Find out what's causing your salt-and-pepper strands.
By
Although some women proudly sport a silver mane,
many others face the arrival of new gray hairs with dread. The good
news: Scientists are hard at work on how to prevent them. So what do
researchers know that you don't?
[post_ads_2]1. Normal Aging Is the Biggest Culprit
OK,
no surprise here. Dermatologists call this the 50-50-50 rule. "Fifty
percent of the population has about 50 percent gray hair at age 50,"
says Anthony Oro, MD, PhD, professor of dermatology at Stanford
University. And as with skin, hair's texture changes with age, says
Heather Woolery Lloyd, MD, director of ethnic skin care at the
University of Miami School of Medicine.
2. Your Ethnicity Makes a Difference
Caucasians tend to go gray earlier — and redheads earliest of all. Then
Asians. Then African-Americans. Scientists haven't figured out why yet.
3. Stress Seems to Play a Role
"Stress
won't cause you to go gray directly," says Roopal Kundu, MD, associate
professor in dermatology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of
Medicine. "But stress is implicated in a lot of skin and hair issues."
During an illness, for example, people can shed hair rapidly. And hair
you lose after a stressful event — like the hair you lose after getting
chemotherapy — might grow back a different color.
[post_ads_2]4. Your Lifestyle Makes a Difference
Smoking, for example, stresses your skin and hair.
"Low vitamin B12 levels are notorious for causing loss of hair
pigment," says Karthik Krishnamurthy, DO, director of the Dermatology
Center's Cosmetic Clinic at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New
York. Try eating foods such as liver and carrots, recommends Wilma
Bergfeld, MD, a senior dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Foods
packed with certain vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants might help
protect cells against toxins and help prevent heart disease, cancer, and
other ailments (and perhaps gray hair!).
5. Hair and Its Color Are Separate Things
Hair stem cells make hair, and pigment-forming stem cells make pigment.
Typically they work together, but either can wear out, sometimes
prematurely. Researchers are trying to figure out if a medicine or
something you could put in your scalp could slow the graying process.
(Hair dye simply coats your hair in color but doesn't alter its structure.)
6. Your Hair Doesn't Turn Gray — It Grows That Way
A single hair grows for one to three years, then you shed it — and grow
a new one. As you age, your new hairs are more likely to be white.
"Every time the hair regenerates, you have to re-form these
pigment-forming cells, and they wear out," Dr. Oro says.
