We are afraid of gray hair, because even if they say that the more gray hair, the more you gain, that does not matter, the truth is that none of us would like to have them, because they are a synonym of old age and it is useless to remove them when they appear.
When age begins to take its toll on our bodies, we buy a thousand creams for wrinkles, we try surgeries, all to continue looking 20 years old, but the truth is that nothing can stop the advance of time.
Most try to combat the first white hairs by pulling them out when they appear to continue hiding for a few years. There appears the crazy concept that if you pull out a gray hair, seven more appear. Does pulling out one of them fill our hair with other vengeful gray hairs?
Some say that it is a symbol of wisdom and experience, others that it is a terror because it shows the passing of the years. Be that as it may, pulling out one of these gray hairs does not entail the appearance of two more, nor three nor seven as an immediate effect of the growth spurt. The doctor Lydia Trasobareshead of Department of Dermatology of the Príncipe de Asturias University Hospital (Madrid) and associate professor at the University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), banishes the main myths about gray hair and reveals their reality.
Although pulling out a gray hair does not prevent or stimulate the appearance of new, stronger ones, the doctor warns that doing so “systematic and repetitive” it can lead to fibrosis of the follicle and the definitive disappearance of that hair. “The continuous hair removal of a follicle can lead to the definitive disappearance of that hair”he insists.
The specialist emphasizes that no more gray hair will come out by pulling out those that have already seen the light, since gray hair is a physiological process of hair aging, and gray hair will appear progressively regardless of whether some are pulled out.
Why do they go out and who is predisposed to it? Trasobares highlights that hair graying is a natural phenomenon in humans associated with age and heredity. “It is characterized by a depletion of the ‘melanocyte’ in the synthesis of melanin that leads to an absence of melanin in the hair shaft. It is estimated that between 6 and 23% of the world population will have 50% of their hair gray by the age of 50”precise.
Furthermore, it indicates that the appearance of gray hair before the age of 20 in the Caucasian population and from the age of 30 in blacks it is considered as precocious graying. “Early gray hair can be hereditary or associated with other diseases, fundamentally of autoimmune origin. It must be differentiated from genetically determined diseases that cause white hair”review.
Regarding the growth of gray hair, the dermatologist emphasizes that it has been shown that beard hairs grow faster if they are white than if they are black.
Coarse hair, early graying
Also, «People with thick hair tend to gray earlier than those with fine hair»he adds while clarifying that “gray hair has not been shown to be weaker than pigmented hair”.
As for the color of gray hair, the specialist at the Príncipe de Asturias Hospital specifies that they are not really white. “This is an optical effect of light that masks the intrinsic yellowish color of the hair’s keratin. In the same hair you can see different shades of color from normal to white and the mixture of white and colored hair is what gives the hair a gray appearance”he warns.
Taken from La Vanguardia