Your hair follicles produce less color as they age, so when hair goes through its natural cycle of dying and being regenerated, it's more likely to grow in as gray beginning after age 35. Genetics can play a role in when this starts.
Use a clarifying shampoo to help strip some of the unwanted color. This may help lighten the grey tone slightly. Follow up with a good conditioner to avoid excessive dryness. Use a Purple or Blue Shampoo: These products can neutralize unwanted yellow or brassy tones.
-- Typical gray hair first develops at age 34.2 +/- 9.6 years in Caucasians, while for Black people the average age of onset is 43.9 +/-10.3 years (Keogh 1965).
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.
Pigment cells do not come back. Once hair turns grey or white, it is not ever going to turn back into brown, red, or black, or whatever your natural color was.
Yes. Stress has been shown to speed up signs of aging — including gray hair. When you're stressed, your body has a fight-or-flight response and releases a hormone called norepinephrine. This causes the melanocytes — the cells that produce melanin — to move out of your hair follicles.
As we get older, the pigment cells in our hair follicles gradually die. 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 we age, melanocytes decrease in number and less melanin is produced. Fewer melanocytes mean a lack of pigment in the hair, resulting in a silvery-gray color. Now the hair itself is not actually white; it is an optical illusion that results when light is refracted off the hair, creating a silver-like look.
However, sometimes graying hair indicates an illness, especially if it occurs at a particularly young age. Health problems that may be heralded by gray hair include: vitamin B12 deficiency.
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.
Asian hair is the thickest, with a larger diameter of about 70 µm. Caucasian hair has an average diameter of 65 µm, and African hair is the finest, with a diameter of 55 µm. The cross-section of Asian hair is the most round and uniform, Caucasian hair has an elliptical shape, and African hair has a flattened shape.
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.
Melanin is what gives your hair (and skin) its natural color. People of African descent, Thai, and Chinese people, go grey more slowly.
If the cause of greying is genetic, it is not possible to reverse the process, no matter what some marketers on the internet claim. In case of nutritional deficiencies and underlying medical conditions, you can gradually slow down or even reverse the process.
There's an oft-repeated myth that pulling out one gray hair causes ten more to grow in its place. That's not true—but it's still not a good idea to pluck your grays. While yanking out a stray gray or two may not seem like a big deal, over time, it can become one.
"Follow healthy hair habits. Try to avoid repetitive use of heat and chemical treatments which can damage the hair and the pigment cells," recommends Lain. "Limit exposure to, or protect hair from, toxins and pollutants, and when possible, protect your hair from the sun by covering it up with a hat or scarf."
Yes, stress can cause your hair to turn grey. This happens when oxidative stress damages hair follicles and stem cells and stops them producing melanin. Oxidative stress is an imbalance of too many damaging free radical chemicals and not enough protective antioxidant chemicals in the body.
Consuming specific superfoods like spinach, walnuts, amla, sesame seeds, spirulina, curry leaves, black sesame seeds, sweet potatoes, almonds, and carrots helps maintain natural hair color by providing essential nutrients that support melanin production and overall hair health.
A review of research suggests that proper supplementation may reverse premature graying in those who are deficient in certain nutrients, including iron, vitamin D, and vitamin B12. However, even though some supplements are specifically sold as “anti-graying,” there aren't any studies that prove they work.
Hair goes gray when color-producing cells stop producing pigment, says Jeffrey Benabio, MD, a dermatologist at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego. Naturally occurring hydrogen peroxide can also build up in the hair, bleaching the color.
Any deficiencies of vitamin B9, B12, biotin, or vitamin D can contribute to premature graying. One 2018 review notes various deficiency studies on vitamin D3, vitamin B12, copper, zinc, and calcium and their connection to graying hair.
It's quite normal for your black hair to turn white as you get older. You may have had a full head of black/brown hair, but you may notice your hair changing its appearance from black to gray or white with age. However, hair changing its colour and turning white can happen at any stage of your life.
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. Including Indian gooseberry in your diet is important because it is rich in Vitamin C and Iron.
While it's not common, extreme stress can cause your hair to whiten. But there are more common culprits behind premature graying, like genetics, habits, and diet.