Gray hair now coming in dark colored

[missmaggieeliza]

PHEW I feel foolish even making this statement. If I did not see it happening I would not believe it and still not sure I do.

So I have almost white gray hair all over and have been this way for years. Once in awhile I will find one long red hair if the sun light is just right and wonder if it is the last red hair. I was a natural red head.

Last night while using the magnifying mirror to look at some thing on my forehead close to my hair line I was noticing all these dark hairs in my very light gray. On closer inspection I noticed they are all short not over 2 inches long most less than two inches. I have been using Loreal conditioner on my hair a few months but only or mostly on the ends. I am sure a little bit might close to my scalp in rinsing. My ends are not turning dark though so I do not think it is the conditioner. The dark hairs are scattered through out my hair like the gray hairs were when I first turned gray over 30 years ago. I can not think of anything else I have changed.

Has any one heard of this happening?

[Unofficial_Rose]

Never heard of it but I am beside myself with envy. I tried growing out my grey and although the colour was pretty it did not suit my complexion in the slightest.

Did you start some new vitamins by any chance? Or anything that could affect hormones? (if that's too personal please dn't be offended).

[mira-chan]

Seconding Unofficial_Rose on the vitamins and hormones. Also any diet changes?

Sometimes hair get prematurely grey/white due to deficiencies or health issues and some color can come back once that is corrected.

[parallellines]

Hello missmaggieeliza. Glad you mentioned this as I have gone through the same thing.

Over the last five years, many dark gray hairs have appeared among the original, lighter gray hairs. As most of my hair is now virgin (except for the very front section) the colour change is somewhat noticeable, and so far I like it. The darker hairs have not broken off and continue to grow so I sort of anticipate them staying with me for a few years.

Cannot say I can relate it to any products. I thought it was just my hair expressing itself with age. :disco:

[missmaggieeliza]

Never heard of it but I am beside myself with envy. I tried growing out my grey and although the colour was pretty it did not suit my complexion in the slightest.

Did you start some new vitamins by any chance? Or anything that could affect hormones? (if that's too personal please don't be offended).

Please do not worry about offending me. I am not that kind of gal. No vitamin change. Been on the same vitamins for years. Because I am lazy I just take the prenatal vitamins because they seem to have everything even though I am almost 68 and far from considering babies. Menopause happened or started about 40 and ended about 16 years later. What a drag that was.

My diet is 98% meat butter eggs fish cheese and almond milk and I have been eating this way for three years and feeling great and my blood work is much better than it was before I changed my diet.

When I turned 65 and got medicare I was finally able to get my thyroid meds back. That was wonderful for me because I was a mess with out them but no insurance I could not afford the doctor visits and blood work ups needed. This has been almost three years ago.

I do not remember exactly when this happened I did have a major hair fall out of hair a couple of years ago and now it is not falling out but a lot of it has broken off. And still recovering from the vacuum cleaner disaster when my hair got caught in the beater bar and ripped out tons of it. So sad for that. Had to cut about 6 inches off then more and still have a large chopped spot in the center back growing out.

I was thinking stress relief after hubby passed away last August. But the stress of being a new widow is not all that much easier than caring for him other than I am probably getting more sleep and allowing myself lots of slack around here. But over all I am a total worker bee and not just sitting around painting my nails.

Well I think it might be good to have some color back in my hair. It really does wipe out my facial color what I had as being a red head my skin is also very light except for the old lady brown spots.

Thanks for answering on this. I just noticed it last night. I will be curious what my Doc says when I go to him in September for my annual check up.

[missmaggieeliza]

Hello missmaggieeliza. Glad you mentioned this as I have gone through the same thing.

Over the last five years, many dark gray hairs have appeared among the original, lighter gray hairs. As most of my hair is now virgin (except for the very front section) the colour change is somewhat noticeable, and so far I like it. The darker hairs have not broken off and continue to grow so I sort of anticipate them staying with me for a few years.

Cannot say I can relate it to any products. I thought it was just my hair expressing itself with age. :disco:

Oh wow thank you for this answer. I also think I would appreciate some darker hairs. My hair did turn pretty dark, not the red I had, and then turned really gray. The dark now might be a really dark gray but it looks even darker than that. Well I will take it as long as it is some color. Now I hope people do not think I am dying my hair. Not that it is bad to dye your hair and it is obvious this is not dye now because the dark hairs are so evenly scattered within the very light gray. Honestly I was even considering doing some rinses or some thing to give me color. And now this. I will see if I can get a photo showing this. I need 6 hands for camera mirror then shooting photo. LOL

[mira-chan]

My condolences on your husband's passing. My father passed away this February and I'm now living with my Mom to help her with anything we can. Dad was sick for a while before he passed too. It is something extremely stressful to deal with. :grouphug:

I think with the stress reduction, mediation having been handled and the stress reducing a bit might be helping the effects of your diet to fully kick in. Hair is the last thing on the body's priority list of taking care of things, along with nails. So those tend to show problems from stress and health first, and show improvements last.

The hair that grew during the most stressful period is probably the most fragile. Your new growth is coming through now showing some physical recovery. Even then, it's still a good idea to check with your doctor.

[missmaggieeliza]

My condolences on your husband's passing. My father passed away this February and I'm now living with my Mom to help her with anything we can. Dad was sick for a while before he passed too. It is something extremely stressful to deal with. :grouphug:

I think with the stress reduction, mediation having been handled and the stress reducing a bit might be helping the effects of your diet to fully kick in. Hair is the last thing on the body's priority list of taking care of things, along with nails. So those tend to show problems from stress and health first, and show improvements last.

