Each follicle contains pigment cells (melanocytes), which generate melanin, the pigment that determines the color of your hair. As you age, your pigment cells gradually die, which causes each strand of your hair to contain less melanin, making it more transparent.
Over-Styling and Hair Damage
Excessive use of heat styling tools, chemical treatments, and harsh hair products can damage the hair shaft, leading to breakage and thinning. Over time, this damage can cause the hair to become transparent as it loses its volume and thickness.
"Translucent brown offers pops of lighter strands that provide versatility to deepen or lighten, depending on the season," she explained to PopSugar. "It's much subtler and gives your hair more dimension, and it requires far less commitment because it's softer with not as much pigment saturation."
Interestingly, melanin production can restart after a period of dormancy, which can lead to a strand of hair that's white or gray on the tip and black closer to the root.
The optical properties of an individual hair strand are mainly determined by the translucent material of the hair, the amount of pigmentation the hair contains, and the geometric properties of the surface of the hair strand. A hair fiber is a translucent material with a regular refractive index of 1.55.
It's normal to see some scalp through your hair, especially under bright lights or when your hair is wet. However, increased scalp visibility can sometimes indicate hair thinning or loss. The key is understanding what a healthy amount of scalp visibility looks like and when it might be a sign of an underlying issue.
In the case of your gray hair, they're simply strands that lack melanin. Test it yourself: Hold one strand in the light and you'll see it's translucent.
Premature graying may be reversed with vitamin B12 supplementation only if vitamin B12 deficiency is the cause. If you are graying due to other factors, such as genetics, zinc deficiency, and medications, your gray hair cannot be reversed.
Vitamin A, C and B12 are the most needed vitamins to increase the melanin production in your hair. Add citrus fruits like oranges, grapes, pineapple, and melon to your diet. Also eat vegetables like potatoes, carrots, beans, etc. Non vegetarians can try adding red meat, chicken liver, fish, and eggs to their diet.
Vitamin B-12 deficiency is one of the most common causes of premature hair turning white. Researchers have noted that vitamin B-12 deficiencies are often concurrent with folic acid and biotin deficiencies in those people whose hair has begun to turn grey at an early age.
When you are decolorizing hair (also known as hair bleaching) you are essentially lightening the hair by removing the hair's color.
Colours and objects that allow all light to pass through are called transparent. Colours and objects that allow some light to pass through are called translucent.
Red hair. Red hair ranges from light strawberry blond shades to titian, copper, and completely red. Red hair has the highest amounts of pheomelanin, around 67%, and usually low levels of eumelanin. At 1–2% of the west Eurasian population, it is the least common hair color in the world.
So that steely grey is translucent hairs mixed evenly with dark/black hair. Hair like this is almost 100% translucent. Salt and pepper tends to refer to those who have a scattering of grey' but with some of their original colour still.
We tend to think of curly hair as dense and prone to dryness. Low porosity curls tend to be looser, wavy, or S-shaped. The curls are distinct with a tight, flat cuticle that prevents moisture from entering and exiting the hair. This is why low porosity hair can often look limp or flat.
Grey or white hair is not caused by a true grey or white pigment, but is due to a lack of pigmentation and melanin. The clear hairs appear as grey or white because of the way light is reflected from the hairs.
Tip: You should add Vitamins A, B12, C, and D to increase melanin production in your hair cells. You should thus add citrus fruits and green vegetables to your diet.
That said, certain conditions may temporarily restore pigmentation. For example, if greying is caused by a vitamin deficiency, stress, or an underlying medical condition, addressing these issues may slow or even partially reverse greying. However, the complete reversal of naturally aged hair remains a challenge.
There isn't a lot of medical data to back it up, but some research does show that magnesium deficiency may be behind some (not all) causes of gray hair. If this is the cause of your greying, then making sure your magnesium stores are optimal could stop or even reverse the greying of your hair.
When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, that strand of hair will no longer contain as much melanin and will become a more transparent color — like gray, silver, or white — as it grows. As people continue to get older, fewer pigment cells will be around to produce melanin.
The average age of onset of hair graying appears to be mid- to late forties; however, this varies with race, with the average age for Caucasians being mid-thirties, that for Asians being late thirties, and that for Africans being mid-forties.
When and how thoroughly your hair turns gray is influenced mostly by the genes you inherit from your parents. Though stress may play a role in the process, it would be more helpful to look to past generations rather than your current stress levels to help you predict when or if you'll go gray.