First gray hairs?

[catekat]

I'm not yet 18 and lately I've found a few gray hairs in my brush and on my head. It's not really noticable unless you scour my hair for long periods of time (which I do when I go split-end hunting :p), so it doesn't bother me. Mostly I'm just curious and amused by it.

Can you guys recall finding your first gray hair? If so, how young were you? I'm wondering whether it's normal to get them this young. A dentist friend of mine said they can be caused by stress. I get the feeling that's just a myth, although it would explain a lot :rolleyes:.

[DARKMARTIAN]

I was in my mid to late 20's I think.......im now 36 and ive got a streak on each side of my head.
(in "typical" Italian fashion) It can really only be seen when my hair is ponytailed though. But ive got near three foot long white hairs now... (3' ft long......not 3 twelve inch hairs..:p)
I think my right side is a bit more pronounced though.....:o

[jaine]

I was 22 when I found my first white hair and I plucked that one. Now I'm 29 and I see 3 or 4 more in the same spot ...I'm keeping them and I hope it turns into a white streak!! :)

[sunshine80]

I turn 30 on thurs I found like 3 gray hairs...I will embrace my gray :)

[Victorious]

I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 26. At the time I was told I might die in 3 months or I might live another 10 years. I never thought I would live long enough to have white hairs, so when I found the first one I named it. Over the years I've named several.

Dark Martian, How do I get that fist punch you added to the bus slider posting?

[nytquill]

I found one earlier this year, so 24. I plucked it (so I could get a closer look at it) and it was definitely silver. I wanted to be sure cause I have some individual blond hairs that look sparkly in the light.

I haven't found any others since and that one doesn't seem to have grown back (yet). I'm wondering how one has a "one-off" gray hair but that's what it seems like right now.

My husband is in his very early 30s and has a sprinkling of gray now too. 18 is maybe on the young side but definitely not unheard of or abnormal. A guy I went to school with has been nearly completely bald since his mid-20s. Everybody's different! :)

[DorothyAtForty]

I just found my first gray hair yesterday :laugh:!!

[Victorious]

A friend noticed that my Mr. T hair (It stands up strong and proud, and can't be missed in a crowd.) is now got a brown root. A white hair with a brown root. Anybody else with that going on?

[boomtownrat]

I was 14 when I found my first white hair. As my albums will attest, 23 years later I am a complete silver-head. By the time I was 36, I had turned almost entirely silver, white, and on the nape, more of a hematite colour. ;)

[Shicurls]

I found my first grey at 29. Over the last year and a half of battling Chronic Lyme Disease, they have increased! My mom started going grey at 16. She looks really cool with salt and pepper hair! She has a strong Native American background, and her hair is really, really dark where it isn't white or silver.

Mine just look like blonde streaks in my multi-hued brunette hair! :lol:

[1hunky5monkeys]

Im 32 & have 7 or 8 gray hairs that are about 2 inches long--Right in the front of my hair line in the middle. I'm not about to pull them and coloring them is out of the question. It just doesn't bother me. Guess I'll have a cool natural, sparkly streak down the middle of my hair.
My moms hair used to be a coppery red color. When she started getting gray, her hair turned strawberry blonde! It is gorgeous!

[fairystar32]

I am 36 and yet to find any grey, i know am pretty lucky though but am glad I will be use henna, so they will be covered when they appear :)

[Flossy]

I haven't had any yet (at 32) and they don't seem to run in my family (my nan is 92 with salt and pepper hair still, more dark than grey) but DH is 35 with almost totally silver hair. He said it started when he was about 18. I call him my 'silver fox'! LOL

[little_cherry]

I was 15....by the time I was 18, I got stuck into the boxed dyes.. Now I henna and love the contrast of henna silvers and my hennaed med-dark ash brown.

[LisaMonster]

I'm 21, and in the past year or so, I've caught about three of them. Eek.

