Tags: Hair loss. Grey Hair. Reasons.
HOW MANY SHADES OF GREY? (Not Another Book)
For years now I’ve been telling myself that I’m only a bit grey, not someone with grey hair but now it’s come down to the situation in which the image that I see in the mirror can not, even in one’s wildest stretch of imagination, be described any other way than as someone with not only a grey – almost white – beard but with grey hair as well.
Studies have revealed that Caucasians tend to go grey earlier, with redheads being the earliest of all, and whilst a common belief is that this condition is primarily caused by stress, experts in dermatology suggest that, although stress may be a contributing factor in some instances, there are many other issues which affect the onset of grey hair. ‘Smoking is one thing that stresses hair,’ says Dr Karthik Krishnamurthy of the Montefiore Medical Centre in New York.
‘Low vitamin B12 levels are notorious for causing loss of hair pigment,’ the doctor pointed out. Other experts advise that people should try eating foods such as liver and carrots as foods that are packed with vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants may help to protect cells prevent a number of ailments as well as early greying of hair. Interestingly, hair doesn’t turn grey, it grows that way and statistics show that a single hair grows for up to three years and then it is shed, being replaced by a new one.
As people age their new hairs are more likely to be white because every time the hair regenerates, it is necessary for pigment-forming cells to re-form and eventually they wear out. Professor Tobin of Cell Biology at the University of Bradford in the UK suggests that hair follicles may be regulated by a melanogenetic clock that eventually slows down the cells’ activity.
‘Hair turns grey because of age and genetics and the genes regulate the exhaustion of the pigmentary potential of each hair follicle,’ says Tobin. Well, I guess that, whilst all these scientific findings are a plausible explanation as to why my hair resembles the ashes of a fire, the fact of the matter is that I don’t much like all these signs that too readily give away my age.