If I Start Losing Hair Early Does That Mean I’ll Go Bald?

Doc, I am 19 and experiencing signifigant hair loss in my hairline/temple area. I have heard that the earlier one looses hair, the balder they will go, but no one on either side of my family has ever experienced extreme hair loss or anything past a norwood class A type Va (worst case)

Is it true that the earlier one starts balding the more hair they will lose, or do they just reach their pattern quicker?

The two points are not necessarily connected, but those that lose a lot of hair often start early in their 20s with the process. From a transplant perspective, a Norwood class 5A pattern is a good end stage pattern for most people who want full coverage, where a class 6 or 7 is often difficult to treat for full coverage. In someone with a Norwood class 6 or 7, the supply of donor hair will often not be enough to solve the need for a full replacement hair transplant. I have transplanted a sereis of Class 7 patients with upwards of 7000 grafts (as high as 9900 grafts in one patient) to get the coverage they wanted. These individuals were fortunate enough to have high density donor hair and good scalp laxity. It certainly took more than one session to reach this number of grafts. For the sake of convenience, the Norwood chart is shown here: