Gray hair from stress

[snopes]

Comment: Is there any actual evidence that stress or worry can prematurely cause one's hair to grey? It smacks of an old wive's tale to me.

[Hailbug]

Actual evidence.....my sister.....Glass Papaya! Sorry sissy!

[glass papaya]

Originally Posted by Hailbug

Actual evidence.....my sister.....Glass Papaya! Sorry sissy!

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[Hailbug]

Originally Posted by glass papaya

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He, he.....you always said the grey came in fast because of the kiddies! Could you get me a band-aid.....I have a minor flesh wound to the head!

[Four Kitties]

Anecdote: my mother's family tends to gray fairly late (except for one aunt who has what she calls her "skunk streak"). When my father died suddenly, my dark-haired mother was 48 and had very little gray hair -- you had to be quite close to see it. A year into her widowhood, the gray was far more obvious, moving much closer to salt-and-pepper.

Who knows -- 48-49 is late to start graying anyway, it may just have been coincidence that it became more obvious that year. Or, it could have been the stress. But she hasn't continued to gray at that (for her) accelerated rate since that first year; she hasn't grayed a whole lot more since that first year, as a matter of fact, and it's been 14 years since Daddy died.

CatNip found his first gray hair on his 30th birthday, which was very bad timing, poor dear man. I have none, nary a one, despite being eight years older. My brother, who is two years younger than I, has quite a bit of gray in his beard and at the temples. I tease him about it. A lot.

Four Kitties

[Hailbug]

Is there any argument on Grey vs. Gray? I never know which one I should use!

[chillas]

Originally Posted by Hailbug

Is there any argument on Grey vs. Gray?

"Grey". And to answer your next question: because I said so.

Cecil tackled the question a while back. The interesting bit:

there does seem to be one way that hair can appear to turn gray in a very short period of time. What happens is that a condition called "diffuse alopecia areata" may occur in somebody with a mix of normal and gray hairs.

Alopecia can result in sudden, substantial hair loss. For unknown reasons it seems to affect mostly pigmented hairs, leaving white ones untouched. The impression one gets, therefore, is that the patient has become suddenly gray.

[FullMetal]

gray vs grey is like honour vs honor...

diff spelling of same word

anyway,

I had a previous very stressful job (I hated it, caused me stress and caused various other health issues due to stress, ulcer, insomnia, etc), and I got my first gray hair ever... I plucked it like the fool i was...

thing is I left that job shortly there after... and i haven't had a gray hair since... and it's been 3-4 years...

[Jay Tea]

No such thing as grey hairs - they're white

[Ana Ng]

Following on from this topic- has anyone else had cowlicks only get all grey very early? I have a bunch of grey (thanks, daddy!) but my cowlicks (conveniently located symmetrically in my bangs) are very grey. Weird, huh?

[lynnejanet]

I heard a report on CBC once, about research into why many Indian women seem to retain their black hair much longer than black-haired people of other cultures. The researchers concluded that it might have something to do with an apparently common practice among women in extended families. Apparently, women take turns rubbing scented oils into each other's scalps, with younger women usually annointing older women, as a sign of respect. The theory was that the massage increased blood flow to the scalp, and delayed graying of the hair.

It was years ago, so like most of my other vague "I heard it on CBC" stories, I don't have a cite, and google didn't come up with anything.

I sounds like a decent theory, though.

I wouldn't know. The women in my family have been cursed with premature gray hair. I'll be 26 next week and I have been getting gray hairs here and there since I was about 15 or 16. You can really see them in my bangs.

Heredity sucks!

[Elbe]

Originally Posted by Four Kitties

CatNip found his first gray hair on his 30th birthday, which was very bad timing, poor dear man. I have none, nary a one, despite being eight years older. My brother, who is two years younger than I, has quite a bit of gray in his beard and at the temples. I tease him about it. A lot.

Four Kitties

I wish I were going gray, and I'm only 25. Gray is more preferable, to me, than my ever so slowly receding hairline.

i got my first white (bright white) hair because of stress over a girl...

fact

tho... do they grow white, or can they turn white later on?

[Christie]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

No such thing as grey hairs - they're white

Really? My dad has been greying since he was 16. By the time he was forty his hair was salt & pepper. But it certainly looked grey to me. A difference that is really perceptible now that he is 70 and his hair is all white. I can see where maybe the hair might look less white as long as it's mixed with another colour - but even so it sure wasn't snow white the way it is now!

[Chickee Daizy]

Before December of 2005 I had no gray hairs at all. In December of 2005, I was arrested and charged with a crime I didn't commit, and subsequently had to jump through a ton of hoops for the next year to get out of it. On top of that, I was doing clinicals for school (basically working 40 hours a week in a hospital for no pay) which was hard. I can honestly say it was the most stressful year of my entire life.

My hair is starting to go silver to white in several patches. I started noticing it about four months after the whole ordeal started. It is noticable enough that I have started dying it. And premature graying doesn't run in my family.

[Silas Sparkhammer]

When I first met my friend Tom, he had a white streak in his hair, which I thought was bleached as a kind of artistic effect. Then the hair fell out from that spot entirely. Later, the process reversed itself: white hair grew in that spot, and eventually turned black. Today, you can't see anything. (The whole process took about two years.)

He said it was stress, and, given his job (owner of a small store) I can believe it.

Silas

[Salamander]

Again I can only offer anecdotal evidence... my uncle was slowly greying until he was told he had cancer in a kidney and had it surgically removed (thankfully the cancer was contained).

About as promptly as one could expect hair to change, he went stark white after the shock of it all.

My daughter's hair turned almost all white shortly after her father died.

[Tisiphone]

Vitiligo may also be caused by stress that affects the immune system, leading the body to react and start eliminating skin pigment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitiligo