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The Ludwig scale for female hair loss

Women rarely lose hair the way the Norwood diagrams show. The parting widens, the top thins, and the hairline usually stays where it is. These three stages describe that pattern properly.

Start
  • Three stages, drawn rather than described
  • What is usually done at each one
  • Why bloods come before surgery in women

What each stage means

Female pattern loss is diffuse, so the stage matters less than whether the donor area at the back has stayed dense. That is what a consultation measures.

Ludwig I

Thinning is visible along the central parting but the frontal hairline is preserved. Most women notice it first in bright overhead light or in photographs.

What is usually done

Medical treatment comes first for female pattern loss. Blood tests for iron, ferritin, thyroid and vitamin D are worth doing before any transplant is considered.

Ludwig I
Grafts0 – 1,200
Sessions1
Techniquehair-prp, hair-mesotherapy, hair-exosome

Ludwig II

The parting is distinctly wider and the scalp shows through across the top of the head. Volume has dropped but the hairline itself is still intact.

What is usually done

Density can be added between existing hairs with DHI, which avoids shaving the whole head. Regenerative treatment usually runs alongside, because the native hair also needs support.

Ludwig II
Grafts1,200 – 2,200
Sessions1
Techniquehair-dhi, hair-prp, hair-exosome

Ludwig III

Hair over the whole crown has thinned to the point that the scalp is visible in most lighting. The sides and back are usually much less affected.

What is usually done

Diffuse loss can also affect the donor area, which is what makes this stage harder to plan than it looks. A donor density measurement decides whether a transplant is the right answer at all.

Ludwig III
Grafts2,200 – 3,500
Sessions2
Techniquehair-dhi, hair-hybrid, hair-exosome

Why the first step is usually not surgery

Female hair loss has more treatable causes than male hair loss does, and a transplant performed before those are ruled out treats the symptom rather than the problem.

What gets checked first

Ferritin and serum iron, thyroid function, vitamin D, and a hormonal panel if there is any sign of PCOS. Low ferritin in particular is common, often missed, and causes diffuse shedding that reverses once it is corrected. Any clinic that offers you surgery without asking about these is not being careful with you.

Telogen effluvium is not pattern loss

Sudden diffuse shedding two or three months after childbirth, illness, surgery or severe stress is telogen effluvium. It looks alarming, it is not pattern loss, and it usually recovers on its own. The difference matters enormously, because one of them is treated with patience and the other with a plan.

When a transplant is right

When the pattern is genuinely androgenetic, the donor area at the back is dense, and medical treatment has stabilised the loss. In that case DHI can add density between existing hairs without shaving the head, which is usually the deciding factor for a woman considering it.

Not sure which stage you are?

Send us a photograph from the front and one from above. We will tell you where you sit on the scale and what your donor area can support.

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