Norwood–Hamilton · Stage III
Norwood 3 (III)
Deep temporal recession: the classic M. Norwood’s original threshold of clinically significant patterned loss. Crown may still be full, or thinning (III Vertex).
No account needed, and nothing is stored.
What it looks like
From the front the M is obvious. The temples have receded well back of a mature hairline; the midline is usually starting to go with them. From above, classic III still has a full or near-full crown. III Vertex adds a distinct thin or bare patch at the vertex, with hair still bridging front and crown.
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
- ≈ 0.69 – 0.88 H
- Temple bald-column share
- ≈ 30–60%
- Vertex vs occipital
- III: ≥ 0.85 · III Vertex: lower
- Scalp loss-area
- ≈ 0.25
Norwood called Type III “the minimum extent of hair loss considered sufficient to represent baldness” in his 1975 classification. That sentence is why “am I a 3?” is the question this scale exists to answer. It is also why photographs of III and II get fought over: the boundary is a measured depth of temple recession.
In this pipeline III is frontal class 3: temple bald-column share above about 30%, or a midline hairline above about 0.88 H. Vertex class then splits the label. Vertex intact → III. Vertex thinning or bare, bridge still there → III Vertex. Deep front with no vertex patch and no remaining temple-only story → the anterior variant, which at this depth is IIIa and is staged with the front.
III Vertex is the other common “Norwood 3”. The hairline may look like a II or a III; the crown has a separate patch. People with a strong vertex-dominant pattern sometimes present with an almost-intact hairline and a clear crown, which the engine will still call II or III Vertex rather than inventing a front that is not there. Loss-area at grade III in Xi et al. 2025 is about 0.25; a vertex patch pushes the index up inside the stage.
III is also the stage where a signed number starts to matter socially. A screenshot of a hairline can be a II or a IV depending on angle. The receipt is the point of the product: five photos, one index, a link that cannot be edited.
How it gets mixed up
III is deep temples with a spared crown. III Vertex is III-like temples (or milder) plus a balding vertex, with the band of hair between them still intact. IIIa is recession across the whole front, no separate temple story, no vertex patch.
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
What is Norwood 3 vertex?
III Vertex is temporal recession in the III range (or a milder front) plus a distinct thinning or bald patch at the crown, with a band of hair still separating the two. It is not “worse than III”; it is III with a vertex. Once that band thins out you are looking at V, and once it is gone you are looking at VI.
Am I Norwood 3 or 4?
IV has a clear vertex patch and a deeper front, with a band of hair still bridging them. III has the deep M and a spared crown; III Vertex has the patch but a milder front or an intact bridge that still looks like hair, not a remnant. The loss-area anchor for IV is about 0.34 against 0.25 for III.
Is Norwood 3 the start of balding?
In Norwood’s original wording, yes: Type III was the minimum he counted as baldness. Type I and II were the hairline you keep or the early triangles. That is a classification choice, not a medical diagnosis. Adjacent grades agree only about 65–78% of the time even among experts, which is why a report should show its measurements and its confidence.
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.