Fact of the Week: Grey Matters
Why does hair turn grey?
Grey (or white) is merely the base colour of hair. Pigment cells located at the base of each hair follicle produce the natural dominant colour of our youth. However as a person grows older and reaches middle age, more and more of these pigment cells die and colour is lost from individual hairs. The result is that a person’s hair gradually begins to show more and more grey.
The whole process may take between 10 and 20 years. Rarely does a person’s entire collection of individual hairs go grey overnight. Interestingly the colour enhancing cells often speed up pigment production as we age, so hair sometimes darkens temporarily before the pigment cells die.
Bob Barnhurst
Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada
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1 Comment – Post a comment
Mr.Bizzare
Commented 3 months ago - 19th January 2012 - 16:08pm
That sounds very interesting.