The less melanin you have, the lighter your hair color. Gray hair has minimal melanin, while white has none. As you age, it's natural to lose melanin in your hair. In fact, it's estimated that the odds of your hair turning gray increase up to 20 percent each decade after you hit your 30s.
Your hair follicles have pigment cells that make melanin, a chemical that gives your hair its color. As you age, these cells start to die. Without pigment, new hair strands grow in lighter and take on various shades of gray, silver, and eventually white.
As we get older, the pigment cells in our hair follicles gradually die. When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, that strand of hair will no longer contain as much melanin and will become a more transparent color — like gray, silver, or white — as it grows.
Grey hair and genetics
The average age for grey hair varies greatly, and one of the main causes of grey hair in your 20s is genetics. The age at which a person's hair turns grey is influenced by the IRF4 gene, and one specific variant (rs12203592) is a marker for premature greying.
Scientists don't know exactly why some people go gray early, but genes play a large role. Also, a vitamin B-12 deficiency or problems with your pituitary or thyroid gland can cause premature graying that's reversible if the problem is corrected, Benabio says.
Most people start noticing their first gray hairs in their 30s—although some may find them in their late 20s.
After studying information in 69 different publications about hair aging between different races and ethnicities, a group of doctors and scholars found that the average age of hair-graying onset varies according to race: Caucasians: Occurs in mid-30s. Asians: Occurs in late 30s. Africans: Occurs in mid-40s.
The vast majority of people with gray hair have age-related graying. However, sometimes graying hair indicates an illness, especially if it occurs at a particularly young age. Health problems that may be heralded by gray hair include: vitamin B12 deficiency.
Just like the hair on the head, the hair on the rest of the body, including the pubic area, is subject to graying. As people age, their skin produces less melanin. Melanin is the pigment responsible for giving skin and hair its color.
Despite the claims made online and by product marketers, it's not possible to reverse white hair if the cause is genetic. Once your hair follicles lose melanin, they can't produce it on their own. As melanin production slows, your hair turns gray, and then white when melanin production has completely stopped.
A new study shows that stress really can give you gray hair. Researchers found that the body's fight-or-flight response plays a key role in turning hair gray. Your hair color is determined by pigment-producing cells called melanocytes.
“Plucking a gray hair will only get you a new gray hair in its place because there is only one hair that is able to grow per follicle. Your surrounding hairs will not turn white until their own follicles' pigment cells die.”
Gray hair is a natural part of aging, and it's inevitably going to occur at some point in your life. However, the process may begin earlier for some women than for others due to a variety of factors.
Grey hair has very little melanin, while white hair has no melanin at all. As you go through the aging process, your hair might turn grey before going completely white. For some, this process is so drastic that the hair simply turns silver and then white.
Hair that looks gray, white or silver actually is colorless. Hair color comes from melanin, a pigment produced by cells in the hair follicles. Over time, these cells suffer damage and become depleted, losing their ability to make melanin. This results in new hair without pigment — meaning, no color.
Differences Between Gray, White, and Silver Hair Colors
Hair appears to be the various shade of silver when natural cool colored dark hair becomes predominately white. White hair color is seen when the entire head of hair has lost all the pigment that gives hair its color.
Like hair on your head, your pubic hair may also thin out with age. If you've got a lush patch now, many factors could thin it, make it go gray or white, or even cause it to bald. For ladies, menopause is one of them. For men, it's the natural aging process and dropping testosterone levels.
Pubic hair and hair on the body doesn't usually grow back after the menopause, this is due to levels of estrogen and progesterone remaining low as we continue to age.
Pubic hair holds on to residual urine, vaginal discharge, blood and semen. Bacteria line up all along the hair shaft just lunching it up and creating odor. (Very appetizing, I know.) Trimming your pubic hair reduces that surface area for bacteria, thus reducing odor.
Silvery strands are one of the more conspicuous signs of aging. That said, getting gray hair doesn't necessarily mean that you're closer to the end of your life span than anyone else your age.
Vitamin B-12 deficiency is one of the most common causes of prematurely graying hair. Researchers have noted that vitamin B-12 deficiencies are often concurrent with folic acid and biotin deficiencies in people whose hair has started to turn gray early.
Just like one finds grey hairs on the head upon ageing, appearance of grey hair on the eyebrows is also a sign of ageing/premature ageing. While for some, these signs start showing up in the 40's or 50's, some folks encounter the problem of grey hair on eyebrows in their 30's.
The age you go gray is determined primarily by genetics, so if one or both parents went gray at an early age, you would be more likely to go gray at a younger age as well. Smoking can also accelerate color change, and early graying could be a sign of autoimmune, thyroid or heart disease.
Excessive smoking and alcohol consumption can cause white or grey hair because chemicals in smoke and alcohol damage the hair follicles, causing them to lose their pigment cells prematurely.
In those aged 56 to 60, 86 percent had some grey hair, with almost a third of their head having been covered. But not everyone in their 60s had grey hair. Researchers found that 91 percent of 61 to 65-year-olds have, on average, 40 percent of their hair going grey.