| |
les Stress
-> Questions & Answers
<< return
to previous page
GRAY HAIR SCARE
dear les,
i am only 30 and I am getting gray hairs. I am afraid that I will be all gray by the time I am 40. Is this caused by stress?
Thanks.
Dear Asker,
The stress-gray hair link is, well, a gray area. Some research suggests that lots of continuous stress over a long stretch of time may cause cell and body aging, including making hair “older” and grayer. There is much more evidence, however, that stress speeds up the hair loss—hair re-growth cycle which eventually breaks down the pigment cells that keep our locks brown, blond, red and so on. When those cells stop working, hairs go gray and white. Extreme stress from an accident, job loss, or something similar, can put this process on the express track by causing clumps of hair to come unhinged, often months after said events. This temporary condition is called telogen effluvium and new strands replace the lost hair.
Question: did your parents and siblings also see gray hairs when they were in their 30s? Genes versus stress are a much more reliable predictor of the age at which one’s hair will start graying. By the way, gray hair shows up for most of us in our third decade, and earlier for many others. Interestingly, a gray hair researcher at Baltimore’s Sinai Hospital estimates that we’re graying an average of five years earlier today than 30-years ago, and blames this on more stress, less sleep and poorer diets.
Fear not, whatever the reasons for your gray hairs, just one of those cycles described above can take years. You might also ask yourself, “What’s the big deal about getting gray hair?” Is this really something to stress about, or is our concern influenced by our pop and media cultures’ profit-driven obsession with youth? There are a lot of hot, smart, talented, young, good and successful grays who have so much more going for them than just their hair color. No doubt, you’re one of them.
Les
4/08
|
|
|
