Why premature gray hair

So that means giving up smoking and getting more B12 in your diet. B12 is naturally found in eggs, salmon, tuna, and low-fat dairy products like milk yogurt, and cheese. If you have a vegetarian or vegan diet, getting more B12 via food will be more of a challenge.

However, there are supplements that can help. Whether you're learning to love your hair with gray sprinkled in or are opting to color your hair until you're ready to go gray, updating our hair care routines as we age is important. In addition to supplements, incorporate hydrating scalp and hair treatments into your routine to keep your hair—no matter the color—healthy and thriving.

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As it gets lighter, it may eventually turn white. Your body and facial hair may also turn gray — but often later than the hair on your head.

Gray hair is a natural part of aging, and it's inevitably going to occur at some point in your life. However, the process may begin earlier for some women than for others due to a variety of factors. Some of them are preventable — but many of them are not. For the most part, you can thank your parents and grandparents for your gray locks. The primary — and most scientifically-sound — reason for gray hair is in your genes. This is especially true if you go gray before 20 years old, which is referred to as premature graying.

If your parents developed gray hair at a young age, chances are you will, too — and there's not much you can do about it. Race also plays a role in how early your hair turns gray. For instance, gray hair tends to occur earlier in Caucasians but later in Asians. African Americans may go gray later, too, with the average gray strand appearing around 43 years old.

Parents love to blame the stress of raising children for their gray hair. And while it's a little misguided to place all of the responsibility on them, stress may actually play a role in how early your hair turns gray. The correlation between stress and gray hair is a bit more controversial than the role of genes.

Though researchers sometimes go back and forth on this one, it's likely that it plays at least a minimal role. Too much oxidative stress can promote the development of diseases, including the skin-pigment condition vitiligo. Vitiligo may also turn the hair white due to melanin cell death or the loss of cell function.

In fact, research published in showed a connection between hair abnormalities and thyroid dysfunction. White hair is also common in alopecia areata , an autoimmune skin condition that causes hair loss on the scalp, face and other parts of the body. When the hair grows back, it tends to be white due to melanin deficiency.

There are conflicting research studies on real-life stress, such as that caused by injury, leading to premature graying. One study from New York University, reported in Nature Medicine , finds that the cells responsible for hair color can be depleted when the body is under stress.

Other studies indicate that while stress may play a part, it is only a small part of a bigger picture where disease and other factors contribute. A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology also demonstrated that smoking is linked to premature white hair in young men. Chemical hair dyes and hair products, even shampoos, can contribute to premature hair graying. Many of these products contain harmful ingredients that decrease melanin. Hydrogen peroxide, which is in many hair dyes, is one such harmful chemical.

Excessive use of products that bleach hair will also eventually cause it to turn white. If genetics or aging is the cause, nothing can prevent or reverse the process. However, treating graying hair could allow color pigmentation to return if the loss is due to a medical condition.

When diet and vitamin deficiencies are the cause of prematurely white hair, correcting these may reverse the problem or stop it from worsening. A diet rich in antioxidants can reduce oxidative stress. Anyone who has white hair resulting from a vitamin deficiency should consume more foods loaded with those vitamins. For example, seafood, eggs, and meats are good sources of vitamin B, and milk, salmon, and cheese are excellent sources of vitamin D.

Smoking has adverse effects on the body and contributes to white hair. And researchers have found a link between the habit and loss of hair pigmentation. There are plenty of hair dyes on the market that cover white hair, but many of these contribute to premature graying and may cause allergic and adverse reactions. Natural remedies offer an alternative to slow down hair-whitening without harming the body or causing further hair pigment damage. Curry leaves.

The medicinal use of curry leaves goes back centuries. Albinism is a rare condition that causes the skin, hair, or eyes to have little or no color. It also leads to vision problems.

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