Heavy Metal Music and Hair Loss

My question is in regards to the hairlines of many rock musicians which I have noticed over the years. I’ve been big into heavy music for many years and i’ve notived many of them seem to have slightly receded hairlines which have never gotten worse. Some examples are

Dez Fafara from the band Coal Chamber (now Devildriver), Bass guitarist Oliver Reidel from german heavy metal band Rammstein, And in particular Pogo, once keyboardist for Marilyn Manson who has retained i’d say what’s inbetween a 2 and 3 on the scale for many years.

All of these artists seem to have retained around a 2 and 3 class pattern and has never gotten any worse. I guess it’s possible they all have gotten hair transplants at one point. Any knowlege on this? Is it possible for someone to have they’re hairline recede like that and just stop? I mean it happened to both my uncles who had they’re hairlines recede a bit around my age (19) and now in they’re late 30’s hasn’t gotten much worse. Thanks and hope to hear from you!

You are correct to look at the genetics of your family for the answers. Many people stop at Norwood Class 2 or 3 levels. I actually believe that the Norwood Class 2 pattern of balding is not real balding, but just the appearance of the mature hairline. That being said, I am not Dr. O’Tar Norwood and do not know if he recognized the mature male hairline as a normal transition for a maturing man when updating and devising the Norwood classification system that we use today.

As I’m sure you could likely assume, I’m not a big heavy metal music fan, and didn’t have the foggiest idea who the people you specifically mentioned are. I asked someone on my staff to hunt down these folks, and their photos are presented below:

I don’t see any hair loss in the gentleman on the left, Dez Fafara, as the photos I’ve seen have his long hair covering any pattern that may be present. The other two guys, Oliver Reidel and Pogo aka Madonna Wayne Gacy (thanks Internet!), each appear to be Norwood Class 3. It is completely possible that they stopped at their current levels and did not require any hair restoration, but I have no first hand knowledge about that (and if I did, I couldn’t say).