I'm clearly a NW2 by every definition of it. The temple loss is a dead give away (my stylist told me when I was ~late 20, 21.), and I can see my hairline receding with the "V" shape. I compared my hair to my older brother (24, NW1) and the hairline definitely goes back on the corners.
So, my family history is pretty good. My maternal grandpa (whose hair mine strongly resembles in texture and thickness, according to my mother) died young at 63 with a full head of hair (he kept it long so I'm not sure if NW1 or NW2, but I should check). His sons (my mom's brothers) are a NW1/2 with no discernible hair loss @ 50, and then a NW2-3 (hard to tell from picture) with a fairly high hairline @ 55. All of my maternal cousins (22-25) are Norwood 1s.
On my dad's side, my paternal grandpa had a full set of hair when he died at 75 (Norwood 1 I'd guess). My dad had a full set of hair until he was 50. At 59 now, his hair is thinning around the vertex, but his temples are strong. Not the horseshoe pattern so he's not on the Norwood scale. My hair is nothing like his, at all. His brother is 55 and a NW1. My paternal male cousins are younger than me. My older brother, whose hair is just like my father's, is a NW1 at 24 as I mentioned.
As for me: I grew up with really thick hair. By 18, my temples had begun receding. I didn't realize it at the time (as I said earlier, my stylist told me about a year and a half ago), but in pictures it's clear to see. I don't know about my hairline since I keep my hair medium length. I attached a picture of my temple at 17 when I cut my hair with a 3, and you can see even though the temple hair is there, it already isn't rounded. Vertex is perfectly fine (still extremely thick).
I'm perfectly happy with my hair right now. At a NW2, I can definitely hide my temples with medium-length hair, and you can hardly tell a thing about the hairline. I don't want to take finasteride (side effects are not worth it considering how slowly my MBP seems to move/ family history), and am holding out that by the time I need it (which hopefully is more than 3-5 years) I can just get a transplant and maybe take some new cutting edge drug that doesn't have finasteride's sides. But what are your thoughts? Do you see a lot of miniaturization or anything that suggests I should be seeing a hair loss doctor about my hair? I expect my temples to continue to recede (the lighter color at the edges suggests a lot of miniaturized hairs that will fall out, if I understand), but the hairline?
- - - Updated - - -
Another, better image of my hair at 17. Can see the upper right corner is already beginning to recede.
