What makes hair turn gray and when does it typically start?
MINNEAPOLIS — Philadelphia Eagles fans likely had a stress-free time watching the Super Bowl Sunday night. Their hair might be especially thankful for that. Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs may be spending this week looking for new strands of gray.
That begs the question: What makes hair turn gray, and when does it typically start? Like a blanket of snow in February, a topping of white is inevitable, from the landscape to our heads.
"For most of us, it's just going to happen," Dr. Sara Hylwa, a board-certified dermatologist with Hennepin Healthcare, said. "Why does hair turn gray? It's part of the normal aging process. We have pigment in our hair. We lose pigment cells and pigment granules (over time)."
Pigment gives our hair a color. As production slows and stops, hair turns gray. Eventually, it turns white, which is our hair's natural color without pigment.
What's the typical age range when graying starts?
"In people of European ancestry, it starts earlier, usually mid-30s. People of African ancestry are usually in the mid-40s, people of Asian ancestry are usually somewhere in between 35 and 45," Hylwa said.
Beyond the natural loss of pigment, outside factors can speed up the process. Presidential pictures at the beginning and end of a term often highlight the salt-and-pepper side effects of a stressful job.
"Similar to other stressors on the body like smoking and all that, emotional or psychological stress also increases aging," said Hylwa. "Stress causes a chemical reaction that decreases the amount of pigment made, meaning less coloring for hair. Things that increase oxidative stress are things like UV damage, smoking, chronic illnesses."
That means if you want to try slowing the graying process, reduce your stress. You can do so with exercise, getting enough sleep, eating a nutrient-rich diet and not smoking.
Protecting your hair from UV rays by hats or head coverings helps, too.
"There's some low-quality evidence that vitamin B5 could be helpful to slow or reverse pigmentation, but that's about as good as we've got right now," Hylwa said.
Gray hair might happen sooner or accumulate faster for certain people, but we all eventually meet at the finish line with a silver medal of sorts.
Gray hair tends to be thicker and coarser, but it is not dead or unhealthy, just slowly losing the ingredient that gives it color.
