8 Facts about Gray Hairs and How to Deal with Them ...

Let’s start these facts about gray hairs with a common myth about grays. I think we’ve all heard the story about how plucking one gray hair and two more come to its funeral or grow back in its place. According to trichologist Elizabeth Cunnane Phillips, this is totally false as we cannot add to the number of hair follicles we have and won’t cause surrounding hairs to turn gray. She does say that there is no benefit to plucking as it can damage the hair follicle so she recommends very carefully cutting!

The next fact about gray hair might come as a shock but gray hair isn’t really gray! According to the good folks at Hairfinder, once a hair has “gone gray” it has lost all the pigment, so your pigmented hair surrounding it causes it to appear gray or white. There are different shades of gray hair, also!

Another interesting tidbit about gray hair is that it’s not that easy to maintain. It’s not hard, but going gray doesn’t mean you won’t have to worry about maintaining your hair anymore! Gray hair can take just as much time and effort to care for as pigmented hair. Gray hair is a bit coarse and can be very dull but you can do the same conditioning treatments and styling to regain the luster and softness of pigmented hair!

If you’re young and have gray hair, it could be due to a lack of B vitamins in your diet. The Utah School of Computing reported in their health pages that an early onset of gray hair can be linked to a lack of pantothenic acid or the absorption of it. Pantothenic acid is the component of vitamin B5, which has been used in the recoloring of hair, so taking a good quality B-complex vitamin could be helpful.

Another reason to quit smoking is to reduce your chances of premature gray hair. If your health isn’t enough to convince you to quit smoking, think about all the terrible things that smoking does to your appearance! Your skin, teeth and hair all suffer as a result of smoking and it has been linked to early grays, so it’s another good reason to quit for good!

Another common gray hair myth is that gray hair means you’re aging faster than your peers. Some people also think that you can be shocked into going gray overnight and that's not so either, according to experts. Aging is the most common cause of gray hair but it’s not the only one! Genetics play a huge role in going gray early, so if you’ve noticed early gray hairs, your parents likely starting getting grays around the same time.

Gray hair has a tendency to be coarse, dull and to turn yellow. A yellow cast to gray hair can be undesirable to some, so if you want to keep or bring out the silver tones in your hair, try using a blue-based shampoo and conditioner once a week or use shampoos made specifically for gray hair. Make sure you read the labels and don’t just pick up a product that is blue in color!

If you’re not ready to be a silver fox, there are plenty of ways you can hide the gray! You can try an allover permanent color and dye all of your hair one color to conceal grays, try semi-permanent hair color if you’re not ready to commit to permanent hair color, get highlights or use hair “makeup” to conceal gray hairs if you don’t want to commit to any color at all! Talk to a hair stylist to see which option is best for your hair and lifestyle.

There is much more to gray hair than meets the eye! Finding your first gray hair can be stressful but don’t worry, it happens to everyone and there are many ways we can conceal it. Many people start seeing gray hair in their 20s and 30s, so if you start seeing some grays sprouting up, you’re not alone! Have you spotted any gray hair? How do you care for gray hair?