What Is a Receding Hairline?
A receding hairline occurs when your hair thins and your hairline location shifts as a result of less hair. How the moved hairline looks may depend on your sex at birth. A receding hairline is typically a sign of a male pattern of hair loss. But people born female can have similar hair loss in different spots known as a female pattern of hair loss.
Receding Hairline Causes
Hair loss can occur for a variety of reasons. Not all hair loss leads to a receding hairline. Some forms of hair loss cause hair to thin out, or cause patches of hair to fall out.
The most common cause of hair loss that leads to a receding hairline is androgenic alopecia. For those born male, it often shows up as a receding hairline or bald spots. For people born female, it usually presents as thinning hair at the crown of the head. About 50% of people deal with androgenic alopecia. It occurs in half of people who are born male by the time they’re 50 years old and in 80% of them by the time they’re 70 years old. It’s also common in people born female and increases after menopause.
White people are more likely to have it, followed by Asian and African American people, and then Native American and Inuit people.
This type of hair loss can occur as you age. Your risk depends on your genetics. Hormone changes can play a role in hair loss as well. Other causes of hair loss include certain medications, hormone therapies, medical conditions, stress, radiation therapy, and other things.
When hair stops growing, it causes your hairline to move over time. The hair follicle – a hole in the skin where hair comes out of the scalp – shrinks. Hair appears shorter and more fine in texture. Eventually, hair stops growing in the follicle completely, and you can see the hairline shift.
Receding hairline in women
In people born female, a receding hairline can look like your hair part is widening or getting bigger. You may have thinning hair around the top of your head.
When a woman’s hairline appears to be receding, it’s known as frontal fibrosing alopecia. The receding hairline appears on the front and sides of your head. It’s most often diagnosed after you reach menopause, which is when you haven’t had a period for at least a year. You may notice the hair loss anywhere from about 2 to 12 years after starting menopause. Hair can decrease in your eyebrows and other parts of your body, too.
Receding hairline in men
In people born male, a receding hairline generally moves back along the forehead. You may have thinning hair at the top of your head, which can eventually become a bald spot.
Receding hairline in transgender and nonbinary people
A receding hairline can be challenging or distressing for transgender and gender-diverse people because the appearance may not align with their desired look.
Some research shows that gender-affirming hormone therapy in trans men can start or speed up androgenic alopecia. Trans men on hormone therapy may have some balding on the hairline, especially near their temples. Thinning hair, male-pattern baldness, or complete hair loss can occur, depending on your age and family history. When you have feminizing hormone therapy with estradiol and/or antiandrogens, it can improve androgenic alopecia.
A 2021 report set out treatment guidelines for hereditary hair loss in transgender people.
These recommend:
- All transgender people apply topical minoxidil 5% to their scalp once or twice daily, take 1 milligram of oral finasteride every day, and have low-level laser light therapy as a first-line treatment. Second-line treatments include a half-milligram of oral dutasteride daily, platelet-rich plasma shots, or other hair restoration procedures.
- Transgender men can take 2.5 milligrams of minoxidil orally each day as a second-line treatment.
- Transgender women can take 200 milligrams a day of spironolactone as a first-line treatment, or 1.25 milligrams of minoxidil orally each day as a second-line treatment.
The guidelines specify that your dermatologist should coordinate care with your primary gender-affirming clinicians so all providers are informed about treatments.
Does wearing a hat cause a receding hairline?
Experts aren’t quite sure if wearing a hat can cause a receding hairline, and it hasn’t been studied too much. Some medical professionals think that wearing a hat too tightly (or wearing a hat that traps heat against your scalp) may lower blood flow to hair follicles and lead to hair loss.
Signs of a Receding Hairline
If you notice that your hairline seems to shift, you may have a receding hairline.
If you were born male, the hairline on the forehead tends to move back or away from your face. Hair can recede to form an M shape instead of a curved line. And hair on the back of your head up top – an area called the crown or vertex – can thin. A bald spot on the vertex can appear. Further hair loss in the area can create a horseshoe shape so that hair is only around the sides of your head and not the top. This hair loss can cause almost complete baldness.
In women born female, hair thins on the top and crown of the scalp. You may notice a wider part line if you part your hair in the middle. The front hairline along your forehead may be unaffected. Unlike those born male, you probably won’t have total baldness.
Signs can vary if you’ve had gender-affirming hormone therapy. It can speed up hair loss in some people and slow it down in others. Depending on your outcome, these hair changes may be welcomed or cause you distress.
Receding Hairline Stages
These are measured on a scale that differs whether you’re born male or female.
Male-pattern baldness is staged using the Hamilton-Norwood scale:
- Stage 1: There’s little or no hair loss and not much of a visible receding hairline.
- Stage 2: You may have some hair loss around your temples, between your ears and forehead.
- Stage 3: You have deep hairline movement around your temples. Your hairline may resemble the letters M or U.
- Stage 4: There’s a noticeable shift in your hairline and a loss of hair at the top of your head.
- Stage 5: The receding hairline connects to the bald spot on your crown.
- Stage 6: The hair between your temples and crown is thinning or gone, so your hairline is receding away from the top of your head.
- Stage 7: You have no hair on your crown and have a thin band of hair around the side of your head.
