our hair bleaches itself as we grow older

[Missie]

Here's fascinating article about grey hair on physorg.com
link : http://www.physorg.com/news154616292.html

[SimplyLonghair]

Very interesting. Now if they just show how to prevent the buildup.:p

[DarkChocolate]

Interesting. Thanks for the information.

[Unofficial_Rose]

How fascinating! Pity we don't just get blonder ;)

[taliarose]

Hmmm, so that explains the white hairs I had as an infant. Thank goodness for henna! :eye:

[lora410]

This makes sense since I went from a dark brunette to a medium brown over the years.

[Sissy]

hey that's interesting. I didn't know it. I have a few white hairs already at age 29!

[Kerynna]

This makes me wonder if using emu oil as a scalp treatment could delay the onset of gray hair, because emu oil is very good at penetrating hair follicles and acting as a transdermal carrier. So maybe it could prevent the clogging of the hair follicle. (There's a thread here recently about emu oil possibly darkening hair - maybe it doesn't so much darken it as it does reduce the hydrogen peroxide buildup .... ?)


. According to clinical studies in Australia and the U.S, emu oil is an excellent anti-inflammatory agent that can rejuvenate skin cells and produce up to 80% in healthy hair growth. Specifically, emu oil can penetrate tissue cells faster and more effectively than most other mechanisms.


http://www.farrellmanual.com/topical/emu.htm

[Gothic Lolita]

Strange. My father was born with white hair and had extremly blond hair during his childhood. It got darker and darker and as an adult, he has black hair now. My sister is the same, every year her hair gets darker. Grey hair is uncommon in my family. Most member have black hair and only get very few greyish hair at their temples.

[lilalong]

Yes. I was also under the impression that hair darkens over time..

[Butterflylady]

Thanks for the information. Maybe there will be a cure for going gray soon. That would be awsome!

[spidermom]

That's very interesting. I was looking at my hair yesterday and found myself marveling that it looks like somebody highlighted single hairs as well as groups of hairs. I couldn't have paid for a better highlighting job! I think this picture captures it best:
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/spidermom/hairpin.jpg

And to think - my follicles did that all by themselves. Good job, follicles!

[Katla]

Strange. My father was born with white hair and had extremly blond hair during his childhood. It got darker and darker and as an adult, he has black hair now. My sister is the same, every year her hair gets darker. Grey hair is uncommon in my family. Most member have black hair and only get very few greyish hair at their temples.

Same here. I was very, very light blonde as a kid, while my current hair colour is the one in my icon and still gets darker. Same with my dad. It's completely different with my oldest cousin, who got his first grey hairs in his early twenties (his dad - my dad's brother - got grey hairs early, too).

[Starr]

How interesting!

So if Vitamin C inhibits hydrogen peroxide from being as effective, then could citric acid rinses potentially slow down graying?

Ktani, any thoughts?

[earthdancer]

Many people get darker as they get older, at least from babyhood through their teens or twenties. Then they start "drabbing out" or getting gray hairs.

I started out as a baby with dark brown hair, which turned bright red about age 2 or 3, then it darkened to auburn. In middle age, the auburn turned to drab brown (which I bleach very slightly to reddish golden brown) and now at 54, I have occasional gray and white hairs. Neither my father nor mother ever went gray, even though all 4 of my grandparents went gray/white, as well as my parents' siblings. None of my 3 siblings have gone gray, not even my 66-year-old brother, who has had pale-blond hair his entire life (another exception to the norm). My 47-year-old sister had pale blonde hair through her teens, then it went dark golden blonde, and that is where she still is.

So I guess my point is that I have no idea what makes someone's hair turn gray and someone else's does not. If it were simply heredity, you would think my entire family would be gray.

[Atlantic]

Well, this explains why the areas where I've habitually pulled hair out are the first to go grey. I have a very few grey hairs in other places, but a definite greyish section at the crown.

