Why Black Hair Turns To Grey?

Hair color is the pigmentation of hair follicles due to two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Generally, if more eumelanin is present, the color of the hair is darker; if less eumelanin is present, the hair is lighter. Levels of melanin can vary over time causing a person's hair color to change, and it is possible to have hair follicles of more than one color on the same person.


Particular hair colors are associated with ethnic groups. The shades of human hair color are assessed using the Fischer Saller scale. The Fischer Saller scale, named after Eugen Fischer and Karl Saller, is used in physical anthropology and medicine to determine the shades of hair color. The scale uses the following designations: A (light blond), B to E (blond), F to L (blond), M to O (dark blond), P to T (brown), U to Z (dark brown/black) and Roman numerals I to IV (red) and V to VI (red blond).See also the Martin Schultz scale for eye color.

Conditions affecting hair color:
Children born with some hair colors may find it gradually darkens as they grow. Many blonde, strawberry blond, light brown, or red haired infants experience this. This is caused by genes being turned off and on during early childhood and puberty.

Changes in hair color typically occur naturally as people age, eventually turning the hair gray and then white. This is called achromotrichia. Achromotrichia normally begins in the early to mid-twenties in men and late twenties in women. More than 60 percent of peoples have some gray hair by age 40. The age at which graying begins seems almost entirely due to genetics. Sometimes people are born with gray hair because they inherit the trait.

The order in which graying happens is usually: nose hair, hair on the head, beard, body hair, eyebrows.

Two genes appear to be responsible for the process of graying, Bcl2 and Bcl-w The change in hair color occurs when melanin ceases to be produced in the hair root and new hairs grow in without pigment. The stem cells at the base of hair follicles produce melanocytes, the cells that produce and store pigment in hair and skin. The death of the melanocyte stem cells causes the onset of graying.it remains unclear why the stem cells of one hair follicle may die well over a decade before those in adjacent follicles less than a millimeter apart.

Graying of hair may be triggered by the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide. Abnormally low levels of the enzyme catalase, which breaks down hydrogen peroxide and relieves oxidative stress in patients suffering from vitiligo. Since vitiligo can cause eyelashes to turn white, the same process is believed to be involved in hair on the head (and elsewhere) due to aging.

The anti-cancer drug imatinib has recently been shown to reverse the graying process. However, it is much too expensive and has potentially severe and deadly side effect, so it is not practical to use to alter a person's hair color. Nevertheless, if the mechanism of action of imatinib on melanocyte stem cells can be discovered, it is possible that a safer and less expensive substitute drug might someday be developed. It is not yet known whether imatinib has an effect on catalase, or if its reversal of the graying process is due to something else.

*Stress:
Anecdotes report that stress, both chronic and acute, may induce achromotrichia earlier in individuals than it otherwise would have.Proponents point to survivors of disasters, such as Titanic survivor Harold Bride, or high-level politicians such as Bill Clinton or Barack Obama to support this view. There is some evidence for chronic stress causing premature achromotrichia, but no definite link has been established.

*Medical conditions:
Albinism is a genetic abnormality in which little or no pigment is found in human hair, eyes, and skin. The hair is often white or pale blond. However, it can be red, darker blond, light brown, or rarely, even dark brown.

Vitiligo is a patchy loss of hair and skin color that may occur as the result of an auto-immune disease. In a preliminary 2013 study, researchers treated the buildup of hydrogen peroxide which causes this with a light-activated pseudo-catalase. This produced significant media coverage that further investigation may someday lead to a general non-dye treatment for grey hair.

Malnutrition is also known to cause hair to become lighter, thinner, and more brittle. Dark hair may turn reddish or blondish due to the decreased production of melanin. The condition is reversible with proper nutrition.

Werner syndrome and pernicious anemia can also cause premature graying.

A 2005 uncontrolled study demonstrated that people 50–70 years of age with dark eyebrows but gray hair are significantly more likely to have type II diabetes than those with both gray eyebrows and hair.

*Artificial factors:
A 1996 British Medical Journal study found that tobacco smoking may cause premature graying. Smokers were found to be four times more likely to begin graying prematurely, compared to nonsmokers.