The hair that grew during the most stressful period is probably the most fragile. Your new growth is coming through now showing some physical recovery. Even then, it's still a good idea to check with your doctor.

mira-chan,

I am also sorry for the loss of your Father. Loss is always hard even when they have been sick for several years. Hubby had pancreas cancer for almost 4 years. I wish you and your Mom well. It is nice you can move in to help her through some of this. I think now I have the paperwork sorted Course just when I say that some thing else comes in. UGH.

I happened to have "call doctor" on my list for my arthritis and the issue on my forehead I was looking at last night when I discovered all this dark hair coming in. So I ended up with an appointment for tomorrow with him at the crack of dawn. UGH and he is 45 miles away. I am thinking some of it certainly could be the relief of stress even though being a new widow is some what stressful in itself. I will not be disappointed to have my hair come back with some color. It would also be a bit amazing to me having been so light gray for so many years to go darker again. I will report in what he has to say about it. It is definitely just short hairs that are dark. So this is a new happening. And also very interesting hair and nails are the last to heal. I do need to try for a photo. Document this event.

Thanks again for your comments.

[mira-chan]

mira-chan,

I am also sorry for the loss of your Father. Loss is always hard even when they have been sick for several years. Hubby had pancreas cancer for almost 4 years. I wish you and your Mom well. It is nice you can move in to help her through some of this. I think now I have the paperwork sorted Course just when I say that some thing else comes in. UGH.

I happened to have "call doctor" on my list for my arthritis and the issue on my forehead I was looking at last night when I discovered all this dark hair coming in. So I ended up with an appointment for tomorrow with him at the crack of dawn. UGH and he is 45 miles away. I am thinking some of it certainly could be the relief of stress even though being a new widow is some what stressful in itself. I will not be disappointed to have my hair come back with some color. It would also be a bit amazing to me having been so light gray for so many years to go darker again. I will report in what he has to say about it. It is definitely just short hairs that are dark. So this is a new happening. And also very interesting hair and nails are the last to heal. I do need to try for a photo. Document this event.

Thanks again for your comments.

Thank you. We're still battling with the paperwork. It will take months to get through all of it. I hope you don't get any more surprises there.

I hope the doctor helps clear this up, even if it will be so early. That's quite a trip too.

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the new color your hair surprised you with. :)

[Stub]

I've had that happen, grey hairs on the end but the roots were growing in colored. I attributed it at the time to me taking diatomaceous earth, which I was giving to my dog to treat/prevent parasites. I had started taking it myself bc I work with many different dogs all day and figured if my dog could have worms so could I. That was years ago and all my greys are now fully grey again. lol. I don't KNOW if it was the DE or vitamins or something else. I tend to go in cycles with my eating habits so it could very well have been just that I was eating better at the time, too. It was a fun discovery though!

[missmaggieeliza]

I've had that happen, grey hairs on the end but the roots were growing in colored. I attributed it at the time to me taking diatomaceous earth, which I was giving to my dog to treat/prevent parasites. I had started taking it myself bc I work with many different dogs all day and figured if my dog could have worms so could I. That was years ago and all my greys are now fully grey again. lol. I don't KNOW if it was the DE or vitamins or something else. I tend to go in cycles with my eating habits so it could very well have been just that I was eating better at the time, too. It was a fun discovery though!

That is interesting too. Difference for me is only the new short hairs are colored. None of the longer gray hairs have color. I was looking again to be sure this is what I am seeing and I can separate the dark hairs from the gray and all of them are short. None over 2 inches. My vision , even with glasses, is not all that great. I would not have noticed this with out having used the magnifying glass mirror to look at that spot on my forehead. Now I can tell there is a big difference in the amount of hair I have. This darker hair is filling in. This is amazing to me and whatever I did to make it happen I hope it keeps happening. Kind of exciting and I hope it stays with me.

[DarkChocolate]

Possibly you have foods in your diet that are high in copper. Copper helps restore natural hair color.

[missmaggieeliza]

Possibly you have foods in your diet that are high in copper. Copper helps restore natural hair color.

I googled for that and none of the top ten foods with copper are in my diet. There is some copper in the multivitamin I have been taking for several years. About 25% DV. I did take molasses years ago trying to get some color into my hair. I read some where it might help. All it did was make me hate molasses. LOL

I will be really curious what the doctor says about it tomorrow. He has been closely watching my hair because of the huge fall out I had a couple of years ago and my scalp was getting very visible. I will report in when I get home.

Thank you all for commenting. At least I know this is possible. I really had no idea.

[Prism]

I do not remember exactly when this happened I did have a major hair fall out of hair a couple of years ago and now it is not falling out but a lot of it has broken off. And still recovering from the vacuum cleaner disaster when my hair got caught in the beater bar and ripped out tons of it. So sad for that. Had to cut about 6 inches off then more and still have a large chopped spot in the center back growing out.

Yikes! I'm sorry to hear that. It sounds incredibly painful, not to mention upsetting to have to cut off so much. shudder:

[missmaggieeliza]

Yikes! I'm sorry to hear that. It sounds incredibly painful, not to mention upsetting to have to cut off so much. shudder:

Actually yes it was. I cried not so much for the pain but to have lost so much and had to cut even more. There were some total bald spots. I keep trimming off the super fairy ends on either side of the big hunk gone. I just can not bring myself to just chop it all off up to the broken edge. Last time I trimmed it I think I cut off another 4 inches. I just want my hair back long and healthy. Don't we all?

[missmaggieeliza]

Well the doctor is trying to help my arthritis. sigh. The good news is he also saw the very dark hairs and said it is not all that common to happen but some thing triggered my hair follicles to start producing color again. Even better news is he said there are a lot of them all over my head and a hair usually lasts three years so I might have some colored hair for a little bit. At this point is it not so much of what is there now in the dark to turn my over all hair color darker but he said he could see really short ones coming in too. Soooo. Will be fun to see what happens.