![]() ![]() ![]() Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playĪs anyone who’s had to grow out a bad perm or a too-short cut knows, hair goes through years-long phases of growth and rest, in which new hair comes in and then falls out. But aging disrupts this process, leaving our hair without pigment, pale and gray. Combinations of two main types of melanin (one for darker hues and another for lighter ones) make up all the dazzling shades of human hair-from icy blond to fiery red to ebony black. In young hair, melanocytes (specialized cells that produce melanin) transfer this pigment along the length of each strand as it emerges from its follicle. Our hair gains its color through melanin, a natural pigment that also determines the color of our eyes and the shade of our skin. As for me, I scrutinize the ashy strands that have popped up in my 40s-intruders amongst the inky curtain of my hair-and resist the urge to pluck them.īut what causes hair to go gray in the first place? And is there anything we can do to prevent or reverse the process? My mother’s pixie coif began accumulating grays when she turned 30, while my father’s hair remained raven black well into his 60s. ![]() As a science journalist, I’m fascinated by the interplay between genetics and environment, and how it can lead to differences in the way we age hair is one such visible example. ![]()
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