Gray hair may temporarily darken after inflammatory processes, after electron-beam-induced alopecia, and after some chemotherapy regimens. Much remains to be learned about the physiology of human graying.

There are no special diets, nutritional supplements, vitamins, nor proteins that have been proven to slow, stop, or in any way affect the graying process, although many have been marketed over the years. However, French scientists treating leukemia patients with a new cancer drug noted an unexpected side effect: some of the patients' hair color was restored to their pre-gray color

So why does our hair turn gray or white?
The hair follicle has a “melanogentic clock” which slows down or stops melanocyte activity, thus decreasing the pigment our hair receives. This occurs just before the hair is preparing to fall out or shed, so the roots always look pale.

Moreover, that hair turns gray because of age and genetics, in that genes regulate the exhaustion of the pigmentary potential of each individual hair follicle. This occurs at different rates in different hair follicles. For some people it occurs rapidly, while in others it occurs slowly over several decades.

In a February 2005 Science article Harvard scientists proposed that a failure of melanocyte stem cells (MSC) to maintain the production of melanocytes could cause the graying of hair. This failure of MSC maintenance may result in the breakdown of signals that produce hair color.

Factors that can change the pigmentation of hair:
There are other factors that can change the pigmentation of hair, making it lighter or darker. Scientists have divided them by intrinsic (internal) and extrinsic (external) factors:

Intrinsic factors:
*Genetic defects
*Hormones
*Body distribution
*Age

Extrinsic factors:
*Climate
*Pollutants
*Toxins
*Chemical exposure
In 2009, scientists in Europe described how hair follicles produce small amounts of hydrogen peroxide. This chemical builds on the hair shafts, which can lead to a gradual loss of hair color. (Wood, J.M et al. Senile hair graying: H2O2 mediated oxidative stress affect human hair color by blunting methionine sulfoxide repair.

What causes hair to go white?
Hair is a defining character of mammals and an extension of human aesthetic sense. It is keratin filament that grows, and regrows, from follicles that are scattered throughout our bodies. Numerous factors affect its formation, structural variation and overall health, few of them are androgens, genetics and nutrition.

Since ancient times, the parallel connection between hair and our bodily aging process has intrigued the thinkers. Science has solved many mysteries of hair growth, replenishment and change with age, but many remain confusing yet.

Here, we briefly highlight the natural course of hair growth with human aging and death, discovering the causes of white hair, along with some tantalizing myths and preventive measures to keep hair damage-free and young at an old age.

When does hair get old?
There is no benchmark age for hair to turn white. Hair color is drastically affected by bodily health status, ethnic heritage, diseased conditions, hormones and stress. On average, though, white people get white hair in their mid-30s as opposed to Asians whose hair lose its pigment in the late 30s.

Black people get white hair in mid-40s generally. Any hair turning grey way earlier is termed as ‘prematurely grey’ with some background pathology in action or plainly genetics.

Why hair changes its color to white?

Hair is originally white. It gets pigment, melanin, through specialized cells called melanocytes. These cells pump this pigment into the hair follicles that gives hair a characteristic color. Melanin is of two predominant types: Eomelanin (dark pigment) and Pheomelanin (light pigment).

These combine in various proportions and produce a huge range of hair textures. The amount and combination of various melanin types are determined mainly by our genes.

Melanocytes start their secretion even before our birth and their function regresses with our age. Generally, melanocyte function decreases 10-20% every 10 years after age 30. How melanocyte function lessens with age is a mystery.

Scientists believe that our hair follicles have a ‘melanogenic clock’ that regulates hair pigmentation with age and hence, minimizes it with aging. Grey hair is a precursor of white hair, and contains less or no melanin at all due to inactive melanocytes.

The early scientific belief
Before scientific advancement, scientists thought that hair turned grey merely due to less or no production of melanin. Each hair has a separate melanin supply in the body.

With time and age, this supply lessens, producing grey hair, which culminates in complete inability to supply the pigment to the hair, thus causing white hair permanent.

The new scientific belief
Scientists have recently discovered a breakthrough in the aging process of hair. It is now believed that hair lose their pigment not due to decreased production of melanin, but increased production of hydrogen peroxide.
With old age, hydrogen peroxide collects in the hair follicles and cannot be degraded as the enzyme catalase loses its ability to do so. Hydrogen peroxide acts as a bleaching agent and whitens hair from inside out. Hence, the main culprit is the failure of the enzyme catalase to work in old age.

