Table Of Content
- If your diet isn’t helping, go for vitamin B supplements
- What? Another medical form to fill out?
- New findings involving nervous system and stem cells suggest just how stress may trigger the change
- Does stress cause graying hair?
- Smoking plays a huge role with graying
- Three will receive 2024 Harvard Medal

Then, at the end of the telogen (shedding) phase, the hair falls out and is replaced by new hair. To keep hair healthy, eat a balanced diet that is rich in protein and includes lots of fruits and vegetables; and reduce stress with exercise or meditation. A good diet, however, may be able to reverse some of the negative effects of stress on the hair. A diet high in sources of antioxidants, such as fish, olive oil and fresh fruits and vegetables, can reduce oxidative stress. “Keep in mind that it is key to keep hair looking bright, shiny, and healthy,” says Scott.
If your diet isn’t helping, go for vitamin B supplements
If you find it difficult to cope or your stress symptoms don’t decrease, it may be time to talk with a professional. There are many resources for finding a therapist or support group to help you deal with the stressors in your daily life. Mindfulness is the psychological process of actively paying attention to the present moment. You can do many things to trigger the relaxation response and reduce stress.

What? Another medical form to fill out?
Harvard researchers, for the first time, have discovered how stress turns hair gray. “Reversal of graying” — instances of hairs that had a white top segment, but were growing in darker at the bottom, or “repigmenting” — was discovered among 10 of the participants. “Based on our mathematical modeling, we think hair needs to reach a threshold before it turns gray,” Picard says.
Grey hair: Could it be caused by stress? Science has an answer - USA TODAY
Grey hair: Could it be caused by stress? Science has an answer.
Posted: Fri, 14 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
New findings involving nervous system and stem cells suggest just how stress may trigger the change
As keratinocytes construct hairs, neighboring melanocytes manufacture a pigment called melanin, which is delivered to the keratinocytes in little packages called melanosomes. "Based on our mathematical modeling, we think hair needs to reach a threshold before it turns gray," Picard says. "In middle age, when the hair is near that threshold because of biological age and other factors, stress will push it over the threshold and it transitions to gray. "We often hear that the mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, but that's not the only role they play," Picard says. "Mitochondria are actually like little antennas inside the cell that respond to a number of different signals, including psychological stress." Former President Barack Obama is pictured at the beginning of his presidency in January 2009 (left) and at the end, during President Donald Trump’s inauguration eight years later.
"Graying is the loss of melanin in the hair shaft. Melanin is the term used to describe natural pigments found in most organisms." To begin building a new hair, the follicle factory must be rebuilt. Fresh keratinocytes and melanocytes are recruited from progenitor cells, also called "stem cells," residing at the bottom of the follicle. For unknown reasons, keratinocyte stem cells have a much greater longevity than the melanocyte stem cells, says David Fisher, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
A. Many things can cause our hair to gray, including genetics and stress. The graying of hair most of the time is unrelated to stress, but it can worsen the graying. When all is said and done, graying is a natural part of life and there isn’t any reason you should feel the need to hide it if you don’t want to. “What matters in the end is how you’ve taken advantage of the years that have passed.” If you fall into this category and just want to fully embrace the gray-hair life, visit your hair stylist and let them know! They’ll be able to provide great ways to fully elevate your look.
The authors highlight the need to further study the interactions between the nervous system and stem cells in different tissues and organs. The knowledge gained in this work will be useful in future investigations into the impact of stress on the body and the development of new interventions. As we age, these melanin producing cells go through a phenomenon called apoptosis, or programmed cell death, causing the hair to turn gray or white. "The medical term for graying is canities," trichologist Bridgette Hill, WTS, tells PS. "There is a growing curiosity in the science and medical community for study of the hair follicle," she says.
Harvard’s Office of Technology Development has filed a provisional patent application on the lab’s findings and is engaging prospective commercial partners who may be interested in clinical and cosmetic applications. After eliminating different possibilities, researchers honed in on the sympathetic nerve system, which is responsible for the body’s fight-or-flight response. History is replete with anecdotes, more and less verified, of individuals whose hair turned white or gray due to stress. Reducing stress in your life is a good goal, but it won’t necessarily turn your hair to a normal color. The results were compared with each volunteer’s stress diary, in which individuals were asked to review their calendars and rate each week’s level of stress. That said, if you are going gray prematurely, it wouldn’t hurt to go have a checkup just in case natural genetic factors aren’t the sole culprit.
The study was conducted with mice; therefore, the relationship between stress and premature hair greying still needs to be further investigated. "There was one individual who went on vacation, and five hairs on that person's head reverted back to dark during the vacation, synchronized in time," lead author Martin Picard, a neurologist at Columbia University said in a statement. Zinc pyrithione, an ingredient in many dandruff shampoos, can help a drying scalp even if you don’t have dandruff and may promote hair growth. "Our data add to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that human aging is not a linear, fixed biological process but may, at least in part, be halted or even temporarily reversed." For every person who embraces his or her gray hair, many more curse this very visible sign of aging. That stress is prompted by an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body that can damage tissue, proteins, and DNA, Kasey Nichols, NMD, an Arizona physician and a health expert at Rave Reviews, told Healthline.
This means that it just happens because it’s a commonality within your family genes. Check when your relatives or parents went gray and see if it matches with your timeline. This article discusses the causes of grey and white hair, how stress plays a role in this, whether it is permanent and some tips to help prevent those premature greys. Ideally, a follow-up prospective study would be next, Picard said. Researchers would follow participants for months, recording their experiences and measuring their stress hormones via saliva before analyzing their hair strands. Based on mathematical modeling, Picard and his colleagues suggested that hair needs to reach a threshold to turn gray.
“In middle age, when the hair is near that threshold because of biological age and other factors, stress will push it over the threshold and it transitions to gray. These nerves are all over the body, including making inroads to each hair follicle, the researchers reported. Hair lost to male-pattern and female-pattern baldness won't grow back on its own, but there are medications that can help slow hair loss and even regrow hair. Minoxidil (Rogaine) is a topical medicine that is available over the counter to treat men and women.
They also could match the changes in the proteins in the strands to the volunteers’ reports. “Just like tree rings hold information about past decades, and rocks hold information about past centuries, hairs hold information about past months and years,” they wrote. While there may not be a direct link between stress and gray hair, there is strong evidence that suggests stress can lead to various health and cognitive issues. A recent study conducted at Columbia University found that while on vacation, gray hair may revert back to its original color, which suggests a link between stress and gray hair – with the exciting possibility that it may be reversible.
Hill explains that the gray coloring of a hair fiber is a result of some melanocyte activity (the cells that produce melanin), and the white coloring of a hair fiber is the complete absence of all melanin and melanocyte activity. As we age, hair follicles naturally begin to produce less melanin. This makes the hair grow translucent, without any pigment, appearing white. However, noradrenaline activates these stem cells too early and causes them to move away from the hair follicle’s color reserves.