Gray Hair?

When it comes to your hair, there’s no getting around it. You cannot stop it from turning gray as you get older, no matter how hard you try.

“Just as the skin ages and the rest of the organs in your body age, the hair ages, too,” Helen He, an assistant professor in the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told The Washington Post.

If you’re like most people, you’ll probably see your first gray strand before you turn 50. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, gray hair typically appears for most people in their 30s and 40s. At these ages, the hair follicle cells that add pigment to the hair shaft, known as melanocyte stem cells, may become depleted or dysfunctional.

“There’s not really a whole lot known about why the melanocyte stem cells die off,” George Cotsarelis, chair of the dermatology department at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a hair-follicle stem-cell researcher, told The Washington Post. However, stress, DNA damage, and several other reasons, “are thought to maybe prevent these stem cells from surviving,” he said.

Cotsarelis explained that “cellular senescence” is the process that causes black, brown, red, or blond strands to lose their pigment over time and turn gray or silver-white. Some people even notice that their hair texture becomes coarser when it turns gray.

Factors Involved In The Graying Process

Scientists believe a variety of factors contribute to your hair turning gray over time.

Age

Experts point to age as the primary factor for hair turning gray. However, more recent research suggests “the pattern of pigmentation is more of a live thing than something that’s set in stone,” Natasha Mesinkovska, a dermatologist at UCI Health who has studied hair graying, told The Washington Post. This means that factors other than age may have a greater influence on the graying process than previously thought.

Genes

Experts say that genes play a major role in the process, which means you may go gray in a similar way to how your parents did. “In the end, that’s what’s determining when you go gray,” Cotsarelis said.

Research has found that the genes that determine when your hair turns gray may also be involved in balding, eyebrow shape, and beard thickness.
Cotsarelis said genes are also involved in graying prematurely, which can occur before age 20 for Caucasians, before age 25 for Asians, and before age 30 for Black people.

Inherited Disorders

Genetic variants can also affect the graying process. For example, the IRF4 variant is “strongly linked to earlier graying,” Mesinkovska said. While uncommon, inherited conditions like Griscelli syndrome, which affects pigment, can cause gray hair from birth.

Ethnicity

Studies suggest that Caucasian individuals tend to gray earlier than people of African and Asian descent, and those with natural blond hair could experience a higher rate of early graying.

Lifestyle

There’s still a lot that experts do not understand about how lifestyle affects the graying process. Some studies, however, have linked certain nutritional deficiencies, such as vitamin B12 and iron deficiencies, to premature graying. Such nutritional deficiencies would probably be severe, though, Cotsarelis said, “not something you’re likely to find too often in the U.S.”

While certain mineral deficiencies have been associated with premature graying, most people won’t need supplements, Cotsarelis said. However, it’s important to make sure your diet meets all your nutritional needs.

Stress

“It’s always kind of noted that people who are under stress seem to go gray,” Sarah Millar, a professor in the department of oncological sciences and the dermatology department at Mount Sinai, told The Washington Post.

Stress can also cause a loss of melanocyte stem cells in mice, according to a 2020 study in the journal Nature. Once the sympathetic nervous system, commonly known as the “fight or flight” response, was activated, the melanocyte stem cells seemed to “basically proliferate and differentiate and migrate away from their kind of niche home,” said Millar, who has researched melanocyte stem cells.

That study “was really the first time there’d been a mechanistic link between activation of neurons by stress and the result of hair graying,” she said. “That was very interesting.”

Another study connected graying and stress in humans. Researchers from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons examined individual hairs from 14 volunteers. They noticed a link between graying and higher stress levels reported by participants.

It’s still unknown whether reducing stress will slow down graying. Experts say more research is needed to determine that aspect. “I do believe that chronic things exhaust you,” Mesinkovska said, “and that’s why mice studies show—if you bug them nonstop, it will make them go gray.”

Is It Possible to Slow Down or Reverse the Gray?

So, what can you do about gray hair? According to Cotsarelis, other than making lifestyle changes and dyeing your hair, “there isn’t really a whole lot you can do.”

“In the past, the field was really focused on characterizing the changes of melanocyte stem cells,” Mayumi Ito Suzuki, a professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told The Washington Post. “The next step is to understand how to reverse these changes to not have gray hair.”

While some over-the-counter topical products claim to reverse graying, He says “none of them have proven efficacy.” Topical treatments generally face challenges because the melanocyte stem cells that produce pigment are located at the base of the hair follicle. This is why drugs like Latisse, designed to grow, thicken, and darken eyelashes, “just don’t work on the scalp,” Cotsarelis said. “The skin is too thick.”

Another topical drug, rapamycin, may help restimulate melanin, according to a 2023 study from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. However, rapamycin, an immunosuppressant, is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for this use, but is FDA-approved to prevent organ rejection. Millar cautioned that rapamycin is “a fairly potent drug.”

Mesinkovska recommended consulting your doctor if you’re graying early.
“If someone comes to me and says, ‘I have early graying,’ I look for the reason,” she said.

Since there isn’t always one specific cause, it’s possible that correcting nutritional deficiencies, a thyroid disorder, or inflammation might help, she added.

If you are not fond of your gray strands, you may be tempted to pluck them out. However, there is no guarantee the strands will have their original color when they grow back. He recommends putting the tweezers away.

“There is a myth that if you pluck out gray hair, you’re going to get more gray hairs—that’s not necessarily true, but it’s not an effective strategy,” He said. “More likely than not, the hair that grows out of the follicle next will be gray.”

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https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/why-hair-turns-gray-143949268.html