What’s The Difference Between Norwood Class 6 and Class 7?

I am 31 years old. I have always had very dense hair until my 25-26, then I started to loose hair on top and crown while preserving hairline (diffuse pattern hair loss). I had two transplantations of 1000 and 2000 grafts. At the time waiting for the results of the second operation. My question is about estimating my future norwood scale. First of all how can I measure if I am a class 6 or 7? Secondly my rim hair from front to back seems to go down more. Is this common or sign of bad news? I heard that rim hair of 3 inches or less is norwood 7. Is this true? because 3 inches looks like very high.

Best Regards

The permanent rim usually measures about 2 1/2 inches high in the mid-back of the head, but that does not count neck hair. The rim is measured from the prominence of the bone in the back of the skull upward, and all hair below this in the back is considered neck hair. The rim on the side in the Class 7 patient can be a bit higher (3 inches or so).

Look carefully at the two pictures of the Norwood Classification as shown above. For some bulleted descriptions of each Norwood class, you can check the Assessing Hair Loss page at the NHI site. Also, you and your transplant doctor should have this discussion as part of your long term planning.