Busting the myths about grey hair causes, once and for all

There are many urban myths about why our hair turns grey. Is there a link between grey hair and stress? Can a single scare turn a person’s hair white? Are smokers more prone to going grey early? It’s a fact of life that sooner or later we all end up with grey hair. Or is it? We’re busting the myths about grey hair causes and separating fact from fiction, revealing how to keep your hair healthy and young-looking for as long as possible.

Grey hair is inevitable. Fact or fiction?

Fact. There’s no escaping it forever. Your hair color is created by melanin, a naturally created chemical in hair follicles. Melanin-creating cells begin to die as we age and without the same levels of pigment, hair strands get lighter and lighter, thus becoming silver, grey, and, once no melanin is left, white.

When a hair follicle finally stops creating melanin, it won’t be able to grow colored strands again. Certain outside factors can contribute somewhat to premature greying, but the odds are good that everyone will go grey eventually, if they live long enough.

Diet affects the onset of grey hair. Fact or fiction?

Fact. Multiple studies have shown nutrition to be a deciding factor in when your hair turns grey. One study in particular linked a lack of dietary vitamin B, folic acid and biotin to premature greying.¹ Another unrelated study discovered a possible connection between a lack of iron, calcium, and vitamin D3 and greying hair.²

We know that once hair follicles stop creating pigment, they never will again, so switching to a healthy diet now probably won’t bring your color back but it certainly seems possible that maintaining one could help prevent premature grey hairs from showing up in the first place.

Being scared causes grey hair. Fact or fiction?

Fiction. This is one best saved for the movies. Once the melanin in your hair follicles stops being produced, it stays that way. The only way for your hair to change color is to dye it. It’s common to hear people blame their grey hair on a single stressful event or a big fright but greys are far more likely to come as a result of your genes. If your parents went grey early, there’s a good chance you will too.³

Stress causes premature grey hair. Fact or fiction?

Fact. Grey hair and stress do seem to be related. Parents who blame their grey hair on years of dealing with unruly children may be correct. A recent study undertaken in Turkey found numerous risk factors associated with premature grey hair. One thing they all had in common is they were all factors that caused an increase in oxidative stress in the body.⁴

Too much dye causes grey hair. Fact or fiction?

Fiction. Just like the myth of a single stressful event causing grey hair, dye will not permanently make you go grey either. Again, your genes are responsible for deciding whether or not your hair goes grey early—not dye, harsh shampoos, stress or frights, although as noted above, chronic oxidative stress may well contribute to early greying.

Cigarettes turn hair grey. Fact or fiction?

Fact. It’s another reason to put down the cigarettes. Unlike a single stressful event and hair treatments, cigarettes are an outside factor that can contribute to premature greying but studies have shown that smokers tend to have earlier onset of hair greying. One study in particular found smokers were two and a half times more likely to develop premature grey hair than nonsmokers.⁵

It’s possible to go grey overnight. Fact or fiction?

Fiction. Don’t worry, you’re not going to go to bed and wake up having suddenly gone grey. Your head has somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 individual hairs on it. Each one has its own individual cycle of growing, falling out and regrowing at a rate of roughly one centimeter per month. On top of this, once a strand of hair grows out from the scalp, its color will not change. For your hair to turn grey overnight, every hair would have to fall out at once and regrow with no melanin.

The most important thing to remember with grey hair is that it will eventually come to all of us and is a natural part of living. If you’re really not happy with it speak to your hairdresser about a good-quality, safe dye, but if you can embrace it, you might find it suits you more than you expected.

