Gray hair is inevitable, at times a reflection of wisdom. Here are some interesting facts about gray hair.
Hair doesn’t turn gray, it grows gray.
A single hair has on average one to three years of life and then it sheds. As we grow old, every time a new hair generates, the body is not able to re-form the pigment, and hence the hair is gray in colour. Age-related graying is thus totally natural.
Hair and its colour are two different things.
To understand how hair falls or grays, we need to understand that hair is made by hair stem cells and the hair colour or pigment is a result of pigment-forming stem cells. In its natural circumstances, both of thesecell types work in tandem, but sometimes either of these wears out and often early in life.
Once lifestyle affects graying of hair.
The way you lead your life and the way you eat have a lot of implications on how and when hair grays. For reference, smoking is bad for both hair and skin. Also, eating food rich in nutrients such as vitamins and antioxidants helps the cells from toxins which apart from preventing serious health ailments also delays natural graying.
Uncontrolled and chronic stress also plays a vital role.
Although stress may not directly cause hair to gray, it causes a chain of reactions that has one ill-effect i.e., graying of hair. For reference, when one falls sick, they may lose hair rapidly. Therefore, stress management goes a long way in delaying natural graying.
Gray hair is finer than coloured hair.
This is a common misconception that gray hair is coarser than coloured hair. On the contrary, gray hair isa lot finer though it may seem drier as the scalp tends to produce less natural oil as we age.
Unfortunately, gray hair is resistant to colour.
Gray hair is resistant to hair colour and this may be due to its natural character of graying. To tackle this, drop down the colour level and use darker colour tones especially on the roots so that you get better coverage.
Does your ethnicity play a role here?
Yes, it does, though this needs to be explored more by scientists. For reference, Caucasians tend to go gray much earlier than life as compared to Asians or Africans. Race and hereditary do play a role in graying of hair.
The key is that 50 percent of the population will have 50 percent gray hair by the time they are 50-year-old!
