Norwood–Hamilton · Stage II
Norwood 2 (II)
Triangular recession at the temples. The midline is still relatively preserved; the crown is usually intact.
No account needed, and nothing is stored.
What it looks like
The hairline has started to form an M. The peaks of the M are the temples; the midline has not retreated with them yet. From above, the crown should still look like the back of the head. Temporal triangles are the whole stage. If they are faint, neighbouring I is plausible; if they are deep, neighbouring III is.
Typical measurements
Face-normalised units: H is glabella to chin, so the numbers do not depend on the phone or the distance. These are the anchors the pipeline uses; they are not a diagnosis.
- Mid-frontal height
- ≈ 0.60 – 0.70 H
- Temple bald-column share
- ≈ 10–30%
- Vertex vs occipital
- usually ≥ 0.85
- Scalp loss-area
- ≈ 0.14
Norwood II is the first stage at which the scale is describing patterned loss rather than a hairline sitting where hairlines sit. The triangles are shallow. Friends disagree. Photographs taken from below the chin make II look like III; photographs with a fringe covering the temples make II look like I.
This is why norwood.fyi does not use “temple height minus midline height” as recession. On a healthy head the hairline is a dome, so that difference is negative. Recession is measured as the fraction of scan columns in the temple zone that cross the whole forehead and find no hair at all: the bald notches of the M. In this pipeline, II begins around 10% temple bald-column share, or a midline above about 0.70 H, or a flattened dome.
Xi et al. (2025) put the typical scalp loss-area at this grade around 0.14. A II with a much higher loss-area and an even pattern is probably diffuse thinning riding on a mild hairline, and the report will say so.
How it gets mixed up
The whole argument lives here: “just a mature hairline” versus early recession. A mature hairline is higher but still a dome. Norwood II is notched temples. If the crown is already thinning with only mild temples, see III Vertex, not a “bad II”.
How to get your number
Five photos (front, left, right, crown, back), a sixty-second history, about three minutes. The report costs $7, needs no account, and stores nothing. You get the roman stage, a continuous index, a genetic vs. environmental split, levers ranked by evidence, 5- and 10-year paths, and a signed link. Look at a sample report first. Details of the geometry and the papers behind the anchors: Method & sources. The rest of the scale: Norwood I–VII.
FAQ
Is Norwood 2 balding?
Norwood treated Type II as early patterned recession, short of the “clinically significant” threshold he placed at Type III. It is the stage people argue about in the mirror. The useful move is a measurement, not a vote.
Norwood 2 vs a mature hairline?
A mature hairline has moved up roughly a centimetre and kept its dome. Norwood II has triangular temple recession: bare notches, not just a higher line. The engine looks for those notches as bald columns, which is the thing a mature hairline does not have.
norwood.fyi is an informational tool, not a medical device, and not a substitute for a dermatologist. Staging between adjacent Norwood grades has about 65–78% agreement even among experts; the report shows its confidence and the measurements behind it.