[DARKMARTIAN]

I was diagnosed with cancer when I was 26. At the time I was told I might die in 3 months or I might live another 10 years. I never thought I would live long enough to have white hairs, so when I found the first one I named it. Over the years I've named several.

Dark Martian, How do I get that fist punch you added to the bus slider posting?

Wow Victorious....I sure hope your doing okay. Ive known family and friends diagnosed as well. Just stay focused and believe that youve got many more hairs to name.
About the punch......you should be able to just right click it and save it to your computer. Ill send you the link though....:)

[Yozhik]

I got my first gray hair when I was studying for the SATs! :rolleyes:

Then it went away, I think.

Occasionally I think I've found more, but even though my hair is dark, it's difficult to tell if my grays are actual grays or just abnormal blond hairs on my dark-haired head. :)

[mellie]

I was 18 when I got my first three. It's perfectly normal.

[mrs_coffee]

I think I was around 20 when I found my first gray...or rather my stylist mentioned it to me. When I was 25 or so I found enough of them to make me start coloring my hair; I think we counted 15 or 16 before we gave up. I went and had my hair colored the following week.

[catekat]

It's interesting to hear everyones' stories. I feel less abnormal now :D.

I don't expect to have a substantial amount of gray hair for a long time, but when I do, I'm going to try henna. I'd love to have awesome reddish highlights.

[Adiva]

I noticed my first silvers on my 26th birthday. I'm sure I must have been looking in the mirror harder than usual that day knowing that my mum got her first greys at the same age because I'm certain a streak of them didn't just appear over night. In the 4 years since, my streak above my left temple has become more prominant, especially when I have my hair up high, but at this stage, I'm not too worried about doing anything about it, I'm especially encouraged after reading what everyone has said on here :)
My husband had a few silvers when we met (he was 18 ), now at age 31 he would be at least 30% grey... but I love them ;)

[milagro]

I noticed my first gray when I was 28. I guess it had been there for a while and just not too obvious because my hair is not dark and it also gets easily sun-bleached in summer if not protected. So very little gray sort of blended in.
Now I'm 35 and have like 20% gray along my hairline and on top of the head :( It drives me crazy 'cause I have to dye the roots every 4 weeks. Otherwise it is very visible and the hair close to the scalp looks thinner. Bleh.
It is genetic (my mom got her fist in her mid-20s) so there's nothing to do if it runs in the family. But premature gray may also be caused by lack of nutrition and/or some elements like zink. HTH

[smileycat]

Um, may be I am abnormal. (heh, heh, most would say "that's obvious" right about now) I have one gray hair over in the right side above my ear, and I just noticed it a couple of weeks ago. I am 37. Genetically we go gray late. Even my 86 year old grandmother just looks like a very ashy dark blonde!

[CarpeDM]

I was in my 20's.

[cmnt831]

I was 19 when I found my first ones, but I think they had been there for a while before I discovered them. There wasn't a really noticeable shift in color until my mid-30s when the streaks started to show up. Mine is caused by genetics as far as I know, since I have family members who also got gray hairs at a young age. Stress may be a factor if it is causing you live a less than healthy lifestyle and you have vitamin and mineral deficiencies. I don't think stress in and of itself turns hair gray. I could be wrong, though....

[Kosmos]

I got my first 'white' hairs when I was in middle school or thereabouts. I didn't quite care when they appeared but my mother was shocked when she found them.

I had hoped I'd be completely grey hair'd by my twenties---I think it would would look ethereal. But no luck. Just white around my temples.

[Winter Sun]

i saw my first silver hairs last year.. and now they are taking over more and more.. lol but i will be fighting them off with henna.. I am too young to be silver.. even though it is pretty

[nmarie33]

I just turned 32. I have never noticed grays before, but over the weekend I plucked FIVE of them out of the top of my head! I then proceeded to cry for about half an hour.

No offense to gray-haired people, honestly. I just wasn't quite prepared to begin the process of looking like my mother yet! :(

[Coan-Teen]

I started off with white hair! Haha. True story, I had nothing but white hair until I turned five when I started getting some blondes mixed in. I had white hair in my underlayer until just a few years ago and I'm 23 now. I think the white is mostly gone now except for a few strands but I've been working backwards.

