I'm balding for roughly a year when I noticed my recessed temples. They didn't get much worse since then. But I noticed like two weeks ago that I'm diffuse thinning a bit now and I'm not entirely sure if it's the next step in my male pattern baldness or something like physical stress. I tore my ACL and both meniscus in September, in October I had surgery and I did read somewhere that physical stress like injuries or surgery can result in temporary diffuse thinning. However I made an appointment with an dermatologist in January and my questions are
1. What stage of the Norwood scala applies to me right now. Norwood 3? Norwood 2?
2. Because I live in Germany and I am german Finasterid is not easily available here. You only get it from the Doctor and my question is if I should ask the Doctor for Finasterid and if I should go on treatment now or wait a bit? How bad is it basically^^.
Thanks for your help I really appreciate it.

 

[Baldingdane]

Norwood 1.5 - 2 at most. But it does look like you are loosing hair, so go on treatments.

 

[HairlineOfGod]

Norwood 2/ 2.5 i would say

I'm 22 ,from belgium, finasteride is also not easy to get here. I started finasteride at 20, best decision on my life.

You should start finasteride asap, if you get Side effect consider stopping it, but don't worry too much, i have 4-5 friends that are using it, and no one got side effects.

 

[Niki99]

Norwood 2/ 2.5 i would say

I'm 22 ,from belgium, finasteride is also not easy to get here. I started finasteride at 20, best decision on my life.

You should start finasteride asap, if you get Side effect consider stopping it, but don't worry too much, i have 4-5 friends that are using it, and no one got side effects.

First of all thank you. I got my appointment in exactly one month. I can wait until then am I right? I want to hear a professional opinion and if he also introduces me to fina etc.. but I think I will ask for it myself if he doesn't.
Are you only using Finasterid and where on the scale did you fall on/where are you know?

 

[OldnBald]

She's taking on water Captain!

borderline nw2/3

 

[HairlineOfGod]

I'm using Finasteride and Minoxidyl 5% (Since 3 years for minoxidil), my right temple was in bad spot. Went from Norwood 1 to Norwood 2.5 from 18 to 20 years old .
Now i'm Norwood 1.75/1.5 , mostly stabilisation. I'm quite happy, my only regret is that i didn't start earlier. 0 Side effects. Just one pill every morning. Now i'm 22.5

 

[Niki99]

She's taking on water Captain!

borderline nw2/3

Let's hope there are enough boats to evacuate^^

 

[Niki99]

I'm using Finasteride and Minoxidyl 5% (Since 3 years for minoxidil), my right temple was in bad spot. Went from Norwood 1 to Norwood 2.5 from 18 to 20 years old .
Now i'm Norwood 1.75/1.5 , mostly stabilisation. I'm quite happy, my only regret is that i didn't start earlier. 0 Side effects. Just one pill every morning. Now i'm 22.5

Thanks . Let's hope it goes that smoothly for me too but I'm optimistic. Normally there is pronounced shedding in the first few months I heard. Is it really noticable to other people during that time or is it manageable? I'm gonna do it either way most likely but being prepared is not so bad I guess.

 

[Niki99]

Update: The Dermatologist will not prescribe me Finasteride and says I'm too young and it could be "stress related" because of my knee operation three months ago (and the resulting needles against thrombosis which have heparin in it. I took them for two weeks after my injury in September and like a month after my surgery exactly three months ago) and if it really is genetic you "can't really do anything about it". Gave me a prescription for some shampoo and a lotion with melatonin in it or something like that. I kind expected that this sh*t was going to happen so I will make another appointment with a different Doctor who is actually specialized in hair loss and takes it more serious. Problem is I will probably have to wait another month and I can't do anything really during that time. Like I said it's kind of hard to get Finasteride here in Germany. Our docs are almost too careful and conservative when it comes to prescriptions.

 

[Bigbone]

Update: The Dermatologist will not prescribe me Finasteride and says I'm too young and it could be "stress related" because of my knee operation three months ago (and the resulting needles against thrombosis which have heparin in it. I took them for two weeks after my injury in September and like a month after my surgery exactly three months ago) and if it really is genetic you "can't really do anything about it". Gave me a prescription for some shampoo and a lotion with melatonin in it or something like that. I kind expected that this sh*t was going to happen so I will make another appointment with a different Doctor who is actually specialized in hair loss and takes it more serious. Problem is I will probably have to wait another month and I can't do anything really during that time. Like I said it's kind of hard to get Finasteride here in Germany. Our docs are almost too careful and conservative when it comes to prescriptions.

Yeah, that's EU for you, won't prescribe anything unless really necessary. Do you have these online services in Germany, where you make an appointment through an app? In my experience they care way less.

 

[OldnBald]

Update: The Dermatologist will not prescribe me Finasteride and says I'm too young and it could be "stress related" because of my knee operation three months ago (and the resulting needles against thrombosis which have heparin in it. I took them for two weeks after my injury in September and like a month after my surgery exactly three months ago) and if it really is genetic you "can't really do anything about it". Gave me a prescription for some shampoo and a lotion with melatonin in it or something like that. I kind expected that this sh*t was going to happen so I will make another appointment with a different Doctor who is actually specialized in hair loss and takes it more serious. Problem is I will probably have to wait another month and I can't do anything really during that time. Like I said it's kind of hard to get Finasteride here in Germany. Our docs are almost too careful and conservative when it comes to prescriptions.

