Truth or Fiction: Favorite Myths About Gray Hair

If you're beginning to get gray hair, then it's most likely that you have identified the culprit as stress. Whether it's pressure to participate in in a highly competitive corporate world or even the anxiety that comes with face with a number of headlines about the sorry state with the financial system, it's no wonder more people today affiliate graying hair with a stressful life-style.

On the other hand, despite the fact that a great number of professionals have repeated espoused the theory that there's no true connection in between stress and gray hair, recent research has proved that your initial instinct is

right. Without a doubt, countless research and surveys have found a robust link amongst stress and gray hair. Once we endure escalating degree of stress, our bodies manufacture far more hydrogen peroxide, which is then accumulated into our hair follicles. By way of this increase in hydrogen peroxide levels, the enzymes who're primarily responsible for repairing hair follicles (MSRA and MSRB) are deactivated, resulting in melanocyte apostisis. This then makes it possible for the hydrogen peroxide to successfully bleach the hair follicles unabated, resulting in a stressed-out silver mane.

In other words, start taking up that yoga habit - because stress does gray hair! When it comes to well-known myths surrounding gray hair, this isn't the one "theory" that really should be looked at. In an effort to put an end to the preferred graying hair myths out there - and to swap them with more rational scientific explanations - we've unraveled the fact from the fiction of graying hair.

The Myth: Like the mythological Hydra, pulling out one gray hair will only trigger two gray hairs taking its spot.


The Truth: This favored myth is totally and unequivocally false. While our eyes might have us convinced that several gray hairs have taken the spot of the original offender, plucking a single hair follicle will lead to the growth of another single hair follicle - no matter what its shade. This myth was likely fueled by the rapid hair graying process,leading some to believe that a plucked gray hair would come back with a vengeance.

The Myth: Smoking causes gray hair.


The Truth: This is one case were that old wives tale was in fact accurate, as smoking does certainly trigger gray hair. A 1997 investigation carried out by researchers in England observed that smokers ended up up to four times more likely to have gray hair than their non-smoking counterparts. If you want to preserve your luscious hair colour - and increase your health - then it's time for you to ditch the smoking habit.

The Myth: You could possibly reverse the graying hair process.


The Truth: While you'll find a few methods for reversing graying hair, there are plenty of quack cure-alls that do nothing but raise false hope. In fact, in a forum dedicated to dealing with gray hair, one forum user even advised another user to "drink more carrot juice" to get rid of gray hair. For a quick gray hair fix, buy yourself a box of semi-permanent or permanent hair dye. Speaking of which...

The Myth: You can only use permanent hair dye to cover up those stubborn gray hairs.


The Truth: Those of you that happen to be turned off by the idea of a permanent hair dye can relax - semi-permanent hair dye covers those grays just as well. It's probable that this rumor started a few decades ago before semi-permanent hair dye had developed into the better coverage formulas to choose from today.

The Myth: Hair can turn gray soon after a frightening event or trauma.


The Truth: Hollywood has long ascribed to the myth that hair can turn gray due to a frightening event (just look at Frankenstein's bride). But there's entirely no empirical proof that hair can suddenly turn gray after a severe shock or trauma. Sorry Hollywood.

These are by no means the limit to the number of graying hair myths which are circulating out in the world today - but they are the biggest offenders. Even though we still may not exactly fully grasp what it can be in our genes that makes some of us go gray sooner than other folks, we do understand that well-known graying hair myths are stopping us from seeing the bigger picture.

Frederica Hegney is Moderator of the Grey Defense weblog.

Read our blog to figure out what reasons for graying hair and what individual actions you may choose to slow, stop or reverse graying hair.

You'll be able to also follow her on twitter @GreyHairDefence