I would not say he browned out awfully early.. the fact is that 90% of pastels produced these days look like that at a year or just over a year old, if not browner.
Kinda says something about the pastels produced these days.
I think the head is just faded, I don't see any injury or old scarring there, just different colored scales.
Actually looking at him for a second time, he's quite a looker compared to most pastels out there. They really are a lot less yellow than people think they are, especially when we are inundated with constant pictures of killer blasts super pastel lesser hypos and the like.