Is Stress Turning my Hair Grey?

When we start to go grey depends a lot on genetics.¹⁾Kataria S, Dabas P, Saraswathy KN, Sachdeva MP, Jain S. Investigating the morphology and genetics of scalp and facial hair characteristics for phenotype prediction. Sci Justice. 2023 Jan;63(1):135-148. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2022.12.002. Your first grey hairs usually appear anywhere between your twenties and fifties. For men, grey hairs normally start at the temples and sideburns. Women tend to start greying on the hairline, especially at the front.

The most rapid greying usually happens between ages 50 and 60.²⁾Kataria S, Dabas P, Saraswathy KN, Sachdeva MP, Jain S. Investigating the morphology and genetics of scalp and facial hair characteristics for phenotype prediction. Sci Justice. 2023 Jan;63(1):135-148. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2022.12.002. But does anything we do speed up the process? And is there anything we can do to slow it down?

You’ve probably heard that plucking, dyeing and stress can make your hair go grey – and that redheads don’t. Here’s what the science says.

What gives hair its color?

Each strand of hair is produced by a hair follicle, a tunnel-like opening in your skin. Follicles contain two different kinds of stem cells:³⁾Sixia Huang, Panteleimon Rompolas, The Psychology of Gray Hair, Developmental Cell, Volume 52, Issue 5, 2020, Pages 548-549, ISSN 1534-5807, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2020.02.008.

• keratinocytes, which produce keratin, the protein that makes and regenerates hair strands
• melanocytes, which produce melanin, the pigment that colors your hair and skin.

There are two main types of melanin that determine hair color. Eumelanin is a black-brown pigment and pheomelanin is a red-yellow pigment.

The amount of the different pigments determines hair color. Black and brown hair has mostly eumelanin, red hair has the most pheomelanin, and blonde hair has just a small amount of both.

So what makes our hair turn grey?

As we age, it’s normal for cells to become less active. In the hair follicle, this means stem cells produce less melanin – turning our hair grey – and less keratin, causing hair thinning and loss.

As less melanin is produced, there is less pigment to give the hair its color. Grey hair has very little melanin, while white hair has none left.

Unpigmented hair looks grey, white or silver because light reflects off the keratin, which is pale yellow.⁴⁾Kumar AB, Shamim H, Nagaraju U. Premature Graying of Hair: Review with Updates. Int J Trichology. 2018 Sep-Oct;10(5):198-203. doi: 10.4103/ijt.ijt_47_18.

Grey hair is thicker, coarser and stiffer than hair with pigment. This is because the shape of the hair follicle becomes irregular as the stem cells change with age.⁵⁾Kumar AB, Shamim H, Nagaraju U. Premature Graying of Hair: Review with Updates. Int J Trichology. 2018 Sep-Oct;10(5):198-203. doi: 10.4103/ijt.ijt_47_18.

Interestingly, grey hair also grows faster than pigmented hair, but it uses more energy in the process.⁶⁾Ayelet M Rosenberg, Shannon Rausser, Junting Ren, Eugene V Mosharov, Gabriel Sturm, R Todd Ogden, Purvi Patel, Rajesh Kumar Soni, Clay Lacefield, Desmond J Tobin, Ralf Paus, Martin Picard (2021) Quantitative mapping of human hair greying and reversal in relation to life stress. eLife 10:e67437 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67437

Can stress turn our hair grey?

Yes, stress can cause your hair to turn grey.⁷⁾Kumar AB, Shamim H, Nagaraju U. Premature Graying of Hair: Review with Updates. Int J Trichology. 2018 Sep-Oct;10(5):198-203. doi: 10.4103/ijt.ijt_47_18. This happens when oxidative stress damages hair follicles and stem cells⁸⁾Clara Arck P. Towards a “free radical theory of graying”: melanocyte apoptosis in the aging human hair follicle is an indicator of oxidative stress induced tissue damage. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.05-4039fje and stops them producing melanin.⁹⁾Chen J, Zheng Y, Hu C, Jin X, Chen X, Xiao Y and Wang C (2022) Hair Graying Regulators Beyond Hair Follicle. Front. Physiol. 13:839859. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.839859

Oxidative stress is an imbalance of too many damaging free radical chemicals and not enough protective antioxidant chemicals in the body. It can be caused by psychological or emotional stress as well as autoimmune diseases.¹⁰⁾Kataria S, Dabas P, Saraswathy KN, Sachdeva MP, Jain S. Investigating the morphology and genetics of scalp and facial hair characteristics for phenotype prediction. Sci Justice. 2023 Jan;63(1):135-148. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2022.12.002.

Environmental factors such as exposure to UV and pollution, as well as smoking and some drugs, can also play a role.¹¹⁾Ito S, Wakamatsu K. Diversity of human hair pigmentation as studied by chemical analysis of eumelanin and pheomelanin. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2011 Dec;25(12):1369-80. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-3083.2011.04278.x.

