Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

Stress

Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

Because it shows we are getting smarter.

Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

As we grow older the pigment in the hair is lost. The hair becomes colourless.

Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

Im not sure sometimes it can turn grey

Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

its hereditary!

moses's hair turned white when he turned old

so he passed it down to his descendants

and that's how we got white hair

Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

that the cells that produce the color in hair just don't work as well as they used to. These cells are called "melanocytes."

"Melanos" is a Greek word that means "very dark." "Cyte" comes from "kutos," which is Greek, too. It meant "a hollow vessel." Now it means cell.

Those melanocytes don't work quite as well as they used to because they're not getting as much of a certain hormone. That hormone has fallen off because of a decrease in another hormone.

Hormones are substances in the body that do a lot of different things. One thing they do is help you be either a boy or girl. Another thing, not quite so important, is stimulate the melanocytes to crank out pigment.

So why isn't this gray-haired body making as much hormones? Well, I wish I could be more delicate, but it means it's getting old. And that means its cells are wearing out. Each cell has a specific job to do, such as making hormones. The process of aging is basically a decrease in the number of cells in the body and problems with the cells that remain.

we might compare our bodies to cars. In a new car, everything generally works great. Over time little things happen--a fender gets dented, things start to rust, parts wear out. Finally, the car gets to the point where it's just not possible to keep everything fixed.

The same sort of thing happens with your body. You start off more or less perfect. But throughout life you're bombarded by things that cause breaks and dents and rust. Things such as dirty air, bacteria and viruses, bad food and stress.

Your genes make a big difference in how you age. Genes are the little packages of information in every one of your cells. You get them from your parents, and they basically tell your body how to grow. Some of us get a Ferarri set of genes. Others get a Yugo set.

But just as with a car, a very, very important thing in how you age is maintenance. If you take good care of a Yugo, it will last longer and work better. Just imagine what it will do for a Ferarri. Maintenance for people includes exercise, proper diet, and not getting stressed out.

And that brings up another very important thing. Remember in that previous column, Professor Sarkar pointed out that with your brain you either use it or lose it? Same thing applies to the rest of your body.

For example, if you exercise, the extra glucose (a kind of sugar) in your muscles is more likely to be used to feed the exercising muscle cells rather than cross-linking parts of them.

Cross-linking? Where'd that come from?

Sometimes the proteins or DNA in your cells get linked by extra sugar floating around. For some reason, this causes them to screw up or even quit working altogether. So USE up that glucose! Or LOSE those cells! Because you know where that gets you--

DEAD!

One thing the use-it-or-lose-it approach doesn't apply to, though, is your hair. I don't think anyone's figured out how to exercise your melanocytes to keep them producing color!

Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

As we get older the pigment in our hair folicals will stop producing color. So the grey is actually lack of color just like a chunck of glass looks kind of silvery, or even clear plastic looks kind of metally in the right light.

Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

Are you kidding? My hair didn't turn white. It fell out. Poof it was gone.

Why does our hair turn white as we grow older?

The most common areas on the scalp in which to first see gray hair development are above the ears and/or at the temples. This first gray hair may spread around the sides and to the crown with time. Gray hair development in the beard and mustache may also start quite early, while gray hair on the chest and pubic region generally only occurs some years after onset of gray hair on the scalp.

Gray hair is caused by the gradual reduction of melanin production over time within the affected hair follicle. The melanocytes in the hair follicles produce less and less melanin, and the result is a loss of hair fiber color strength. What we call gray hair is not gray at all if you look at the individual hair fibers. Some hair fibers will contain some color while others are virtually white. What we describe as gray comes about from our perception of the overall scalp hair color. The contrast between the hair with more color and the white hair causes the appearance we call gray hair. Thus two people with gray hair, standing side by side, may have different shades of gray. Blondes are most likely to develop a completely white head of hair in old age because their hair fiber has a very low density of pigment in it to start with.

The time and speed of gray hair onset is due in part to genetics. Certainly early onset gray hair development can run in families. In my own family women are invariably affected by early and rapid onset gray hair while men have a more typical gray hair development. This difference in gray hair development in my family might suggest that at least some of the genes that promote early gray hair onset are located on the X chromosome. However, there are most likely many genes that determine the time and speed of gray hair development located on several human chromosomes. What genes determine gray hair is not known and much research needs to be done in this area. The environment may also potentially modify gray hair development but there is effectively no research on this subject.

Hair turning white overnight is largely a myth although a severe form of the disease alopaecia can result in rapid loss of hair. As the affected hair is mainly pigmented, remaining hair is white or gray, resulting in the appearance of rapidly graying hair