The Sinclair scale is used to show stages of female pattern baldness:
- Stage 1: You don’t have much hair loss but may notice some.
- Stage 2: Your center hair part seems wider.
- Stage 3: You have a wider part and visible hair loss on either side of your part line.
- Stage 4: Bald spots may show up toward the front of your hairline along your forehead.
- Stage 5: Hair loss is extremely noticeable.
Receding Hairline Diagnosis
It can be fairly easy to tell if you have a receding hairline just by how it looks. Still, you may want to see a dermatologist to confirm what’s going on.
Expect the doctor to ask about your medical history, do a physical exam, and ask about any family members who may have hair loss issues. If the doctor thinks you may be dealing with something else, they may take a sample of your hair, request blood tests, or do a biopsy on your scalp.
Receding Hairline Treatment
You can’t prevent androgenic alopecia, but you can slow it down or even reverse the hair loss with treatment.
Treatment preferences can differ based on the individual, but these options may help if you have a receding hairline:
Medications. You can buy over-the-counter medications that you put on your scalp. You can also ask your doctor about a prescription pill. Some health care providers recommend using prescription medications alongside ketoconazole 2% shampoo.
Hair transplant. This is when your doctor moves skin with healthy hair follicles from other parts of your body to your head, allowing hair to grow there instead.
Platelet-rich plasma. Your doctor will draw blood, process it in a machine that pulls out the platelets, and inject it into your scalp to trigger hair growth.
Red light therapy. A health care professional will apply a low-wavelength light to your scalp to improve hair growth.
Style. You may be able to disguise a receding hairline with a different hairstyle, weave, or a wig.
Topical minoxidil, oral finasteride, and low‐level light therapy are the only therapies that are approved by the FDA to treat androgenic alopecia. But there are other treatments available, including hormone therapies.
Medications for a receding hairline
If you opt for medication to treat a receding hairline, you can buy an over-the-counter solution or ask your doctor about prescriptions. Minoxidil (Rogaine) is sold at drugstores. Your doctor may discuss other options like oral finasteride (Propecia) along with over-the-counter ketoconazole 2% shampoo. Your doctor may prescribe dutasteride (Avodart) on an off-label basis, which means it’s not approved for hair growth but may help hair grow back. Some research shows it may work better than finasteride.
Surgery
Hair transplant surgery – also called hair restoration or hair replacement – may be a treatment option for receding hairlines. This involves a skin graft, which means the doctor removes a part of skin where healthy hair grows (usually elsewhere on your head) and moves it to areas with thinning hair or no hair.
This option isn’t right for everyone, though, so ask your doctor if you’re a good candidate.
Living With a Receding Hairline
Living with a receding hairline can be challenging, because it affects your appearance and may affect other aspects of your health. Some people may not be bothered by it, but others may find the hair loss emotionally distressing. This may be the case for transgender women, because the loss may be linked to being male.
It can be challenging to wait for hair loss treatments to work, too.
Build a support system if you think you need it. Connect with people online if you don’t have anyone you can chat with in your everyday life. You may want to meet with a stylist to see what they recommend. Talk to your doctor to confirm a diagnosis and/or discuss your options, especially if you would like to try to delay or stop the receding hairline from getting worse.
Receding hairline haircuts
Your barber or hairdresser may have insights on how to cut or style your hair if you have hair loss or a receding hairline. The internet can be a useful place to view options.
How to Prevent a Receding Hairline
You can’t prevent hair loss from family history (androgenetic alopecia). If your hair loss is caused by stress, medications, hair care, or a lack of nutrients, you may be able to prevent it.
Takeaways
Some types of hair loss are temporary, others are permanent. A variety of things can play into hair loss. If you have a receding hairline, it can look different based on your sex at birth. In people born male, hair loss causes the hairline to shift from the forehead to farther back on the head. You may also have thinning on the crown or at the temples. In those born female, overall thinning can occur and/or your hair may thin out at the crown of your head.
You can’t prevent a receding hairline if it’s caused by androgenic alopecia, but you can try to regrow hair or stop more from falling out. This condition can be emotionally hard to cope with for some people. But the good news is there are several treatment options.
Receding Hairline FAQs
Can a receding hairline grow back?
With treatment, you may be able to slow down or even reverse hair loss.
Can you fix a receding hairline?
Treatment may help hair grow back where it has stopped growing, which can slow the hair loss down or even reverse it.
Is losing hair at 20 normal?
Hair loss can occur in your 20s, and even in your late teens in some cases.
Why do men's hairlines recede?
If you were born male, you may have hair loss that causes the original hairline along your forehead to recede. Your hair may thin out on the crown of your head, which is known as male-pattern baldness. This is caused by male sex hormones and genetics.
Will I go bald if my hairline is receding?
If you have thinning or a receding hairline, you may eventually go bald because this type of hair loss follows the traditional male pattern of baldness.
At what age do most hairlines recede?
You may notice some thinning or receding in your 30s, though it can happen earlier. Androgenic alopecia occurs in half of people who are born male by the time they’re 50 and in many more by the time they’re 70 years old. It’s also common in people born female after menopause. But the hair thins in different spots, compared to men.
