How our hair gets whitened?

Humans get old, that is a fact. We are mortals and if we are lucky enough in the mysterious paths of life we may get older and had our hair turned into grey. On the other hand, experiencing this phenomenon has nothing to do with age, there are some cases when people in their late thirties, even in their twenties, have little sparks of white with no apparent reason related to aging. So, here is the x of the equation, why our hair gets white if we are still young and healthy? To explain it, several reasons will be explained throughout this text.

“Graying begins inside the sunken pits in the scalp called follicles. A typical human head has about 100,000 of these teardrop-shaped cavities, each capable of sprouting several hairs in a lifetime. At the bottom of each follicle is a hair-growing factory where cells work together to assemble colored hair. Keratinocytes (epidermal cells) build the hair from the bottom up, stacking atop one another and eventually dying, leaving behind mostly keratin, a colorless protein that gives hair its texture and strength. Keratin is also a primary component of nails, the outer layer of skin, animal hooves and claws even rhinoceros horns. “ (Ballantyne, 2007).

1. Deficiency Of Melanin

Melanin is the pigment responsible to give human skin, hair, and eyes their color. It is produced by cells called melanocytes. In most of the cases, the deficiency of this pigment is the major cause behind hair whitening. Keratinocytes create hair while melanocytes manufacture the pigment called melanin, which derives from keratinocytes “in little packages called melanosomes. Hair melanin comes in two shades—eumelanin (dark brown or black) and pheomelanin (yellow or red)—that combine in different proportions to create a vast array of human hair colors. Hair that has lost most of its melanin is gray; hair that has lost all of this pigment is white.” (Ballantyne, 2007). The production of melanin mostly depends upon appropriate nutrition and protein supplements. The lack of these nutrients may cause that melanin rates decrease below the acceptable levels. As a result, it is important that since early stages of life proper habits of nutrition are established by the subject.

2. Hormones

Hormones also have an important role on the pigmentation of hair. The lack or imbalance will cause hair to turn white. For instance, when women reach their 45 or after them, they may experience what is called Menopause. During this stage of life, a woman's menstrual period stops since her ovaries stop producing the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Consequently, it is not surprising that at this age the first white hair appears.

3. Medical Conditions

Some other medical conditions can affect the pigment in our hair. Such as a vitamin B12 deficiency or any anomaly with the thyroid and pituitary glands. People with cancer may also suffer this phenomenon since quimio therapy kills unhealthy and healthy cells, including those responsible of melanin production.

4. Stress
There is a tale in which Marie Antoinette's hair turned white before she was guillotined. Supposedly, the stress of decapitation cause her locks to lose their color within hours. Believe it or not, it is a fact that stress has a huge impact in our cells. Somehow the production of melanocytes is lower than the production of keratinocytes throughout a person's life. “Stress hormones may impact the survival and / or activity of melanocytes, but no clear link has been found between stress and gray hair (...) ‘stress hormones produced either systemically or locally (by cells in the follicle) could produce inflammation that drives the production of free radicals—unstable molecules that damage cells—and "it is possible that these free radicals could influence melanin production or induce bleaching of melanin,´ Paus says.” (Ballantyne, 2007).

 5. Chemical substances or external factors
The usage of chemical-based shampoos, soaps, hair dyes, etc. may directly cause this problem. Also, changes to your hair color can occur due to external factors such as the climate, pollution, and exposure to certain chemicals. These factors speed up the process of aging.

6. Genetics

Even if a subject is not exposed to all the previous five reasons, genetics happens to be a predominant factor that determines at what age your hair loses pigment. For some people, it can happen even before they turn 20. For others, the first strands of white hair will appear later.

To conclude, white hair may not be aesthetically accepted within our society or even considered attractive, yet it is a sign not only of aging but also of deficiencies in our body that can be detained or avoided with proper information and medical attention. If the reason of our hair turning into gray at an early age is only related to genetics then there is nothing to worry about, the only solution is buying the proper dye color of your preference or let it be.

Por

Alethea: Rosalba Ramírez

Sources:
Ballantyne, C. (October 24th, 2007). ”Fact or Fiction?: Stress Causes Gray Hair.” Retrieved on August 30th, 2016, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-stress-causes-gray-hair/

Medicinenet. (2016). Definition of Melanin. Retrieved on August 30th, 2016, from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4340

Medlineplus. (August 19th, 2016). Menopause. Retrieved on August 30th, 2016, from https://medlineplus.gov/menopause.html
Singhania, V. (May 26th, 2016). “7 Causes And 13 Tips To Reduce White Hair Naturally.” Retrieved on June 9th, 2016, from http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/causes-and-tips-for-reducing-white-hair/