Found my first white hair!

[Salmonberry]

I've been wondering lately when it would happen, I always thought they'd start coming when I was in my 30's, but I'm 23. I found it this morning right near my center part. My part kind of moved a bit from its normal spot and it revealed a fine, pure white baby hair about 2 1/2 inches in length. That means it's been hanging out under the radar for at least 3 months or more. And it's slightly wavier/kinkier than all of my other hairs.

My first instinct was to be really excited and happy! I think I can thank all of the beautiful and confident renegrays on this forum for my reaction! It feels like a rite of passage. Oh, and apparent it was totally unaffected by the henna glosses I've been doing lately, so I guess white hairs really are more resistant to it.

Now I'm a bit torn though. I love my natural color and letting it go might make me sad. I would love to have beautiful completely white hair someday. Does going gray earlier typically mean that you're more likely to go completely white? Or is there no way of knowing if I'll end up with half white, sandy blonde hair? (Which I could deal with I think, but there's something cool about completely white hair)

[earthnut]

Everyone's hair is very individual. I got my first white hair when I was 15. I'm in my 30's now and am a bit grayer than my peers but still 95% black haired. I doubt I'll ever go completely white, based on my family history. My mom started graying in her 20's and now in her 60's she has less gray hair than I do.

To get an idea of what your hair might do, look at your family, particularly your parents. If they went white quickly, you're more likely to. If they never got more than a sprinkling, you probably won't either. But everyone's hair is unique so you can't know for sure. But just because you start graying early doesn't mean you'll go white early.

BTW, 23 isn't unusual for getting your first gray hair, a third of women get their first gray hair before age 30.

[jacqueline101]

I'm waiting for mine I hope I gray like my mom two patches one at the timple one towards the back of her head. I'm not sure what age she was when she first had them coming in.

[PrincessIdril]

I found my first grey a couple of months back (I'm also 23), annoyingly I found it while doing S&D one day and given that my hair is in the waist length region you can imagine how long it had been hanging around! lol
But as of yet I haven't seen any others, so I wouldn't worry too much about losing your natural colour just now! :)

[Sunshineliz]

Yay! Sparklies! :cheer:

One hair is not enough to indicate how fast you'll silver though. I agree, look at your family. Mine is full of early grayers so it was perhaps inevitable that I found one at 20 and its just been spreading...faster and faster lately. But there are plenty of beautiful in-between stages before you hit full-on white. :)


(I don't know about glosses, but I did a strand test with henna and indigo when I was considering dyeing and it did indeed dye it. Still too orange for my taste, but it did work.)

[Bagginslover]

I LOVE my sparklies!! I didn't always-I've been pulling them out for years, but since I began henna-ing, and they turn neon orange(odd that mine take it really well, but it doesn't touch yours!) I'm never pulling another again! I was actually really upset the otherday when I found a shed one on my clothes!

I found my first when I was 18. I was digging around on my head (no idea why!) and found a super thick, crinkly feeling hair at the back of my head, so I pulled it out to look at it-it was white and as long as the rest of my hair (probably about APL at the time)! So it would have been growing for a couple of years before I first spotted it! I was grossed out, and that started my grey-pulling routine, which expanded into a crinkly-pulling routine, just in case they were grey......still battling that one :(

I am now 32, and have about 20 grey hairs I suppose (that I know of anyway). I have a little group behind my left ear, and another to the right of my center part, I'm hoping they'll encourage their neighbours to go silver too, so I can have 'natural' neon streaks (I have to bleach them in currently ;) )

[RavenBaby]

I have none so far but I have some light brown hairs that look like a shade close to grey when I look at them closely :P Like natural highlights.

[joflakes]

I'm 26 and I have a few! I don't worry about them. I kinda like them!

[lapushka]

Does going gray earlier typically mean that you're more likely to go completely white? Or is there no way of knowing if I'll end up with half white, sandy blonde hair? (Which I could deal with I think, but there's something cool about completely white hair)

There's no way of knowing how you're going to go gray. If you're a blonde, chances are there's going to be more whites than true grayes in there. But between finding one hair, and your head being completely covered, there can be many many *many* years!

[Springlets]

I don't know if you can totally trust how your parents hair went. My mother says she started going gray in her 20s, enough that she had to dye her hair. I think her hair has been completely silver/white for the past 20 years or so now. I'm 28 and don't have any grays (i'm quite surprised by this). My older sister has a few ( or so she tells me) but I've never noticed them. My dad didn't go silver until his late 40s and when he did, it was pretty quick (he was blond though). Maybe we just all take after my dad? :shrug:

[Salmonberry]

Thanks for all the responses. :) I guess I'll just have to wait and see. It's still kind of exciting. I feel like I've been inducted into a special club or something.

[Sunshineliz]

Well, you can hang out with us on the Salt n Pepper thread... ;D http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=16951&page=1898&p=2428565#post2428565

[woodswanderer]

I saw my first white hair at 23, but I haven't got as many as I expected to by 29. I probably have about 5 that I can find.

[Mesmerise]

I remember finding a couple of gray hairs at 21... I didn't really notice when I started getting more as I used to dye all the time! However, in my late 20s the regrowth at the sides was coming in sparkly, and now I have quite a few on the top of my head and at the sides (not so many at the back). I'm growing out my natural hair, and I've yet to figure out exactly what % of my hair is gray, but I'd say it's still under 20% (although higher percentages in various regions).

My parents still aren't completely gray (they're 68 and 73) although my maternal grandmother was apparently gray very young (totally gray in her 30s my mum said, and when I knew her as a kid she was completely gray, and I guess she was only in her 60s although I thought her very old!).

Graying occurs at different rates and one or two gray hairs relatively young really doesn't mean much as far as how quickly you'll start getting more gray hair!