The Tamesis
Gray hair has long been a sign of aging. But it turns out there are a few other factors to consider when your natural hair color loses its vibrant pigment. Robert H. Shmerling, senior teaching editor at Harvard Health Publishing, analyzed the origins of gray hair and concluded that there is more than one cause.
To illustrate this point, the doctor first gave an example: the physical changes of former President Obama before he ran for president and after he left office. If we compare the before and after photos, the added gray on Obama’s head is quite noticeable. “The stress of running a country seems to turn anyone’s hair gray,” Schmerling noted in an article on the university’s website. “But is stress really the culprit? Why does hair turn gray, even for those of us who don’t have as stressful a job as the President of the United States?” he asked.
According to doctors, stress is definitely the culprit, but gray hair can actually be attributed to many other factors.
your genes
“Hair aging depends on genetic and environmental factors, with a critical turning point around the fifth and sixth decades of life when hair quality and volume decrease, become frizzier, lose pigment and appear gray,” explains Judith Joseph, psychiatrist and Vichy Laboratories ambassador.
Joseph’s argument is consistent with Schmeling’s research. “The timing and depth of gray hair depends largely on the genes we inherit from our parents. While stress may play a role in this process, looking at past generations rather than our current stress levels is more useful and can help us predict when or if we will go gray. This is true whether we are the president of the United States or have a less stressful job.”
all the pressure
A busy lifestyle can certainly contribute to aging hair, but it’s not a direct cause of gray hair—it’s a little more circuitous than that. “In humans, most gray hair has nothing to do with stress. In fact, hair doesn’t actually ‘go’ gray at all,” Schmerling said. “Once a hair follicle produces hair, the color is fixed. If a hair starts out brown (or red, black, or blond), its color never changes. As we age, hair follicles produce less and less color, so as hair goes through the natural cycle of death and regeneration, starting at age 35, it is more likely to grow gray. Genetic factors can influence hair color.”
While stress doesn’t change the color of individual hairs, it can trigger what’s called telogen effluvium, causing hair to fall out three times faster than normal. “Hair will grow back, so this condition won’t cause baldness. But if you’re middle-aged and your hair falls out due to stress and regrows faster, there’s a chance that the hair that grows back will be gray instead of the original color,” Schmerling says.
Joseph explains it this way: “When we lose hair, we feel stressed and release cortisol. Increased cortisol can exacerbate hair loss and alter hormones like estrogen and testosterone, which ultimately exacerbates hair loss further. It may sound like a classic case of the chicken or the egg, but this vicious cycle is well-studied: We need to make sure we address both of these issues to stop hair loss and reduce stress levels.”
