Your hair follicles have pigment cells that make melanin, a chemical that gives your hair its color. As you age, these cells start to die. Without pigment, new hair strands grow in lighter and take on various shades of gray, silver, and eventually white.
Your scalp health will improve.
"Letting your hair go gray is an effective way to avoid exposing your scalp to toxic ingredients of hair dyes," says Monica Davis, a professional hairstylist and founder of Hair Scream. Instead, your scalp will be calm and free of any rouge dye stains.
The vast majority of people with gray hair have age-related graying. However, sometimes graying hair indicates an illness, especially if it occurs at a particularly young age. Health problems that may be heralded by gray hair include: vitamin B12 deficiency.
More Breakage
It's simple fact of life that gray hair is more fragile and finer. This is due to the cuticle being thinner, which provided a protective layer, than when your hair had pigment. So using a delicate hand when styling and avoiding hot tools is important.
It's okay that dye doesn't work well with gray hair. Believe it or not, the dye isn't good for your hair anyway… It can leave it even more brittle than before and lead to hair loss more quickly than it would occur otherwise.
We recommend shades like Chocolate Brown, Mahogany, Praline and Light Brown to cover grey hair. However, if you are regular with your touch ups, going for darker shades of brown is still a good choice.
One of the most popular and gentle ways to treat gray hair is using henna powder. Henna is a powdered form of leaves which essentially helps to treat the gray hair when used every month. Henna comes with natural color pigmentation, thus, covering the gray roots easily.
Typically, white people start going gray in their mid-30s, Asians in their late 30s, and Blacks in their mid-40s. Half of all people have a significant amount of gray hair by the time they turn 50.
Gray hairs are thicker and wirier, so your hair gets coarser as they multiply. You can't do anything to stop graying -- it's something you inherit. But you can tame gray hair with a good hairstyle and special care.
Don't assume that grey hair makes you look older
Hair naturally loses pigment as we age, but stylist Paul Falltrick points out that the notion that grey hair makes you look older is increasingly becoming a misnomer: "Grey shades can be stereotyped as ageing, but a clean-looking grey is stunning" he says.
A new study shows that stress really can give you gray hair. Researchers found that the body's fight-or-flight response plays a key role in turning hair gray. Your hair color is determined by pigment-producing cells called melanocytes.
However, the rate of hair colour loss is largely determined by your genes. The chances are that you will experience premature greying if your parents do. However, certain nutritional deficiencies and underlying medical conditions may play a role. In these cases, yes, white hair can turn black again.
It depends on your skin tone and your shade of gray. Brilliant white, glossy platinum or shiny silver hair is pure genetic luck. It helps if your skin has warm golden undertones or is a rich color. When gray grows in dull, ashy or muddy, it needs help, especially if your complexion is ruddy, sallow or very pale.
And only a small percentage found their first grays over age 40: 5.87% – 41-45 years old. 2.85% – 51-55 years old. 0.95% – 56 – 65 years old.
Scientists still don't know why some people turn gray early, late, or not at all, although they suspect genes, nutrients and possibly the immune system play a role in depleting melanocyte stem cells.
Differences Between Gray, White, and Silver Hair Colors
Hair never turns the color gray; however, a person whose natural hair color is a light drab brown can appear to have drab grayish hair. Hair appears to be the various shade of silver when natural cool colored dark hair becomes predominately white.
When should I go gray? That's a question a lot of us ask ourselves as we start getting older. Cosmetologists and colorists, as a general rule of thumb, advise going gray when 80% of your hair is white or gray, or when your hair starts feeling increasingly dry and brittle.
Gray hair is caused by a loss in melanin, whereas white hair does not have any melanin at all. As you age, your hair produces less and less melanin that leads your hair to appear gray, and then eventually white. However, the speed that your hair loses melanin is largely attributed to genetics.
Premature graying may be reversed with vitamin B12 supplementation only if vitamin B12 deficiency is the cause. If you are graying due to other factors, such as genetics, zinc deficiency, and medications, your gray hair cannot be reversed.
If you add the right hair colour, your 'grey' hair will act as highlights, giving you a completely new look that will get you noticed for all the right reasons. Professional colourists usually recommend a darker shade for your roots and a lighter shade that matches your natural hair for the rest.
Neutral shades like soft blonde, mushroom brown, light copper, and caramel blonde balayage are the easiest to blend gray into (and maintain over time without wanting to shave your hair off).