[canary4624]

I think that hair getting darker after childhood has more to do with hormonal changes that come with puberty, so it's a separate process. Many people find their hair becomes more coarse after puberty as well. I know I did :undecided

[Teazel]

Verrry interesting! :bigeyes: Now that the cause has been pinpointed, I'm sure a race is on to come up with a product that will restore pigment.

Hmm. As much as I like my silvers, what would I do if I were offered the opportunity to regain the colour I had as a young woman?

[nutsenmai]

I love science!

[GlennaGirl]

I'm not getting something, or maybe I just didn't read this correctly: how can hair be gray due to totally being bleached-out, if when we bleach our hair under normal circumstances it turns lemon yellow, pink and then eventually white?

I have never heard of a person bleaching his or her hair with a peroxide product and having it end up gray.

[spidermom]

I'm not getting something, or maybe I just didn't read this correctly: how can hair be gray due to totally being bleached-out, if when we bleach our hair under normal circumstances it turns lemon yellow, pink and then eventually white?

I have never heard of a person bleaching his or her hair with a peroxide product and having it end up gray.

Now that is a very good point.

[Pegasus Marsters]

I'm not getting something, or maybe I just didn't read this correctly: how can hair be gray due to totally being bleached-out, if when we bleach our hair under normal circumstances it turns lemon yellow, pink and then eventually white?

I have never heard of a person bleaching his or her hair with a peroxide product and having it end up gray.

Woah...

Why did none of us point that out sooner?

:lol:

[teela1978]

I think the news articles are stating it oddly. It's not so much that the hairs are getting bleached before they get to the surface. Melanin is not being produced because the melanin-producing cells at the base of the hair are getting stressed out by the presence of hydrogen peroxide, so no melanin is being put into the hair in the first place.

[nessthing]

I think the news articles are stating it oddly. It's not so much that the hairs are getting bleached before they get to the surface. Melanin is not being produced because the melanin-producing cells at the base of the hair are getting stressed out by the presence of hydrogen peroxide, so no melanin is being put into the hair in the first place.

Yeah, the process is probably way different than bleaching hair that's already grown with pigment inside of it. Chemical changes after the fact just work differently. Kind of like how brown dye can go green on really pale bleached hair?

[ktani]

How interesting!

So if Vitamin C inhibits hydrogen peroxide from being as effective, then could citric acid rinses potentially slow down graying?

Ktani, any thoughts?

I do not think it is that simple in this case. Aloe gel contains 3 x the Vitamin C of raw lemon juice, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=83009&postcount=429. People who use aloe gel on their hair still go grey.

This research is different from this research from 2007.

"Scientists researching into skin cancer .... explanation as to why hair follicles turn grey....
.... report posted in the journal Science by the Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute traces the loss of hair colour to the gradual dying off of adult stem cells, called melanocytes, that provide a reservoir for the renewal of pigment-manufacturing cells.
.... Also diminishes shine ....
.... research showed .... loss of melanocytes not only leads to a greying of the hair, but it also diminishes hues that give the hair shaft a shiny, healthier and more youthful looking appearance.
Melanocytes .... manufacture and store the pigment that combines with hair-making cells called keratinocytes to colour the hair, are specialised cells spawned by colourless melanocyte stem cells.
.... during the greying process is that the melanocyte cells not only become depleted, they also make errors as they age, turning into 'fully committed' pigment cells that position themselves in the wrong part of the hair follicle, thus leading to a loss of pigmentation."
http://www.health24.com/news/Skin_Hair/1-945,39882.asp

[teela1978]

Yeah, the process is probably way different than bleaching hair that's already grown with pigment inside of it. Chemical changes after the fact just work differently. Kind of like how brown dye can go green on really pale bleached hair?

Yupp. It's interesting how things like this get spread around. Is it really news? We've known (I'm sure I could find it on this board if I looked) that hairs turn white/gray/silver because melanocytes stop producing melanin for a very long time. Now we know that it's a buildup of hydrogren peroxide that is stressing them out and stopping the melanin production. Teeny tiny step in the scientific process.