What actually causes white hair in humans?
Waytru started to see gray hair when he was 15 years old.
There are multiple causes that contribute to hair aging, each of them playing their own specific roles for targeting melanin in their own manner. Here, we look at a few that contribute most drastically.

Role of genes:
The pattern of hair color is determined by the family tree since greying of hair is largely dependent on genetics. Genes pretty much determine the melanogenic clock that rings right when our parents’ hair turned gray, so we follow their trademark.

If your hair is prematurely graying or turning white without any disease, stress or hormonal disruption, then perhaps, your DNA is to be blamed. Of course, your off-springs will continue the same genetic path for hair graying as you did.

Having white hair does not always mean that you carry a disease or bodily disruption, but they are just following a set code of instructions from our genes.

*Less vitamin intake

Balanced diet is the key to a healthy lifestyle. Several diet-related factors influence hair health. Vitamin deficiency is one of them, specifically deficiency of Vitamin B12.

If you take Vitamin B12 in your diet and it does not get absorbed, the condition is called pernicious anemia and requires medical treatment. In another case, lack of intake of Vitamin B12 can accelerate the graying of hair even at a younger age.

Therefore, one major clinical symptom of Vitamin B12 deficiency is unusual white hair. To obtain the optimum amount of this vitamin, we should incorporate eggs, yogurt, cheese, fish, beef, etc. frequently in our food.

*Hypothyroidism
Thyroid is one endocrine gland that affects the overall metabolism. An overactive or very slow thyroid function can produce add to depigmentation of hair. It is thus recommended to get the thyroid function checked if the hair starts graying prematurely.

Even when thyroid function is a little subnormal, the effects can really show on the scalp. To get treated, visit the doctor and switch to healthier diet options that contain iodine, like fish, carrots and bananas.

*Harmful Addictions
Taking care of health and following an active life can reduce hair fall and hair graying drastically. Unhealthy habits like smoking and drinking play a major role in premature hair whitening.

Unfortunately, these effects are reversible and the outcomes are very fruitful. Quitting smoking will decelerate whitening of hair by 4% in young people. Genetic factors and disease cannot be reversed at will, but unhealthy lifestyle can. The healthier you are, the better it will show on your skin and hair.

*Unbalanced diet
It is said that you are what you eat. Hence, eating a well-balanced diet will provide you all the nutrition your body needs. This complements the overall health of the body, and includes hair too.

Intake of nutrient-rich diet will keep you fit and healthy on the outside and inside, combating whitening of hair to a greater extent. So hair will shine with their natural color even at a vulnerable age.

*Intake of fluids
Hair need as much fluid for optimal growth and nourishment as any other part of our body. What you drink casually or what harmful drinks we are addicted to can serve as a harbinger to hair discoloration.

*Sudden trauma
It is undeniable that our emotional health is as integral as physical and mental well being. Emotional shock due to a bad news, heartbreak or an accident can play havoc for hair health. Although this concept is controversial, scientists still believe that such a mental shock can temporarily retard hair growth.

The underlying complex mechanism is still debatable, but the relation between trauma and growth graying can never be underestimated. The effect varies from person to person, but incidences of alopecia areata have been reported after several trauma exposures.

*Alopecia areata
While “overnight greying of hair” is an unbelievable happening, there exists a medical condition that people can misjudge as an overnight hair graying. Although rare, this disease causes loss of hair from some or all parts of the body instantaneously.

It is medically defined as non-scarring, loss of body hair from underlying causes such as inflammation. Hair loss can also occur in a patchy manner from the scalp, lowering the person’s self-esteem and emotional well being.

Hair growth may resume afterwards, but the new hair would have no pigment – they will most likely turn grey or white prematurely.

*Weber’s Syndrome
Certain irreversible autoimmune or genetic diseases can have severe outcomes: one of them is hair graying and hair loss. The uncommon genetic disease, called Weber’s syndrome, is a collection of symptoms that indicate senile behavior at an early as of teenagers.

