Myth or Truth: Chemical Hair Dye and Going Gray

[XiaoBaiTu]

Hi guys,

So this is completely out of curiosity, as I've never dyed my hair and I'm college student (plus, my mother didn't even begin to gray until after 45). But, I've heard a lot of things about commercial chemical hair dyes and this is among the strangest. I was told as a child that people who use chemical coloring on their hair before they begin to gray will actually start to gray younger than they would have if they had not treated their hair. Is there any truth to this? I know lots of girls who color their hair for fun.

Hopefully someone can satisfy my curiosity. :p

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Well, I started colouring my hair when I was twenty one BECAUSE I had already started to go grey.

[Qz]

I don't buy that theory personally. It's a lessening of melanin in the hair that causes it to look gray, and I don't believe hair color will cause a lessening of melanin. In my experience it's aggravation and age that have that special power :D

[Llama]

Hmmm I've never heard that

[Darkhorse1]

Gray hair is the loss of pigment to the strand. I started getting white hairs at about 27---following my mom's footsteps. Genetics have a lot of play in hair/scalp etc. I didn't color my hair until I was 30 due to sun damage, and I went to the salon and only had demi -permanent color.

Coloring hair is a personal choice--I see kids coloring their hair as young as 11 today (sections of fun colors). They don't go gray so I think you're ok to color whenever/if ever you choose.

I do remember a girl at the barn was gray ---and VERY gray---at SIXTEEN! Her father can go prematurely gray in his 20s, so again, genetics were at play. She would have been fully gray by 20 if she didn't have it colored--and she had gorgeous, hip long dark, dark brown hair. I felt terrible for her going gray in high school---it was the under portion of her hair I saw when she leaned forwards and I thought she'd tried to dye is lighter. She said 'nope, it's gray'. She later had said 'I started going gray at sixteen'. :(

[Horrorpops]

I have never heard any science to back that up. I think greying hair is mainly a genetic thing which may have other influences such as stress and illnesses such as thyroid deficiencies.

Anecdotally I've known people to start greying in their late teens who have never dyed their hair.

So no, I would say there is no truth to that anecdotally or scientifically! :o

[Garnetgem]

Not heard of that one at all i always assume going gray is from within and genetics play a part..even deficiency in zinc can be a cause so can shock...

my sister went gray after giving birth at age 20 she had a dramatic birth and within weeks her hair went gray then white...she is 50 this year and is still dying her hair to try to disguise it..

i am 44 and have not yet found any grays but then again my mum is 73 and only now is she having her grays obviously i have inherited her genes hair wise..but no never heard of it lets hope its not true as those with grays will be worse off than before they cover up the few grays they start off with!

[Pearly~91]

I would say definitely a myth! Kind of like the 'shaving your legs makes your leg hair thicker' myth.

Maybe artificial color just makes gray hair more noticeable?

[pastina]

Another anecdote.... I'm thirty, I've been dying my hair since I was fourteen or fifteen, and I don't have any gray at all. I know because I'm very lazy with my root upkeep, lol!

[littlestarface]

I say not true, i've never dyed my hair but I started to have white hairs at 11 and now I have a crap ton of them at 30something, still havent dyed but I do henna.

[Sweets]

I would say not true, but who knows?

I have used a few permanent dyes over the years, but never after I turned 21 or 22. I used henna a few times, but I have kept my hair short since I was 24 and now, at 27, my hair is completely virgin. I only noticed grays in the last year, and now I have about 5 that are a beautiful white.

I blame it all on the stressful job that I started exactly a year ago! LOL. I still don't understand how the ENTIRE strand goes white all at once.

Salary positions are hard. I need more sleep and to eat better during the week. Weekend? I sleep a lot, exercise, de-stress, and eat good foods. During the week it's balls-to-the-walls and stressful.

[lapushka]

I don't see the link TBH. Going gray is an internal process; I doubt the dye contributes. But everyone goes gray differently and at a different age, sometimes it's easy to think something is related when it's not. :shrug:

[XiaoBaiTu]

Thank you for all the answers everyone! Good to here that it's just another hair myth, albeit a strange one.

[Arctic]

Myths often are strange and illogical when taken under careful analysis. I haven't found this to be true either with myself. I am approaching 40 and only now have enough whites that I can maybe star saying that I am graying. I saw my first one at around 30, and for years it seemed to be only one or two hairs. I spent 20 years of my life colouring my hair (although at least 5 of those were with henna)

[meteor]

Hi guys,

So this is completely out of curiosity, as I've never dyed my hair and I'm college student (plus, my mother didn't even begin to gray until after 45). But, I've heard a lot of things about commercial chemical hair dyes and this is among the strangest. I was told as a child that people who use chemical coloring on their hair before they begin to gray will actually start to gray younger than they would have if they had not treated their hair. Is there any truth to this? I know lots of girls who color their hair for fun.

Hopefully someone can satisfy my curiosity. :p

I've never heard of that. Did the people who said that explain this further or provide any support for this idea?

Until there is some scientific support to back this up, I'll consider this a myth, personally. :flower:

Granted, there are still some open questions about the exact mechanism behind graying and some interesting research being done..., but so far, we know that it is a genetically driven process.

[Anje]

Definitely hard to know what would have happened. I can say that my husband had some noticeable gray in his mid-20s including some sizable patches on his chin, and by late 30s his beard is completely white. He dyed it for a few years in there, first with henna and indigo and then later with some conventional dyes, but the white clearly preceded the coloring.

[Cg]

Hi guys,

So this is completely out of curiosity, as I've never dyed my hair and I'm college student (plus, my mother didn't even begin to gray until after 45). But, I've heard a lot of things about commercial chemical hair dyes and this is among the strangest. I was told as a child that people who use chemical coloring on their hair before they begin to gray will actually start to gray younger than they would have if they had not treated their hair. Is there any truth to this? I know lots of girls who color their hair for fun.

Hopefully someone can satisfy my curiosity. :p

That's a question impossible to test: If we dye, we'll never know what would have happened if we hadn't.