A Blessing In Disguise
Since my forties, I have been asked why I don’t have grey hair. Today in my seventies, I still don’t have grey hair. People think I’m lying and secretly using Loreal! I am both blessed and annoyed at the same time.
That’s my mane above; age 76 and still curly! My son once commented, ” Why aren’t you grey and wrinkled like other grandmas?” and my reply was then and is to this day, “I honestly don’t know.” After researching several sources, the answer is there is no answer to the “gray-less anomaly”. The science around why we get grey hair is plentiful but sketchy for why we don’t. The consensus is to blame it on our DNA.
The Research
What Makes Hair Go Grey or Not?
Our natural hair gets its various shades of color from melanin, a pigment that determines shade variance. Nutrients we take in, our genes, or possibly immunity variants play roles in depleting our melanocyte cells. These cells infuse melanin into the hair shaft. One reason people grey early (younger than 30) is from the influencer IRF4 gene, specifically, it’s variant rs/203592 which contains a marker for premature greying. (Smoking and stress are also strong influencers of early greying.)
Grey hair comes into play as we age and melanocytes begin to die off causing melanin production to wane. When this happens, air pockets replace the melanin in our hair shafts, resulting in grey or silver hair. In very rare cases, hair may suddenly turn white during bouts of near-death anxiety. This condition is known as Marie Antoinette Syndrome whose own hair turned white overnight before her beheading.
Stress, inheritance, and ethnicity can also disturb or destroy melanocytes. PubMed.com did a worldwide study on population greying and observed that between the ages of 45-65, 74% had grey hair. Men had significantly more grey hair than women. And age, both at onset and rate of greying, were linked to ethnic or geographical origins.
My dad had auburn hair (English ancestry)with a touch of grey in his side-burns when he passed at 62. My mom was 10 years younger than my dad, had dark hair (Portuguese ancestry) started greying in her early 20s, and was completely white before she was 40. Maybe my parent’s DNA combo instigated the no-grey miracle but then my 5 siblings all have grey hair, so maybe not.
Can Grey Hair Come and Go?
We do know that once grey hair is set there is no magical potion to reverse it unless you use man-made dyes to temporarily color it. ( The color-dye industry was poised to reach 33.7 billion in revenue worldwide by 2022. No one wants to look old.) We do know that less than 1% of the world’s population has no grey hair at all with no definitive scientific data as to why. But what happens if a person who has no grey hair losses portions of his hair or all of it from disease or stress? Will it grow back grey or natural? In some instances, yes.
Case in point: When my father died I was only 31 and beyond heartbroken. Stemming from the stress and consequences of his passing, I developed Alopecia Nerviosa. My hair began to disappear in spots. Not all at once like with some patients, but with slow agonizing reappearances. Fortunately, I have always maintained a thick long mane, so a “comb-over” was always possible. When the hair grew back, it was white for a short time, then changed to my natural color when it grew about an inch. I endured Alopecia Nervosa for over 30 years, then one day the nightmares stopped and Alopecia Nervosa went away but not without leaving my hair a lot thinner.
.Conclusion
I look at life differently from most, with a lot of love, and faith in myself and my family. My hair, feisty attitude, and sheer grit overcame all roadblocks to my happiness. Am I an “odd duck”? Of course, “odd ducks” don’t do grey!
References
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22716034/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_coloring
- https://www.verywellhealth.com/marie-antoinette-syndrome-4770065
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/why-hair-goes-gray-at-different-ages/2020/12/18/de95ebc0-3c06-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story
- https://hospitalcapilar.com/en/alopecia-nerviosa/
- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221202005145/en/The-Worldwide-Hair-Color-Industry-is-Expected-to-Reach-33.7-Billion-by-2030—ResearchAndMarkets.com#:~:text=Global%20hair%20color%20market%20is,forecast%20period%2C%
- Youtube video of the Cowsills: Hair
You definitely won the gene pool with your gorgeous locks! I think you might be the only one of the sibs whose hair is not streaked with grey! Your hair is truly beautiful!!