Yeah, stress related hair loss in the classic male pattern baldness areas. Likely. Like was said before me, I'd just cough up the $ and go through an online company, hims/keeps type of thing.

It shouldn't be that hard for a 21 year old to get finasteride with a hairline well into the norwood scale, instead they blow smoke up your *** because they don't want to be the one who prescribes it. Even here in the U.S. I had to go through the GP, who I had to push hard, then multiple blood tests (hormonal checks, psa), then a referral to the Derm who instantly gave my bald *** a script upon viewing the cobwebs on my head for just a few seconds.

 

[Niki99]

Yeah, stress related hair loss in the classic male pattern baldness areas. Likely. Like was said before me, I'd just cough up the $ and go through an online company, hims/keeps type of thing.

It shouldn't be that hard for a 21 year old to get finasteride with a hairline well into the norwood scale, instead they blow smoke up your *** because they don't want to be the one who prescribes it. Even here in the U.S. I had to go through the GP, who I had to push hard, then multiple blood tests (hormonal checks, psa), then a referral to the Derm who instantly gave my bald *** a script upon viewing the cobwebs on my head for just a few seconds.

I know it's frustrating. I'm not stupid, I can see what is going on and I hate that belittling attitude of some docs. Especially female docs it seems when it comes to male pattern baldness. I have to look into these online companies even tho I'm not sure we have that here. I'm absolutely clueless about this topic. But thanks for the help.

 

[Niki99]

How can you not look bald having that hideous hairstyle? You’re a chad don’t worry go slay some pus$y

Lmao it looks bad BECAUSE I'm balding. Didn't look bad two years ago^^.

 

[Niki99]

If you’re not losing hair on your shower or if you’re not able to pull out hair easily from the said affected areas or if you’re not itching then u don’t have Androgenetic Alopecia, it’s just your hairline maturing.

Yeah I'm way beyond a mature hairline. I'm not loosing much hair when I shower (even tho more than before because in the past I basically never noticed hair falling out at all) and I don't notice much hair on pillows or anything but what I do notice is that I can pull 2-3 hairs at once from every area on my head. Even on regions that are not supposed to be affected by male pattern baldness. It's not drastic but I do notice a change and combined with my 2-2,5 Norwood temples it's worrying. I'm not really euphoric when I think about myself as an egg before I turn 30.

 

[fenom]

Why does it take so long in Germany for an appointment? Here I make an appointment one day before and all gucci. Do you consider starting rogaine?

 

[Niki99]

Alright I made some pics with wet hair where you can see my recession more clearly. I also included a pic how my hair looks normally. My question is again: Norwood 2 or 3? My theory goes like this: I started balding around 2 years ago and I noticed it one year ago when I saw that my temples were pushed back. I also noticed no change since then. In September I had my knee injury and in october my surgery. Around December I noticed that my hair is thinning but it came all of a sudden. I just started to lose hair all over but nothing dramatic yet. I believe that I am in fact balding but I'm not sure if the thinning what I experience now has to do with male pattern baldness. I think my thinning is telgone effluvium or how it's called. Why do I think that? Because it's known that this can happen after surgery and medication, for example against thrombosis (which I took for two months), and the timing is right. In addition I found two pics of my maternal grandfather in his mid sixties and he seemed to have similar hair to mine and for a guy in his mid sixties it looks alright. I'm still planning to take finasteride but what I'm worried about is the initial shed that can occur. If I truly have telgone effluvium my hair could start to drastically thin out during that initial shed and that's the only thing that scares me a bit right now. So could it be that I'm not actually prone to fully go bald and I just have early recession and it stays that way? I'm not betting on that, that's the reason I still want to take finasteride, but what are the odds? Are my worries about the shedding phase based in reality and is my theory that I have about my surgery and telogene effluvium even slightly realistic? As I said I didn't notice any more recession on my temples since I first noticed it. Thanks. The last two pics are the hair of my maternal grandfather.

 

[OldnBald]

In looking at these pictures, it looks like a heavy norwood 2. Not long till you reach 3. You can see the miniaturizing hair from far away.

Hope you can get the finasteride before you hit the dreaded point of no return, where the hair styles stop and the hat wearing begins.

 

[Niki99]

How long is not long do you think? A few months, a year? Yeah I probably get it from an online Doctor in Great Britain where you apply for a subscription and then they send the medication to your home. If they don't want to give it to me I don't anymore because it's so clear that I seriously question what the problem of some docs is.

 

[vinnyg0414]

Norwood 2. Like others have advised try to hop on medication.

If you just noticed it a year or so ago and it’s progressed that fast... well that’s not a good sign for your long term hair outlook.

More that likely it’s been receding for years and you just now are really “analyzing” it.

 

[Who Farted]

Ahh man that’s rough for 21. Well past Norwood 2, but not quite a Norwood 3.