You're Giving Me Gray Hair!

Do you remember your parent saying to you, "Your giving my gray hairs!" Well after reading this blog, you can go back and tell them the real cause behind those grays. For so long now people have blamed their gray hairs on stress. Between juggling work and family life, people assume that with that stress comes gray hairs. This is not entirely the whole truth. The two main causes for gray hair is... age and genetics.



Melanin is the pigment in our hair that gives it color. As we get older, we lose melanin. With this lose of color we end up with gray hair. It has been stated in an article about the causes of gray hair, "Dr. Desmond Tobin, professor of cell biology from the University of Bradford in England, suggests that the hair follicle has a “melanogentic clock” which slows down or stops melanocyte activity, thus decreasing the pigment our hair receives. This occurs just before the hair is preparing to fall out or shed, so the roots always look pale."http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/grayhair.html



Genetics play a role by determining what age you begin to go gray. There is such a thing as "premature graying". Some people do begin to see gray hairs in their twenties and thirties. If your parents began going gray in their younger years, then your chances are premature graying are just as high.



Overall, age is the main reason for production of gray hair. It has been stated, "Your chance of going gray increases 10-20% every decade after 30 years." http://www.disabled-world.com/health/dermatology/hair/gray-hair-causes.php While there may be other factors that icrease the risk of gray hair, age and genetics are the ones to blame. We must face it... gray hair is a part of getting older and getting older is a part of life.

By: Brandi Reinhard