Scared I'm Headed to Norwood 7

I am looking to go forward with a (very conservatively planned) transplant for next year but can't help but shake the feeling that I'm heading towards Norwood 7 and this will just end up a mistake and/or struggle down the road. Maybe it's just paranoia but I'm not sure. I have my humps thinning, front of the sides thinning, and the lower crown still has hair, but you can tell that may go one day too as you will see in the photos. I tried Finasteride a while back but had rather serious brain fog and got off of it quickly. I've used Rogaine foam but it's basically done nothing. My doc refused to let me try Oral minox.

I am 37 and have been balding slowly since age 22, with serious loss on my Fathers side and zero on mothers. Father is NW6 with the thickest sides you've ever seen while his Father (my grandfather) was a dreaded NW7 by the time he was in his early 40's. Norwood 6 I wouldn't even mind as like I said I only want to go for a very conservative approach with a high hairline and only focus on the frontal third to reframe my face. I'd even resort to SMP or a partial hair system for the back. I've seen many guys who go a long time with the top of their sides thin but never fully dropping but I don't know. I'm only 37 after all. Something tells me at 47 things won't be the same.

Lastly, as additional info, when my hair is short it looks very sharp and much stronger, but when I grow it out for a month or so, the sides start feeling very weak and the thinning at the humps become more obvious. The lower crown still looks decent though but you can definitely see the dip a bit, but I feel that's normal to see in most guys anyway?

Any thoughts or advice would be great. Thank you.

Your hair does seem somewhat thin, but you have pretty good coverage for 37. I think if you're conservative with it you should be fine.

I'm not an expert, but I think it's quite rare to become a full norwood 7 if you still have some hair in your mid-late 30s. That tends to be guys who were losing it in their teens. I'm sure it does happen, but as my wife said to me, "If you were going to go fully bald, you would have done by now" (when I was about your age).

Thanks for the reply. It is true that *most* who end up NW7 are typically more far gone than I am at 37, but that being said baldess is always unpredictable. I've still seen plenty of cases where guys who still had hair on top in their late 30's or even 40's ended up NW7 later in life. Look at Bruce Willis for example. Actually a pretty damn good head of hair still (albeit receding) at age 35 in 1990 in Die Hard 2, but these days he's a full fledged NW7. I may have good "coverage" up top from the look of the photos, but really its extremely whispiest hair combed over, mostly from the forelock region.

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Originally Posted by ML488

Thanks for the reply. It is true that *most* who end up NW7 are typically more far gone than I am at 37, but that being said baldess is always unpredictable. I've still seen plenty of cases where guys who still had hair on top in their late 30's or even 40's ended up NW7 later in life. Look at Bruce Willis for example. Actually a pretty damn good head of hair still (albeit receding) at age 35 in 1990 in Die Hard 2, but these days he's a full fledged NW7. I may have good "coverage" up top from the look of the photos, but really its extremely whispiest hair combed over, mostly from the forelock region.

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Funny you should mention Bruce Willis actually, because I saw a picture of him from 1994 the other day, I'm pretty sure he had a lot of hair sprinkles or something for Die Hard 2 (and 3), if you check him in Pulp Fiction, which was only 4 years later, he does still have some hair on top, but it's pretty thin, I reckon they filled it in for a lot of his 90s roles - Fifth Element for example, was '97 or '98 I think, and I'm pretty sure that's also his own hair but 'augmented'.

Would you say he's a NW7 now? I'd say a NW6 maybe. He tends to keep it pretty tight, but I wouldn't say he was like some guys you see, who have basically nothing left, his 'ring of hair' seems quite high.

If we're talking celebs too, both Joe Biden and John Cleese had hair transplants back in the dark ages, and they both kinda still get away with it now, by which I mean, I don't know that anybody ever calls them 'baldy'.

Try a few drops of rosemary oil in your shampoo too, apparently that's a good natural remedy for hair thickness, I havent tried it yet but apparently results from clinical trials are good.