What Causes Gray Hair Except Age?

Why Hair Turns Gray

Hair grows in a follicle, a bulb-like tube on your scalp. The average head has 100,000 to 150,000 follicles, each operating independently from the others. Hair in its basic, unpigmented state is white. It gets its color from melanin, a pigment that also determines skin color.

Two types of melanin, eumelanin (dark brown or black) and phaeomelanin (reddish yellow), combine to make all the hair colors. One hypothesis for why hair goes gray is that aging slows or stops the hair from accessing the melanin, so it comes out gray, silver, or white instead.

New research reveals that graying may be from a build-up of hydrogen peroxide in the hair cell, which causes the hair to bleach itself on the inside. Cells naturally have a small amount of hydrogen peroxide in them, but it’s kept in check by an enzyme called catalase, which converts the hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water. As we age, the body produces less catalase, so the hydrogen peroxide builds up and blocks “the normal synthesis of melanin, the natural pigment in hair.” Thus the hair turns gray, giving new meaning to the phrase “peroxide blonde.”

What Causes Gray Hair

There are many reasons people experience graying, but a lot of times it simply comes down to genetics, race, natural aging and lifestyle .

1.Race

Just like the reasons for graying, when a person starts to go gray depends on that individual. For instance, Caucasians gray in their mid-30s, Asians in their late-30s, and African Americans in their 40s.

2.Genetics

When you're born, your genes are already hardwired for when and how your hair will turn gray. This includes premature graying—people who gray before age 30 usually do so because it runs in the family.This means that it just happens because it’s a commonality within your family genes. Check when your relatives or parents went gray and see if it matches with your timeline.

3.Natural Aging

For most of us, graying starts in middle age. Dermatologists go by the 50/50/50 rule of thumb: by age 50, half the population will have at least 50 percent gray hair—although a worldwide survey showed that number was much lower, with only 6 to 23 percent of people half gray by age 50.

What Causes Premature Gray Hair

1.Lifestyle

Environmental and nutritional factors may also be credited for graying, especially premature graying. “Stress, smoking, and an unbalanced diet are a number of the reasons why we may start experiencing premature graying,” explains nutritional expert for Maple Holistics, Caleb Backe.

2.Stress

When our body responds to stress, it often damages healthy cells. In one study, researchers found that, in mice, the response to stress damages DNA which accumulates over time. Although another mouse study has shown a link, there isn't any scientific evidence on humans that illustrates a direct correlation between stress and gray hair.

3.Smoking
Smoking, on the other hand, has been found to have a significant relationship with developing gray hair before the age of 30, according to a 2013 study. This makes it one of the most relevant lifestyle causes.In fact, “smokers were two and half times more prone to develop PHG” or premature hair graying.

4.Unbalanced Diet

Lack of certain nutrients has been found to play major roles in premature graying. According to one study, low ferritin, calcium, and vitamin D-3 all affect graying, while another study concluded that low copper, zinc, and iron advance premature graying.


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