Melanocytes are more susceptible to damage than keratinocytes because of the complex steps in melanin production. This explains why aging and stress usually cause hair greying before hair loss.¹²⁾Ayelet M Rosenberg, Shannon Rausser, Junting Ren, Eugene V Mosharov, Gabriel Sturm, R Todd Ogden, Purvi Patel, Rajesh Kumar Soni, Clay Lacefield, Desmond J Tobin, Ralf Paus, Martin Picard (2021) Quantitative mapping of human hair greying and reversal in relation to life stress. eLife 10:e67437 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67437

Scientists have been able to link less pigmented sections of a hair strand to stressful events in a person’s life. In younger people, whose stems cells still produced melanin, color returned to the hair after the stressful event passed.¹³⁾Ayelet M Rosenberg, Shannon Rausser, Junting Ren, Eugene V Mosharov, Gabriel Sturm, R Todd Ogden, Purvi Patel, Rajesh Kumar Soni, Clay Lacefield, Desmond J Tobin, Ralf Paus, Martin Picard (2021) Quantitative mapping of human hair greying and reversal in relation to life stress. eLife 10:e67437 https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67437

4 popular ideas about grey hair – and what science says

1. Does plucking a grey hair make more grow back in its place?

No. When you pluck a hair, you might notice a small bulb at the end that was attached to your scalp. This is the root. It grows from the hair follicle.

Plucking a hair pulls the root out of the follicle. But the follicle itself is the opening in your skin and can’t be plucked out. Each hair follicle can only grow a single hair.

It’s possible frequent plucking could make your hair grey earlier, if the cells that produce melanin are damaged or exhausted from too much regrowth.¹⁴⁾Tobin DJ. Human hair pigmentation–biological aspects. Int J Cosmet Sci. 2008 Aug;30(4):233-57. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2494.2008.00456.x.

2. Can my hair can turn grey overnight?

Legend says Marie Antoinette’s hair went completely white the night before the French queen faced the guillotine – but this is a myth.¹⁵⁾Cherney K. Marie Antoinette Syndrome: Real or Myth? Healthline, May 31, 2023

Melanin in hair strands is chemically stable, meaning it can’t transform instantly. Acute psychological stress does rapidly deplete melanocyte stem cells in mice.¹⁶⁾Zhang, B., Ma, S., Rachmin, I. et al. Hyperactivation of sympathetic nerves drives depletion of melanocyte stem cells. Nature 577, 676–681 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-1935-3 But the effect doesn’t show up immediately. Instead, grey hair becomes visible as the strand grows – at a rate of about 1 cm per month.

Not all hair is in the growing phase at any one time, meaning it can’t all go grey at the same time.¹⁷⁾Grymowicz M, Rudnicka E, Podfigurna A, Napierala P, Smolarczyk R, Smolarczyk K, Meczekalski B. Hormonal Effects on Hair Follicles. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Jul 28;21(15):5342. doi: 10.3390/ijms21155342.

3. Will dyeing make my hair go grey faster?

This depends on the dye.¹⁸⁾Fernandes B, Cavaco-Paulo A, Matamá T. A Comprehensive Review of Mammalian Pigmentation: Paving the Way for Innovative Hair Colour-Changing Cosmetics. Biology (Basel). 2023 Feb 11;12(2):290. doi: 10.3390/biology12020290.

Temporary and semi-permanent dyes should not cause early greying because they just coat the hair strand without changing its structure. But permanent products cause a chemical reaction with the hair, using an oxidizing agent such as hydrogen peroxide.

Accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and other hair dye chemicals in the hair follicle can damage melanocytes and keratinocytes,¹⁹⁾He Y, Cao Y, Nie B, Wang J. Mechanisms of impairment in hair and scalp induced by hair dyeing and perming and potential interventions. Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 May 18;10:1139607. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1139607. which can cause greying and hair loss.²⁰⁾Kataria S, Dabas P, Saraswathy KN, Sachdeva MP, Jain S. Investigating the morphology and genetics of scalp and facial hair characteristics for phenotype prediction. Sci Justice. 2023 Jan;63(1):135-148. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2022.12.002.

4. Is it true redheads don’t go grey?

People with red hair also lose melanin as they age, but differently to those with black or brown hair. This is because the red-yellow and black-brown pigments are chemically different.

Producing the brown-black pigment eumelanin is more complex and takes more energy, making it more susceptible to damage.²¹⁾Wakamatsu K, Ito S. Advanced Chemical Methods in Melanin Determination. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0749.2002.02017.x

Producing the red-yellow pigment (pheomelanin) causes less oxidative stress, and is simpler. This means it is easier for stem cells to continue to produce pheomelanin, even as they reduce their activity with aging.²²⁾M.E. McNamara, V. Rossi, T.S. Slater, C.S. Rogers, A.-L. Ducrest, S. Dubey, A. Roulin, Decoding the Evolution of Melanin in Vertebrates, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Volume 36, Issue 5, 2021, Pages 430-443, ISSN 0169-5347, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2020.12.012.

With aging, red hair tends to fade into strawberry blonde and silvery-white. Grey colour is due to less eumelanin activity, so is more common in those with black and brown hair.

Your genetics determine when you’ll start going grey. But you may be able to avoid premature greying by staying healthy, reducing stress and avoiding smoking, too much alcohol and UV exposure.

Eating a healthy diet may also help²³⁾Kester S. Melanin in Hair: Its Role and How to Increase Production. July 23, 2020 because vitamin B12, copper, iron, calcium and zinc all influence melanin production and hair pigmentation.²⁴⁾Kumar AB, Shamim H, Nagaraju U. Premature Graying of Hair: Review with Updates. Int J Trichology. 2018 Sep-Oct;10(5):198-203. doi: 10.4103/ijt.ijt_47_18.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.