The appearance of gray hair is often related to age. However, this phenomenon can occur suddenly depending on the intensity of the stress felt on a daily basis. This is the observation made by American researchers, who also noticed that the process could ultimately be reversible.
Stress and premature canities
Canities is characterized by a change in the color of the body hair and hair, which turns gray or white. Canities is differentiated from vitiligo, which is a skin disease causing depigmentation of the skin or strands of hair. For most people, age is responsible for this hair coloring. However, scientists have linked stress to premature canities. For hair and body hair to grow, several mechanisms are necessary. These are the mitochondria which intervene in these various processes to bring energy to the cells. The body and what occurs within it influences the health of the hair, which can disrupt hair growth. Stress hormones, such as adrenaline in particular, can be disturbing elements for melanocytes, which are the cells responsible for the pigmentation of the skin and hair. It sends out bad signals and changes the proteins and molecules present on the hair shaft. As the authors of the study published in the scientific journal eLife indicate, “ a stressful event can trigger this change sooner », That is to say being responsible for the bleaching of the hair.
Experts recruited 14 volunteers, men and women aged 35 and over. They asked them to journal their stress levels on a scale of 0 to 10, for an entire year, depending on the events. At the same time, the scientists took hair samples from the participants to analyze them and pass them under a high-resolution scanner. These examinations were necessary in order to determine the degrees of graying, in particular those which are not visible to the naked eye. It appears that “ When a donor reported increased stress, a hair lost its pigment “. Even if the study does not involve thousands of volunteers, there is scientific proof of the link between stress and gray hair.
Hair color can be traced
This is not the only observation made by American researchers, since “ When the donor reported reduced stress, the same hair regained its pigmentation “. This event only took place for one of the fourteen participants, who went on vacation with five white hairs. When she returned from vacationing, her hair turned brown again. The specialists had already reached the same conclusion, but only concerning the mice. In this specific case, they found that once the stress decreases, human hair can potentially regain its color. They prove that premature canities is not inevitable.
