Gray Hair

Why Gray Hair? 

This is a question I was asked as a hair dresser, by most of my clients. It is common to hear  “everyone gets gray hair as they age.”  However, what about those people who experience premature gray hair; as did a friend of mine who managed a Beauty College. He told me that his hair turned gray when he was 16 years old.

What is Hair?
Hair – medically speaking “is a keratinized threadlike outgrowth which forms the fur of animals , or which grows on the human body.”

Just as the rings in a tree trunk hold information about past decades in the lifespan of a tree, our hair contains/holds information of our life style, our genetics, our health habits, and etc.

• The most common cause of gray hair is aging. 
• Genetics generally determines the timeline for the graying of hair, how it looks, how it behaves, whether it is curly or straight, thin or thick, etc.
• Nutrient Deficiency can as well be the cause of hair graying, as it is the cause of many common health problems or issues.
• There is not a lot of fully backed research on how or why smoking might be a direct cause of graying hair.
• Autoimmune disease is another cause of hair turning gray – as the diseases that cause poor health attack the pigment cells affecting the Melanin which controls the color of not only hair, but skin. Hypothyroidism is one of the autoimmune diseases that affect the change in hair color.

This is a small list, without going into a lot of detail.

CAN THE HAIR GOING GRAY BE SLOWED DOWN? AS WELL, CAN IT BE REVERSED?

1. You can’t stop aging but you can slow down the look of aging whether it is your body, the wrinkles on your face or the turning of your hair gray. EAT THE RIGHT FOODS. Feed your hair the nutrients it needs. This does work as I have seen the results in clients. It requires a change in one’s eating habits with the addition of vitamin and herbal supplements. The graying did slow down – and in a couple of cases the hair color reversed from the gray back to the natural hair color.
2. New scientific findings report that Radiation or exposure to radiation in your home via microwave ovens, computers, cell phones or a workplace where you may be exposed to any type of radiation may, as well  accelerate hair graying. The best thing would be to not use microwave ovens, or computers, cell phones etc., but that is not feasible with todays lifestyles. You may want to look into all the new gadgets on the market that claim to reduce radiation exposure and in some cases get rid of it completely.
3. Stop Smoking. While science is in the process of proving that smoking can increase your risk of going gray early, you can reverse some of the damage by NOT SMOKING.
4. Hypothyroidism is a hormonal problem and is in the autoimmune disease category. There is a range of remedies for treating hypothyroidism which may help to reduce hair color change. Discuss this with your doctor and do your own research for this, and other autoimmune diseases.
5. The list goes on and on, however, as a last resort and the REMEDY most people use is COLOR – permanent, which lasts for about a month and then needs retouching at the roots; or semi-permanent which washes out with each hair washing. If coloring is your choice, keep in mind that gray hair is not as porous and the color may or may not take as you expect it to. Also, any prescription medications one is taking may or may not interfere with how well the color takes on the gray hair.

This information is just a foot in the door to answering the question of WHY GRAY HAIR.

I reiterate – DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH to learn more on this subject. Everyone’s body is chemically different. Therefore the experience of graying hair will not be the same for everyone. This is not a ‘one size fits all’ situation.