David Beckham’s Hairline Corners?
I saw a picture of David Beckham, and it brought up some confusion I have about temples. A few people, including Beckham, have this huge bald area the temples, despite showing no other signs of baldness. Others have a very full look in the temple region, despite reaching a Norwood 3 balding pattern. Do this mean that temple hair loss occurs independently of male patterned baldness, or are we seeing evidence of surgery, during which the temples were left out?
Just so we’re on the same page, what you’re referring to as the “temples” is the hairline corners. The temples would be the triangular peaks below the hairline, and those look strong. With that out of the way…
In my opinion, David Beckham has a normal hairline. We’ve written about his possible hair loss in the past, but I would consider his hairline to be maybe a Norwood class 2. I would not call the hairline corners “bald” areas, as this is a normal male hairline. Even the young boy in the photo has a similar hairline. His temple triangle peaks may look a bit pushed back and make the forehead look wider, but this is not balding.
Some people with a more advanced balding pattern, including myself (30 years old and almost a Norwood 3, as judged by the narrowness of the frontal forelock), seem to have this hair pattern, which continues straight upwards from the temple peaks (with the temple peaks still intact), as opposed to this narrow angle in Beckham’s which makes his forehead look wider than mine. Hence the confusion when I asked the question.
The shape of the head varies a lot – as does the points and lines of hair on every individual. The Norwood scale is fantastic as a descriptive tool to assess hair loss but too many people get hung up on categorising every head they see into a particular class. If beckham doesn’t have any genetic balding other than a normal mature hairline – then it really doesn’t matter what Norwood class he is.
Some people have large foreheads, others have short foreheads – this has no bearing on hair loss – other than a mature hairline on a short forehead might resemble more of a juvenile hairline on a very large forehead.
Paul I would have though Becks would have had the sides of his forehead much less exposed, if he has no genetic balding. My own forehead is much much less exposed, even although I’m struggling with an NW3 pattern. My hair goes on vertically upwards (perpendicularly to my feet) from the temple points. I would consider it serious hair loss, if the sides of my forehead would be as exposed as David’s.
The sides above the temple peaks are just a genetic quirk of his skull shape and hairline – it’s been like that for many years if you look at pictures of younger beckham (although his younger hairstyles were often longer). It’s not hair loss if that’s the way your forehead is. Many guys have wide or high foreheads – that’s not a genetic hair loss issue just a product of their head shape!
Basically you have noticed you have a different forehead than David beckham – you and 99% of most men will have a different forehead shape. If you consider anyone with a different skull to you to have balding because they have a wide forehead then you have missed the point of what genetic balding even is.
Well you’d surely make me very astonished, if you could come up with a single person (e. g. celebrity) who hasn’t lost some any of that hair above the temple peaks, as his balding has progressed throughout the years. You can find evidence of the forehead shape (width) changing due to hair loss, until it looks like Beckham’s, so therefore, hair loss is one cause for Beckham’s forehead shape which a layperson like myself cannot exclude.
I’m not entirely sure what you’re saying there. Beckham’s hairline is a typically mature hairline – even the hair transplant surgeon who hosts this blog has mentioned it looks like a normal male hairline. If you don’t like Beckham’s hairline you can always let him know personally. If his forehead is wide and you dislike this in celebrities or are convinced David Beckham has hairloss because his head is different to yours that’s surely your perogative. I’m not entirely sure what you want to achieve by trying to convince me, the readers of the blog and the hair surgeon who disagree with you – but the very best of luck with your own hair issues and whatever issues you have with celebrities who have different head shapes to you!
Okay, in that case I must only consider that maturation is incomplete in the corners, even if the leading edge of my hairline seems to already have reached its destination (as evidenced by Dr. Rassman’s guidelines on how to measure the mature hair line).