That faithful day marks a turning point in most of our lives. You look in the mirror, and notice your first gray hair! Our youth loving culture spends $600 million a year on hair coloring products. Today 58% of women and 23% men dye their hair, often to conceal gray.
Though we associate the change with old age, your first gray hairs may have sprouted from your temples at age 15. By 30, roughly a quarter of men and women have discernibly gray hair. Even so, only 28% of us ever become completely white haired. And a few of us will never get a single strand of gray.
What determines gray hair? Race is factor. Caucasians begin to turn noticeably gray at 34 on average and have a 50% chance that half their hairs will be gray or white. The average Afro-American begins showing gray at age 44. Heredity is another factor. You are likely to turn gray at about the same age, and in the same pattern, as your parents or grandparents.
While it may look vibrant in any color, hair is actually made up of keratin proteins, which are amino acid links. Three months before birth you possessed all the hair follicles you will ever have - about 140,000 for a blonde, 108,000 for a brunette and 90,000 for a redhead. At the base of each follicle sits a hair bulb drawing nutrients from the second layer of the skin, the dermis. In this bulb a cone of tissue, the papilla and matrix, assembles the chemicals that will send up the hair.
When the hair is forming, it is impregnated with thousands of tiny packets of melanin pigment. Cells called melanocytes produce and blend only basic "paints" to produce the exotic palette of different colors we see in human hair. One pigment, eumelanin, tints our locks deep black to the lightest brown. The other, pheomelanin, turns hair blonde to golden brown or red. By varying the size, shape, illumination and density of pigments human hair becomes an assortment of colors.
Many people are born with blonde hair but it slowly grows darker as their melanocytes become more active. Gradual darkening often continues into midlife, with many youthful blondes shading toward brown and redheads turning auburn.
As we pass our 20's, melanocyte production slows down. Emerging hairs, possessing only a tiny amount of their former pigment, begin to appear gray. When melanocytes go completely dormant hair grows out with no pigment at all and takes on the natural color of hair protein; white. What we perceive as gray is often an optical illusion produced by a blend of colored hairs with newer white ones.
Various diseases also prod the body to produce gray hair, including herpes zoster, typhus, malaria and influenza. Other causes are severe trauma, exposure to certain kinds of radiation, hyperthyroidism, diabetes, malnutrition, ulcerative colitis and anemia.
What's the best thing to do if you notice gray hair today? Relax. Research has shown that many people learn to live with their changing hair color and soon feel comfortable with their new natural hair color. But, for millions of Americans who want to control their hair color there is a range of options. Whether you want to capture that color from your youth or step into something new and bold, today's hair color and our professional techniques can give you the look that is right for you. To receive your personalized list of options, stop in or call one of our associates for an appointment today.
