Author: Dr. William Rassman

Dear Sirs,

Do all people follow the same pattern of hair loss, meaning they start from the temples and progress in a specific way as Norwood classification describes or there are unique variation for each person? People from the Balkans as Greeks, Bulgarians, Romanians are considered Caucasian or for them there are different hair loss patterns as Norwood describes?

Thank you in advance

Every male, from anywhere in the world, can have a balding pattern that has been defined by Norwood. The Norwood patterns are not showing a progression of balding that one goes through, but they show the end stage of a process as Dr. Norwood described it.

For example, to develop a Norwood class 6 pattern, you will not start with a 2, then go to a 3, then a 4, and then a 5 pattern. Most men with a Norwood class 6 pattern start losing their hair with thinning in that pattern that precedes the end stage of the balding (the hair begins to thin all over in that pattern).

Good morning doc. I’m a 26 year old male who is starting to go gray, pretty heavy on the sides & starting to in the front as well. Is this a good sign that said gray hair won’t fall out? Does this mean the gray hair has already passed a barrier to balding or is it just as likely to fall out as the other “youthful” (brown) colored hairs? Thanks for the great blog!

The graying of hairs is independent of balding (no relationship). Graying is genetic and not necessarily reflecting getting ‘old’, and you are not alone. I have seen many men and women who turn gray in their 20’s. The reason most people do not see them is that they hit the dying bottle and never show their secret.

I just watched the Andy Irons documentary (A Pro surfer) with Andy and his brother who are known to have used hardcore drugs and are perfect Norwood 0’s. David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, Comedians like Richard Pryor, Joey Diaz. Do you think hardcore drugs lower your Testosterone and DHT levels? When ever I hear people saying hair is a diet thing I think absolute bullshit. David bowie lived off of cocaine in the 80s with like a can of tuna fish and some peanut butter or some shit and had perfect hair.

These guys are public. I doubt that their hair has anything to do with hard drug use.

Yes, usually hairy people who take finasteride are early in the hair loss process, so that is when finasteride is most effective. At the end of the hair loss process, large balding areas rarely respond to finasteride. Everything else is in-between.

You have an infection of the recipient area with multiple pustules evident on the pictures. You need a surgical drainage of these pustules by your surgeon

I would like to have a HT in the future when my diffuse thinning on top gets really bad, but I don’t know if I have DUPA, is it possible to see from photos from my iphone?

To make the diagnosis, buy a hand microscope from Amazon ($30 range) and then get photos like these from your donor area: https://baldingblog.com/do-i-have-dupa-photo/

I took these photos of my donor area. I can see though my donor area which worries me about having DUPA

Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia (DUPA) is determined when the hair in the field of view substantially exceeds 20% miniaturization. I generally like to cut the hairs in the view so that it is easier to count. One of these views is hitting up against the 20% number suggesting that better photo are ideal to pin down this diagnosis. The middle photo suggests that the miniaturized hairs are more than 20% but the other photos don’t back this up.