Melanin doesn’t produce hair color pigment at the same rate forever. During the aging process, hair follicles produce less melanin, leading to less color. Eventually new hair grows in without any natural color, and its appearance (whether it looks gray, silver, or white) depends on how much natural color, or pigment, remains. Hair that has lost all its color typically appears white.<\/p>\n
While we are taught to believe gray hair is an inevitable part of aging, that\u2019s not entirely accurate. Truth is gray hair doesn\u2019t discriminate. Whether you\u2019re 16 or 60, gray hair can happen at any age and for a variety of other reasons. Genetics is the primary explanation as to when those gray hairs might first appear, but environmental factors such as stress and your overall health are also indicators of when and why melanin stops producing hair color pigment.<\/p>\n
GENETICS<\/b><\/p>\n
Might be time to look back through your family tree. Lots of things \u201crun in the family\u201d and gray hair is one of those things. If your parents and grandparents experienced premature graying before age 20, no doubt you will as well.<\/p>\n
STRESS<\/b><\/p>\n
The correlation between stress and gray hair has certainly been exaggerated through dramatic storytelling, but researchers have determined that stress does play at least a minimal role as to why hair goes gray. The sympathetic nervous system, which activates during stress, can cause permanent damage to the melanocyte cells responsible for coloring your hair. That damage is irreversible. The result? Gray hair.<\/p>\n
HEALTH<\/b><\/p>\n
While it’s important to keep your body as healthy as possible (for reasons that go beyond the color of your hair), it\u2019s important to remember that taking care of your body, eating healthy, and cutting back on unhealthy habits like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption are important in preventing gray hair. Nutritional deficiencies in animal and plant proteins, vitamin B12, copper, iron, and zinc have all been linked to gray hair.<\/p>\n
REMEMBER\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2026Man or woman, young or old, gray hair happens! Embrace it and be the best, most confident version of who you are meant to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Melanin doesn’t produce hair color pigment at the same rate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n