Time.news – Many people wonder what causes their hair to turn grey. Now the question is being asked again by the Washington Post and the answer, according to expert Shilpi Khetarpal, associate professor of dermatology and dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who specializes in hair disorders and laser and cosmetic dermatology, is that “many things can cause graying of our hair, including genetics and stress” but more often than not the graying of the hair “is however not only related to stress, but it can certainly make it worse for the hair to turn gray”.
From a technical and scientific point of view, explains the newspaper, “hair follicles have stem cells called melanocytes which produce a pigment called melanin, which gives the hair its colour. Melanocytes continue to produce melanin for a certain period of time”, even if there are two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin, and the diversity in hair color derives precisely “from the quantity and ratio between brown-black eumelanin and red-brown pheomelanin brown”, so that – for example – “a mutation in a certain receptor (melanocortin-1 or MC1R) leads to red hair”. The point is that “as we age, these melanin-producing cells suffer a phenomenon called apoptosis, or programmed cell death, which causes hair to turn gray or white”.
However, genetics also enter into it: if one’s parents started turning gray at an early age, there is a possibility that their children will too. But ethnicity also plays a role: “Graying has been shown to occur earlier in Caucasians than in African Americans”, so much so that a study has shown that the average age of gray hair in Caucasians is 34 years compared to 44 for African Americans. And then there’s another reason, no less valid, linked precisely to stress, which generally has multiple effects on the body and hair is no exception. “The theory – writes the Times – is that melanocytes are depleted when they are under stress. While genetics seems to be a bigger factor when you go gray and stress can contribute to that.”
Possible remedies, if you don’t like gray or white hair? “A good diet, however, may be able to reverse some of the negative effects of stress on hair,” the article reads, “a diet rich in antioxidant sources, such as fish, olive oil, and fresh fruits and vegetables, can reduce oxidative stress” while aggravating factors of gray hair are smoking and nutritional deficiencies such as vitamins D, B12 or ferritin, a globular protein found mainly in the liver, spleen, bone marrow and skeletal tissues. In these cases, correcting their deficiency has been shown to restore some of the pigment or color of the hair.