To use that info towards getting melanocytes to start producing melanin again is something that will take another few decades at least (assuming that stressed melanocytes will start producing melanin again).

[canary4624]

Woah...

Why did none of us point that out sooner?

:lol:

I think I remember reading somewhere on the web that the color progression with peroxide + ammonia is (depending on your original color) orange, yellow, white, but with just peroxide it's gray, then white. I'll post if I can find where it was...

[ktani]

I think I remember reading somewhere on the web that the color progression with peroxide + ammonia is (depending on your original color) orange, yellow, white, but with just peroxide it's gray, then white. I'll post if I can find where it was...

I have never seen that. I hope that your find the information.

[GlennaGirl]

nm. :) .......

[ktani]

Oddly enough, I knew a woman in her '60s who had her hair coloured light blonde. One time I saw her and her hair was steel grey. I do not know what was used but she told me that the colourist had made a mistake and the next time I saw her, her hair was back to light blonde.

I am guessing that it was a toner mishap, http://haircrazy.info/dyeingtechniques/going-whitesilver/.

[Themyst]

My dad is in his seventies. His family is from northern Wales and he has jet black hair - hardly any gray at all. Why would this be? He's never colored it or anything.

[MadPirateBippy]

I figure in 10-20 years there will be scalp injections that will get rid of your grey hairs. The question is, how many people will take them up on it? :)

Kind of like botox but instead of not being able to frown, you get your original hair color back.

[ktani]

This video http://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/2009/02/25/SciTech-Why-does-hair-turn/1235603755.html, explains the new reasearch much better IMO, than the article.

It is not that the peroxide bleaches the hair. As it was said here earlier http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=479267&postcount=23, the hydrogen peroxide impedes the production of melanin. It just makes a better news headline stated the other way, and it makes it confusing.

[teela1978]

I figure in 10-20 years there will be scalp injections that will get rid of your grey hairs. The question is, how many people will take them up on it? :)

Kind of like botox but instead of not being able to frown, you get your original hair color back.

I actually think it's likely to be more of a preventative thing, like rogaine is for hair loss. A product that you rub into your scalp to keep your hair from going gray. A few hairs might go back to being pigmented, but I have a feeling that once pigment-producing cells are damaged enough to stop making melanin they won't start making it again very easily.

[ktani]

This, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20040927/ai_n11479312 goes back at least to 2004, people questioning whether certain drugs can affect hair colour.

And still comes up in 2009, http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-pharmacy26-2009jan26,0,7762114.column.

"Minoxidil may cause increased growth or darkening of fine body hairs"
http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-8680-Minoxidil+Oral.aspx?drugid=8680&drugname=Minoxidil+Oral

[adiapalic]

Really interesting article. I've often wondered why gray hair will sometimes be concentrated in specific areas over a person's head. For example, there are pictures of my grampa who grayed at the temples, and the rest of his hair was solid black when he was in his mid 50's.

As far as hair changing shades as one gets older, mine was nearly black when I was in elementary school, and now it's a dark reddish brown. The ends of my hair have become old and sun-bleached, and look like a mid-red color (especially when contrasted to the hair on my head).

[canary4624]

Well, I couldn't find it again, but if the peroxide is preventing the production of melanin rather than lightening it, it's kind of irrelevent anyway.


Really interesting article. I've often wondered why gray hair will sometimes be concentrated in specific areas over a person's head. For example, there are pictures of my grampa who grayed at the temples, and the rest of his hair was solid black when he was in his mid 50's.


I wonder if this is because the hair at the temples is thinner? Or maybe because the follicles there experience more damage, being exposed at the front of the scalp and all. :shrug:

[feralnature]

Thanks to the OP for the link:)

[Für immer]

Was born with it so to me it doesn't really matter