The Link Between Stress and Grey Hair

If my personal situation is any indication as to the truth about stress causing gray hair, I would agree wholeheartedly. I started becoming gray shortly after the birth of my first child at age 20. It got progressively worse as I had the 2nd and finally 3rd child. If it wasn't for the wonderful invention of home hair coloring, I would be entirely gray at age 29. It is many peoples belief that stress indeed causes gray hair. You hear the old stories you parents or grandparents may have told you, the ones about someone seeing a ghost or something else they were frightened of, and having their hair turn entirely white (or grey) soon after. So is there any truth to this theory? If so, what is the relationship? If not, what causes gray hair?

There was a legend that Marie Antoinette's hair turned entirely white the evening before her scheduled decapitation. Of course impending death may cause a great deal of stress, but Scientists say this is very unlikely. They claim a slower more gradual process is likely. The average age for someone to begin getting grey hair is about 30 for men and 35 for women. This can vary though with some people experiencing it in high school or others as late as their 50's.

The graying begins in the hair follicles, and the average human head has about 100,000 of these. Each one is capable of sprouting several hairs in a lifetime. Keratinocytes is what builds the hair up from bottom up stacking upon one another than dying leaving behind colorless keratin a protein that builds texture and strength. As Keratinocytes construct hair, neighboring meloncytes manufacture a pigment called melanin, which is delivered to the keratinocytes in little packages called melonosomes. Hair melanin comes in two different shades dark brown/black (eumelanin) and yellow/red (pheomelanin) and it is the combination of these that determine our natural hair color. Hair that has lost most of its melanin turns gray and hair that does not have any pigment left is white.

Scientifically, there is no proven link between stress and gray hair. According to Harvard Medical School Pediatric Professor, Keratinocytes stem cells have more longetivity than the meloncytes stem cells, and the gradual depletion of these leads to graying hair. He does say however, that stress hormones may impact the survival and activity of the meloncytes cells but there is no clear link.

Other doctors disagree though and Ralf Paus; Professor of Dermatology at the University Hospital Shleswig-Holstein in Germany says that graying could be a result of "chronic free radical damage" and that stress hormones produced systematically or locally by cells in the hair follicle could produce inflammation that drives free radical production. Its possible they can bleach the melanin. Doctors that believe stress is related to gray hair still concede that gray hair is mostly pre-determined by genetics, but stress and lifestyle can add or minus 5 - 10 years. Blonds appear to get gray hair later, but this could be due to the fact that gray hair can hide easily in a head full of light hair. People who are most likely to have dark hair (people of african or asian ancenstry) tend to retain their color longer. Scientists are still determining whether their is a definitive link between stress and gray hair and continue to gather clues.

Until then, just like many things in our wonderful world, it will just be a matter of personal belief.