1. Daulatabad, Deepashree, et al. “Prospective Analytical Controlled Study Evaluating Serum Biotin, Vitamin B12, and Folic Acid in Patients with Premature Canities” International Journal of Trichology vol. 9,1 (2017): 19-24. [↩]
2. Bhat, Ramesh M et al. “Epidemiological and Investigative Study of Premature Graying of Hair in Higher Secondary and Pre-university School Children” International Journal of Trichology vol. 5,1 (2013): 17-21. [↩]
3. “Gray Hair Facts: What Causes Gray Hair?” WebMD, www.webmd.com/beauty/ss/slideshow-beauty-gray-hair-facts. [↩]
4. Akin Belli, A., et al. (2016), “Risk Factors for Premature Hair Graying in Young Turkish Adults.” Pediatric Dermatology, 33: 438-442. doi:10.1111/pde.12881. [↩]
5. Zayed, Ayman A., et al. “Smokers’ Hair: Does Smoking Cause Premature Hair Graying?” Indian Dermatology Online Journal vol. 4,2 (2013): 90-2. [↩]

What’s inner beauty got to do with how we look on the outside?

The notion of beauty has changed over the decades and no longer conforms to a singular body type or a specific, enhanced physical feature. Instead, more women are embracing beauty as a multifactorial concept, with wellness at its nucleus and a recognition that beauty is not simply external, but also comes from within. Inner beauty once related solely to your character, or soul, but it’s developed beyond that and when we speak of ‘beauty from within’ we no longer just mean on an emotional level, but on a physical level too. Simply put, what happens on the inside affects how we appear on the outside.

The cosmetic, hair care and skin care industries are changing as many women across the world are rightfully equating wellness and healthy living to the concept of what is beautiful. Inner beauty is taking more of a center stage. This progress may have come from the health and wellness spas of larger global cities and those services are becoming increasingly popular in more provincial areas. There is also some global inspiration from places like China, where acupuncture—the essence of wellness there—is commonly utilized for beauty treatments.

Beauty is an ever-changing concept

Concepts such as nurturing your inner spirit, understanding your energy cycles and decreasing stress are becoming common in beauty routines. Whereas before the beauty industry would sell consumers the hope for beauty in a jar, now they recognize that consumers want a more holistic health approach.

Popular ideas such as ensuring your skin is healthy instead of covering up unhealthy skin with makeup or taking supplements with biotin and methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) to ensure hair health, are becoming the norm. Similarly, instead of a focus on being skinny or on thinness, women are opting for body image preferences that lean more toward fit and toned.

Women are beginning to believe that beauty is the offspring of wellness and health

Intuitively we know that wellness and beauty are intricately linked. For women, aspiring to beauty is often a key motivator in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. To put it bluntly, vanity can move us into wanting to take healthy action, although it doesn’t always move us into that healthy action.¹ But seeing beauty, health and wellness as important values in our lives is far from narcissism. We don’t just see beauty visually—we feel, hear and sense beauty. It is so much more complex than just a physical attribute. Winston Churchill famously referred to vanity as “that vice that promotes so many virtues.”

Focusing on inner beauty is a motivator for those seeking external beauty

One study analyzed how the desire for the appearance of healthier skin was a key motivating factor for increasing the consumption of vegetables and fruits.²

Another study had participants look at images of people with sun-related aging as a motivating factor for better sunscreen usage compliance.³ The study highlighted that the participants were less motivated by the discussion on the prevention of skin cancer than they were vanity!

But there is a fine line between utilizing the desire for beauty as a health motivational tool and the quest for beauty turning into a shaming mechanism. It’s important to be realistic. When looking at celebrities or even quasi-famous internet personalities as inspiration, we need to begin with where we are first (not where that celebrity or YouTube host is at).

Using the inner beauty of others as inspiration for our own inner beauty

A newer term, “fitspiration,” refers to the tendency for ordinary people to look to others—mainly internet sources—for motivation in fitness goals.⁴

Often looking at posts on Instagram, videos on YouTube or pins on Pinterest can give us ideas for health and beauty; but there is a fine line if they are also making us feel inadequate or if the goals these online personalities are portraying are unattainable.

Perhaps the bimodal approach of utilizing both beauty and health to inspire is the appropriate medium. Researchers looked at smoking cessation through the double lenses of both oral health and physical attractiveness of smokers.⁵

If it’s largely a motivator for outer beauty, is inner beauty important?

