Your hair follicles have pigment cells that make melanin, a chemical that gives your hair its color. As you age, these cells start to die. Without pigment, new hair strands grow in lighter and take on various shades of gray, silver, and eventually white.
A new study shows that stress really can give you gray hair. Researchers found that the body's fight-or-flight response plays a key role in turning hair gray. Your hair color is determined by pigment-producing cells called melanocytes.
There are no treatments that are proven to treat (or reverse) gray hair. For now, the best choice for people who want to cover their gray hair is to use hair coloring, which can be temporary or permanent depending on the type.
There's a lot of misinformation about gaining back your natural hair color once it's started turning gray or white. While certain nutrient deficits and health conditions may spawn premature gray hairs, it's impossible to restore your natural hair color if your grays are genetic or due to natural aging.
Eating more antioxidants
Share on Pinterest Eating a diet with lots of antioxidant-rich foods, including vegetables and fruits, may help to prevent hair from graying. A person's diet plays a part in preventing white hair. A diet rich in antioxidants can reduce oxidative stress.
It can be a shock to find your first gray hairs on your head, especially if you're only in your 20s. But women's expert Dr. Kirtly Parker Jones says a few gray hairs is perfectly normal, even for women in their late 20s and early 30s. However, stress, genetics and other factors can play a role.
Typically, white people start going gray in their mid-30s, Asians in their late 30s, and African-Americans in their mid-40s. Half of all people have a significant amount of gray hair by the time they turn 50.
Kraleti doesn't recommend plucking or pulling the hairs out. “If there is a gray hair you must get rid of, very carefully cut it off. Plucking can traumatize the hair follicle, and repeated trauma to any follicle can cause infection, scar formation or possibly lead to bald patches.”
Though, ageing is the primary reason of grey hair but premature greying of hair in early 20's or 30's is now common. Genetic factors, stress, lack of nutrition, chemicals, smoking or any underlying disease like anemia can also lead to premature greying of hair.
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.
Genetics
Your makeup plays a big role in when (or if) you develop white hair. If you notice white hair at an early age, it's likely that your parents or grandparents also had graying or white hair at an early age. You can't change genetics.
So can gray or white hair turn black again? White or gray hair due to aging (old age) cannot turn black again naturally. In contrast, white hair appears due to bleaching, stress, food, pollution, vitamin deficiency, and other physical influence can turn black again if properly taken care of.
Eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids and zinc such as fish, seeds as well as leafy greens like kale and broccoli, can help in reversing the greying process.
Lack of proper sleep and stress are main reason of premature greying of hairs. Such lifestyle increases the ageing process which in turn may affect the hair growth, volume and overall health.
The team ultimately discovered that signaling from the sympathetic nervous system plays a critical role in stress-induced graying. Sympathetic nerves extend into each hair follicle and release noradrenaline in response to stress. Normally, the melanocyte stem cells in the follicle are dormant until a new hair is grown.
Alopecia and grey hair are associated with COVID-19 Severity.
It can be due to a dirty scalp, dandruff, infections like fungal infection of the scalp, e.t.c. It can be due to chemicals like hydrogen peroxide present in hair colors, which have a bleaching effect. Deficiency of nutrients like vitamin B. complex, copper, iron and iodine is known to cause premature graying.
The one word answer to this question is “no”! Plucking white hair does not give you more white hair. Each of your hair strands grows out of a single hair follicle. So if you pull out the white hair only one hair can grow back in its place and possibly it will be white too.
It is purported that when Pantothenic Acid and folic acid are taken together it helps reverse graying by taking the hair back to its original color. Inositol, a substance found naturally in the human body, may encourage the growth and overall health of hair.
Gray hair grows when hydrogen peroxide builds up in your hair follicle. "This causes hair to bleach itself from the inside out," says Debra Jaliman, MD, a dermatologist in New York and spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology. Gray hairs are thicker and wirier, so your hair gets coarser as they multiply.
Melanin is a chemical that gives your hair its color. As you age, these cells start to die. When there is a lack of pigment, new hair strands grow lighter and eventually turn to shades of gray, silver, and eventually white," Friese explains.
You have a medical condition
In rare cases, premature graying may be triggered by health issues like thyroid disease or problems with the pituitary glands. Autoimmune diseases that attack the skin and hair, such as alopecia or vitiligo, can also cause grays.
Does going gray earlier mean I'm aging more quickly? Silvery strands are one of the more conspicuous signs of aging. That said, getting gray hair doesn't necessarily mean that you're closer to the end of your life span than anyone else your age.
And while it may seem intuitive that stress can accelerate graying, the researchers were surprised to discover that hair color can be restored when stress is eliminated, a finding that contrasts with a recent study in mice that suggested that stressed-induced gray hairs are permanent.
Your environment is polluted
Pollutants and toxins can cause you to grey faster, according to the Library of Congress. These chemicals generate free radicals-or oxidative stress-that damage melanin production and speed hair aging, studies suggest. But once hair grows out of the follicle, it's dead, adds Dr.