On another note a guy I knew in high school had gray patches in his brown hair for as long as I can remember. It's normal to start getting gray at any age.

[Dark Rosaleen]

I think that I was around fourteen or fifteen when I found my first two gray hairs. I'm 29 now and they are sort of scattered throughout my hair, but my brown color is still the dominant color.

I blame most of my grays on grad school.:)

[UltraBella]

I don't have any yet, but it won't bother me when I eventually get them. Maybe my whole head will turn salt and pepper, I would be okay with it :) Anything would be better than my natural dark ash blonde !

[CrowningGlory]

I was in my 30s before I found my first grey hair but they've multipled since then. I was told today that was because I'd raised 5 sons but I think it might have more to do with teaching five sons to drive!

My 4th son noticed his first grey hairs at 17. They've so shiny and cool against his dark hair - I hope he never tries to conceal them.

[LotusFIre]

It seems like dark haired people get gray earlier. My mom had dark brown hair, and she went gray in her 20's, but my lighter haired dad barely has any gray in his 50's.
I know someone that is 25, totally gray. It makes her look older for sure, its a little shocking, but its a very pretty shade of gray.

[milagro]

It seems like dark haired people get gray earlier. My mom had dark brown hair, and she went gray in her 20's, but my lighter haired dad barely has any gray in his 50's.

My parents had exactly the opposite, my fair-haired mom spotted her first gray in a very young age and my dark-haired dad didn't have any silver till 50 (and the first ones were in his beard, not mane :) )
It is only that grays are more obvious in dark hair. Actually a light hair must be generally more prone to turn gray cause it contains much less melanin.

[Olyve]

I noticed my first gray at 20, it had been there though because it was quite long, so I have no idea when it started showing up. I was devastated and started dying my hair :rolleyes: after consulting with my dad.

I knew my mom had not turned gray until about 40 and since I was not raised around my dad I needed to know if it was his fault that I was turning gray already. I called him and said "Dad, when did you start getting gray", his response "At 16, why?" I was devastated even more as I now knew it was his fault and I probably had more. I started crying and dye became my friend until last year. :rolleyes:

I embraced the gray now and they are dubbed my wisdom strands. :lol:

[shilpa733]

I noticed my 1st grey hair when i was just 13.
And within 1 year, almost more than 50% of all my hair had gone grey. :(
and i was just 14 yrs old then

[jojo]

I was 20 when I found my first grey hair, but my daughter has been growing one near her crown since she was 4 years old!

[ccmuffingirl]

I got my first gray hair when I was 18. I never plucked it. I treasured it and wouldn't allow anyone to take it from me, lol. Then one day I searched for it and it wasn't there. I guess it shed or something. Then two years later it resurfaced and now it's gone again. It's the only one I've had for a long time and it sheds and comes back it seems.

[ilovelonghair]

My first happened nearly 3 years ago after a traumatic event. Then another traumatic event happened and I got a second one. This year was very very stressful and now there are heaps, can't count anymore. I am 36 and my father started at the same age, my mother only in her late 50's with a few, she didn't like it that it is still going so slow: she wants white hair. My father has it and it looks real cool.
I henna, so I can't grow it out without having the henna grow out. I am happy with the red color, but the with the white hairs I'll get highlights which will be cool!

[boomtownrat]

In my case, I don't really think it's genetic, but any genetic influence was probably enhanced by years of emotional stress and more recently some health problems. My oldest brother started greying in his 20s, but I have passed him in the race for the silver even though he's 16 years older. :) Out of my immediate family, only my 81-year-old parents have more grey than I do. Nobody on my dad's side of the family went grey particularly early. It could be that somebody in my mom's family went grey at a young age, but they had mostly passed away by the time I came along. In the only photos I've seen, they were already old enough that a full head of white hair wouldn't have been unusual.