Whether motivated by the desire to look healthy or feel healthy, inner beauty is important. The same researchers that looked at smoking cessation found that the two-pronged approach of combining health and beauty were quite motivating in getting the subjects to want to quit smoking. Yes, we do want to look beautiful but we also want to feel beautiful—both are motivators.

The stories of others who we can relate to are often one of the most inspirational and motivating factors. Finding one or two bloggers or Instagrammers you feel are most aligned with your beauty values and health objectives may be beneficial in helping you to achieve your goals. Make sure they have something that you feel is achievable and realistic for you and allow seeing them reach their goals to encourage you to strive for your own.

1. Pan, W, and J Peña. “The Exposure Effects of Online Model Pictures and Weight-Related Persuasive Messages on Women’s Weight-Loss Planned Behaviors.” Journal of Health Communication, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Oct. 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29020539 [↩]
2. Whitehead, R D, et al. “A randomized controlled trial of an appearance-based dietary intervention.” Health psychology: official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Jan. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23527517 [↩]
3. Tuong, W, and A W Armstrong. “Effect of appearance-based education compared with health-based education on sunscreen use and knowledge: a randomized controlled trial.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Apr. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24508292 [↩]
4. Simpson, C C, and S E Mazzeo. “Skinny Is Not Enough: A Content Analysis of Fitspiration on Pinterest.” Health communication, U.S. National Library of Medicine, May 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27326747 [↩]
5. Semer, N, et al. “Development and evaluation of a tobacco cessation motivational program for adolescents based on physical attractiveness and oral health.” Journal of dental hygiene : JDH, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2005, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16297311 [↩]

Aside from contributing to our DNA, what else does Zinc do for us? It’s surprising just how much!

This ubiquitous mineral helps not only to maintain our immune system but also our bones, our skin, nails and our hair. It’s also vital for our cognitive function and protects our cells from oxidative stress. It even helps maintain healthy vision. ¹

So, as you can see, it’s pretty important. But you may be surprised to know that zinc was only discovered in humans as recently as 1961. This is interesting when you consider that, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry, zinc was identified as an element in 1746 and known to the Greeks and Romans before 20 BC.

Where is zinc found?

Zinc is found primarily in red meat and shellfish. Cheese, bread and wheat germ are also good sources as are mushrooms (especially Shiitake) and green peas. ² Other non-meat sources include spinach, lima beans, bean sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, okra and sweet corn. ³ However, we should note here that zinc is not as bioavailable in plant foods as in animal products so those of us who don’t eat red meat or shellfish may need to take this into consideration.

How is zinc absorbed by our bodies?

This is important. As you may know, bioavailability refers to the rate at which a nutrient (or supplement) is absorbed by our bodies. Clearly, this is important as it influences how much we need to have an active effect. As many plant-based foods and cereals contain high levels of phytate, a potential inhibitor of zinc absorption, those of us who don’t eat any or sufficient red meat or shellfish could potentially be deficient in this mineral. ⁴ Zinc deficiency, relatively rare in the Western world but of concern in developing countries, is linked to growth failure or slow growth, weight loss and problems with wound healing.⁵

How to get enough zinc

According to scientists, the four main intervention strategies for combating zinc deficiency include dietary modification or diversification, supplementation, fortification and bio-fortification. ⁶ Bio-fortification, again as you probably know, is the process of enhancing a crop’s micronutrient content over and above that of the standard crop and can be achieved using different methods. And, as you’re also probably aware, this is an area of contention and so not one we will go into here (except to say Lifeplus does not use any genetically modified ingredients in any of its products).

So, there you have it. Zinc is significantly important to us as humans for a number of reasons. And we need to be cognizant of it and our ability to get sufficient amounts through our diets to help avoid the potential dangers to our health outlined above. But, as also outlined above, this should be relatively easy to do through one of the four intervention strategies scientists have suggested. If you decide you’d like to use nutritional supplementation, please do look around our website. There’s lots of information to help you.

1. http://www.ec.europa.eu/food/ [↩]
2. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/others/ [↩]
3. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ [↩]
4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20715598/ [↩]
5. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-Consumer/ [↩]
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3724376/ [↩]