Ogochukwu Ugwu

· 16 Jan 2022

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Causes of white hair you don't know about

You are not yet advanced in age but white hairs are sprouting already on your hair and Beard.

It is common for the colour of one's hair to change once in life's time. But the time it does change is what matters.

Old age is believed to be the right cause of white hair. Do you know that even young adults grow white hairs too?

You can see age is not the only determinant as per when white hair appears on your hair.

What is the real cause of change in colour of your hair
You might have known that the skin is covered by millions of cells. The hair follicles from where hair shoots out is one part of these cells.

Inside the skin there exist a cell known as melanocytes, responsible for the formation of pigments. It produces a pigment called Melanie.

Melanin is a natural substance that gives your hair it's dark color. At the course of your life, they tend to be reduction in the amount of melanin produced in your hair leading to white hairs doting your head.

Now let's look at the real of of white hair

1. Vitamin deficiencies
Lack of vitamin D, B-12, B-6, and vitamin E may result to early greying.  Studies show that deficiency in you these Vitamins and copper is attributed to early appearance of grey hair.
Report proved that black hair can be restored with consumption of vitamin rich foods.

International Journal Trichology  found that appearance of white hair very early in young Indians was due to decreased level of serum ferritin that stores iron, vitamin B-12 and good cholesterol.

2. Hereditary
Early onset of white hair is prevalent in some families, you see almost all the members of such families grow grey hair at below 40 years.

In this case, there is nothing anyone can do to stop grey hair except continually dyeing the hair.

3. Imbalance of Free radicals
Free radicals are molecular species which when in excess  cause damages to the cells in the body.

There supposed to a exist a balance between free radicals and antioxidant (substances that chelate free radicals or prevent the damaging actions (oxidation) of free radicals).

When this balance is lost, that is a time when the quantity of free radicals outweighs that of the antioxidant, causing oxidative stress to be initiated.

Oxidative stress can cause the disintegration of cells and DNA. Many terminal diseases like Cancer, diabetes, heart diseases are linked to oxidative stress.

More so, oxidative stress is associated with ageing. Oxidative stress can give rise to the damage of the cell that produces melanin, giving rising to white hair.

4. Medical condition
Early onset of grey hair can be caused by underlying health condition.

Examples is Alopecia areata. Alopecia areata causes loss of hair from the scalp, faces and jaw, when the hair grows back it may be white in colour due to absence of melanin.

5. Hair dye and other hair products
Continual use of hair dye can be the major cause of white hair. Hair products like dyes, shampoo are made of chemicals that are very harmful.

Hydrogen peroxide is one of these chemical and they tend to bleach the hair making it to be white in colour.




#healthandwellness
#skincare
#haircare




References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4830165/