In other words, a person as young as 20 who carries Weber’s syndrome will look like a 60s-old-man. Obviously, hair will grow white at this early age due to rapid aging, ending in early death.

*Hormonal imbalance
Hormones are released from endocrine organs of our body and keep the bodily functions in a complex way. A small imbalance in secretion or function of hormones can badly disturb the overall body balance. Every day, scientific research is proving that hormonal problems add to graying hair.

Medical conditions that results from these hormonal imbalances such as osteoporosis and diabetes can highly accelerate hair aging too. The root cause is the decreased melanocyte cell pigmentation which results from high or low hormone levels in the body.

*Vitiligo
As mentioned earlier, several irreversible medical conditions harm hair growth and pigmentation. One of those is vitiligo. It is a form of albinism that leaves patches of hair and skin unpigmented.

The underlying problem is with the immune system which mistakenly attacks its own scalp rather than a foreign antigen. Another interpretation involves the failure to get rid of accumulated hydrogen peroxide in this disease, hence white hair results.

Whatever be the major cause, vitiligo is a massive pigmentation disorder involving the melanocytes and leaves the body hair, patched with various shades of grey and white.

*Anemia
Anemia is one condition that is linked to countless bad outcomes. Anemia itself can occur due to many reasons, such as less production or high destruction of blood cells by the body, infections, prolonged bleeding, ulcers and nutrition deficiency.

Less red blood cells, and hence less hemoglobin, will lessen blood supply to each hair follicle and damage hair growth. The outcomes can be premature hair greying. Anemia, therefore, should be treated as soon as diagnosed to counter all side effects and save the hair from losing their pigment.

*Prolonged free radical damage
Ongoing scientific research has led to another discovery of reasons of hair graying. When the body is under continued stress, cells produce certain by-products that act locally and systemically in order to overcome the stressful situation.

This derives free radicals within the cells, which are unstable and highly harmful molecular bodies, that keep eroding the cellular function is not removed. It is discovered that these free radicals influence the melanocyte function and induce bleaching of hair roots.

It has been commonly observed that constant stress can accelerate hair whitening by minimizing melanin production, and science has also revealed the same.

Stress and White hair Let’s Clear The Fact:
With a hectic routine, tension of exams and stress about tight deadlines, greying of hair does seem an automatic phenomenon. Scientifically, the confusing connection between mental stress and hair aging has reaped many theories.

For one thing that is true: Stress does cause hair to go white. It has been proven with the help of many experiments that the main governing factor for the hair aging in every individual is his/her genetic make-up and overall health status. Stress can only partly accelerate or decelerate hair graying.

The mechanism of how stress causes hair whitening is still unknown. Many studies revealed that wherever the stress is generated in the body, the melanocytes migrate from hair follicles towards the area of stress, i.e. damaged tissue.

Hence, lack of melanocyte means lack of pigmentation in the hair. The more the level and duration of stress, the more apparent will be the outcome in terms of hair unpigmentation. Also, stress is also known to kill body’s stem cell store.

Stem cells are nascent cells that mature into any kind of cells needed by the body. Lack of stem cells also lessens the production of new melanocytes, thus hinders rich hair pigmentation.

To know more about the relationship between stress and white hair, you can read this article :- “Does Stress Govern The Problem of Hair Color? Do you Agree or Not?”

Can hair whiten overnight?
‘Hair turning white overnight’ is never witnessed, although the phrase is used idiomatically. In contrast, hair can whiten rather quickly due to some background reasons, but in its natural course, hair white slowly with time and age.

The production of pigment gets degenerated over time and results in grey, then white hair. There is a condition called Canities Subita in which hair whiten diffuse very quickly, but still, not overnight.

Then there are many nutrient deficiencies, autoimmune syndromes and diseases like alopecia areata, which contribute in premature graying of hair, but these factors have never been reported to whiten hair overnight or in just a day.

Does plucking away grey hair grows more back?
Sadly, many people believe that once a grey or white hair is plucked off, many will start growing in its place. Science has its reasons to prove this myth wrong. Microscopically, only one hair can grow in one hair follicle.

