Does Stress Turn Hair Gray?

What really turns hair gray? The answer, according to this article in the Scientific American, is the death of melanocyte stem cells, which produce pigment that colors hair black or brown or red or yellow. Like all cells, melanocyte stem cells are programmed to die at some point, but does stress hasten their death? The answer, says Sciam, is "posssibly," but at this point, it's too soon to blame stress for your gray hair.   Read more in the Scientific American.

Comments

[millard scott]

My dad fought in the south pacific in WW11. He told me several times that in fierce battles afterward that some soldiers he knew their hair had turned grey.

[Adriene Lew]

My great-grandmother was completely grey at age 29, my mother had grey hair early, but thanks to Clairol we'll never really know when she went completely grey and I started to get grey hair in my twenties and was completely grey at 45. Seems like its genetic to me...