One day you are living normally, and suddenly you see it. Your first gray hair. Then a lot of questions begin to haunt you: “Have I started to age yet? Is my hair all going to turn gray now? Should I pluck it out or leave it?”
Calm down. The growth of gray hair is a completely normal process that usually begins at a young age, and it happens little by little. We tell you everything you need to know about this first gray hair.
Why do gray hairs appear?
Gray hair appears when the body stops producing melanin, that is, pigment cells. It’s not that the hair is actually gray, it’s just not pigmented.
However, if you’ve ever inspected gray hair (you’re not alone, we’ve all done it), you’ll have seen that it looks rather yellow. This is because keratin, which is the protein that makes up hair, has a yellowish hue. So when your hair loses its melanin, the yellow hue of keratin appears.
Is the appearance of gray hair genetic?
The main cause behind gray hair is the genes you inherited, and it can be from your mother’s or father’s side of the family. If your mom and dad went gray when they were young, then you have a higher chance of it happening to you at that age. Conversely, if it wasn’t until later in life, you’ll most likely go down the same path.
Due to genetics, Caucasian people tend to go gray earlier (around age 30) than any other ethnicity, while those with African-American and Asian backgrounds tend to go gray later.
Stress also plays a role in the loss of melanin in the hair, but you should still have a genetic predisposition. Another factor associated with premature aging is vitamin B deficiency. This does not mean that if you take too much vitamin B your hair will not turn grey, but rather that if you have a deficiency of the vitamin you may get gray hair earlier than normal. .
How to hide gray hair?
Unfortunately, there is no way to reverse or slow the growth of gray hair. Rule number 1 is DO NOT TEAR THEM. If you repeatedly pull out any hair you can damage the hair follicle and eventually cause it to stop growing.
The options are to dye all your hair, do light highlights to camouflage them, or simply accept them and wear them with personality. In recent years, gray hair became a trend and many beauty salons began charging fortunes to achieve this color. What better than having it naturally!