So if you pluck one grey hair from the follicle, it will never grow back more than one grey hair in its place. But the best choice is to cut the grey or white hair, and not pluck, since plucking can damage the hair follicle to such a degree than perhaps, no hair will grow from it again. Or in the least, try artificial chemical-free hair color.

What to do when grey hair grows the first time?
If you are a child, teenager, adult or aged person and suddenly locates few grey or white strands of hair, you can get really depressed about what to do at first. Haphazard management of greying hair can tarnish hair health and growth.

The matter needs to be dealt with responsibly and smartly. At first, don’t be sad and decide if you want to cover up your silver hair or let them show. If you want to cover up, choose a hair color sensibly and try an ammonia-free dye.

Avoid hair plucking as it can damage hair follicles – rather, cut your grey hair carefully. Also, do not neglect your diet. Remember, your hair is still the same, only the pigment is gone. Therefore, don’t forget to incorporate vitamins and proteins in your routine intake.

How to stop white hair from coming back:
Prevention is always better than cure. Taking a smart and easy preventive measures can save many regrets of graying hair. Following are few of them. Learn more about white hair treatment.

*Increase mineral intake
Minerals are needed in small amounts by the body, but are crucial for our health in many ways. In terms of hair, melanin is required for pigmentations. For melanin to function appropriately, copper is required.

Hence, balanced diet is the solution to all health problems. Copper works with an enzyme to transform tyrosine to melanin. Zinc, like copper, is also an integral mineral required regularly for hair. Switch to green vegetables, sunflower seeds, chicken, wheat, eggs, beef, etc. to boost your mineral intake.

*Get rid of stress
Stress can not only affect the body mentally and emotionally, it can also damage hair internally. To avoid premature graying of hair, avoid stress as much as possible. This can be done by being proactive and taking things positively.

Exercise can be very helpful too, along with a good diet. Yoga and meditation can also be the solution. Trying to ward off stressful situations is very comforting in many ways for the human body. Thus, lower down stress levels by busying yourself with other constructive activity as much as possible.

*Incorporate fresh juices
Intake of juices is an amazing way to keep the body hydrated. This does not include soda water and alcohol. Excessive caffeine-products like tea and coffee should be avoided when possible. Try to eat or rather drink fresh fruit juices regularly to help hair glow from inside out.

It is reported that carrot juice makes hair healthy and delays hair whitening. Fruit juices must be a major portion of daily food intake.

*Get more iodine
Iodine stabilizes thyroid functioning. Thyroid hormones are necessary for body’s balanced metabolism. Hence, increasing iodine intake is a good way of keeping the body in tune, especially the hair.

Add fish in your weekly menu and try to opt for iodize table salt for cooking and seasoning. Iodine can overcome rapidly greying hair as in one’s 20s or even 30s.

*Oil and massage
Oiling hair every once in a while brings back the healthy shine and regulates the blood supply of hair follicles, thus improving hair growth and stability. Amla oil is very famous for hair health. Massaging hair with amla juice and lemon juice stops hair graying to a great extent.

Also, freshly crushed amla fruit is a natural hair conditioner that can be massaged in the white hair over the scalp to combat depigmentation. Avoid chemicals in shampoos and other hair care products and shift towards natural oils and fruits for hair massaging.

*New research in hair care
The previous research that told the real reason for hair going white was well-established. Hydrogen peroxide bleaches hair roots and turns them white because the enzyme that degrades accumulated hydrogen peroxide is no more available.

Recently, though, scientists have extended that research and luckily found a brand new way to treat greying hair roots and depigmented skin, as in the case of vitiligo.

Although the treatment is mainly cosmetic, it will solve white hair problem of many in the future and improve their social life and self-esteem. The treatment is nothing but an agent that removes excessive hydrogen peroxide from the hair follicle when applied over the skin.

It is called an active compound of UVB or PC-KUS and is an alternative form of pseudocatalase, an enzyme that kills extra hydrogen peroxide.

Hair is precious to all, be it any gender and seeing them turn into a different boring color, can be very upsetting. Although hair aging depends largely on uncontrollable factors like genetics, the real deal is to be aware of the damaging contents and take preventive measures in order to keep the hair young even in a senile age.

Staying updated with the latest research and taking action to combat greying hair problem are two ways to contribute towards making the most of your understanding of hair aging.