Some people get grey (or white) hairs in their twenties, and others still have dark hair well into their seventies and eighties. The process of greying can occur gradually over many years as individual hair follicles stop producing colour, or it can happen within a matter of months or a few years. How long depends a lot on genetics. Also, our changing hair colour depends on how dark the rest of the hair is to begin with. “Individual hairs don’t actually “turn” gray—they grow in that way. Every day, hairs fall out and new ones emerge in their place. As the hair grows in the follicle, colour is deposited into the new growth in the form of two substances, melanin and pheomelanin, which all people have in varying quantities. Melanin produces the hair shades blond, brown, and black, depending on the concentration of pigment in your “hair. Pheomelanin produces red hair and the reddish undertones seen in hair. When one of your follicles stops producing these coloured pigments (usually with age), the next hair growing out of that follicle will grow in grey. Why this happens is one of the mysteries of aging.
Why does our hair go gray or white when we get old?
Answers
Anu Varma
Some people get grey (or white) hairs in their twenties, and others still have dark hair well into their seventies and eighties. The process of greying can occur gradually over many years as individual hair follicles stop producing colour, or it can happen within a matter of months or a few years. How long depends a lot on genetics. Also, our changing hair colour depends on how dark the rest of the hair is to begin with. “Individual hairs don’t actually “turn” gray—they grow in that way. Every day, hairs fall out and new ones emerge in their place. As the hair grows in the follicle, colour is deposited into the new growth in the form of two substances, melanin and pheomelanin, which all people have in varying quantities. Melanin produces the hair shades blond, brown, and black, depending on the concentration of pigment in your “hair. Pheomelanin produces red hair and the reddish undertones seen in hair. When one of your follicles stops producing these coloured pigments (usually with age), the next hair growing out of that follicle will grow in grey. Why this happens is one of the mysteries of aging.