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Gray hair a biology question

TillEulenspiegel

Master Poster
T
Joined
May 30, 2003
Messages
2,302
Ok I found a gray hair. The hair is gray from the scalp to the end length of the rest of my hair. Since hair is dead how can it change color all the way all at once?
 
This is an observational bias. You didn't notice the gray hair among the thousands of other hairs until it fell into view when you were spiking it for the punk rock hall-of-fame induction ceremony. :D

I noticed my first gray hair last year. It was black on the tip, which appeared to have been cut.
 
Hmm well My hair is past my shoulders and I would have noticed the hair a long time ago had it been present ( it's in the front). How about "tales" of people going gray over night?
 
*Brushes hair*

My hair is so soft, so shiny, and full of color. Youth is such a great thing, and to see others who have lost it only makes me treasure my youth more :)

*evil*
 
Yahweh said:
My hair is so soft, so shiny, and full of color.
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That's what you say, we've never seen a picture of you without that hood. You might as well be bald for all I know :D
 
Originally posted by MLynn

My question is, why does our hair get gray?
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Originally posted by TillEulenspiegel

How about "tales" of people going gray over night?
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These two googled quotes are in agreement with what snopes has to say about it:

"Hair grows from the follicle in the skin outward. Hair visible outside the scalp is essentially composed of dead cells. As new hair cells form, they push older hair cells outward. Those parts of the hair visible outside the skin can't change color naturally (except for being bleached out by the sun). Only as pigment ceases to be imparted into new hair cells at the base does the color change from pigmented to grey or white. Only the few hudredths of millimeters of hair that grows overnight could change color overnight, and would be hidden by the vast mass of normally pigmented hair above it."

"Any severe stress, physical or mental, can make your hair fall out. Coloured hairs, like your brown ones, are shed first whereas the white hairs are sturdier and less likely to fall out. So, seemingly overnight, your hair goes from looking predominantly brown, to white."
 
Yahweh said:
*Brushes hair*

My hair is so soft, so shiny, and full of color. Youth is such a great thing, and to see others who have lost it only makes me treasure my youth more :)

*evil*
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:D

(S) said:
Can I make an obscene joke?
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Yes please! :p

I should really try and stop using smilies...
 
My hair is turning grey at the tender age of 27- it actually started at the downright very young age of 24!

I blame choosing to do postgraduate degrees in plant molecular biology and more lately, getting married. If we ever have brats, it will probably fall out in a matter of days.
 
Jon_in_london said:
My hair is turning grey at the tender age of 27- it actually started at the downright very young age of 24!

I blame choosing to do postgraduate degrees in plant molecular biology and more lately, getting married. If we ever have brats, it will probably fall out in a matter of days.
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Dude, its pretty much genetic. I started around 23 or 23 and I'm now getting close to salt and pepper at 28.5. I blamed it on law school at first but have just accepted it now. Hopefully you dont look 12 like I do cause the combo of a baby face and a full head of gray hair aint that grand.
 
fishbob said:
Just wait. *^$#%%% kids.
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Gray hair is inherited. You get it from your children. (Tip o' the hat to the late Dave Berg of Mad Magazine for that remark.)
 
The hair on top of my head is rapidly running away, the hair on my chin is turning gray. Between the two I prefer the falling out, balding is cool, gray is just well...gray.
 
My dad finally shaved his moustache because it went from being red to white a few years ago. He's bald too, so now that you can see his upper lip, he looks like a turtle.

I seem to have lucked out though, I'm 29 and no balding yet.
 
I suddenly developed a large gray streak in my hair when I was about 14. I had very long hair at the time and a streak of maybe a dozen hairs just above my right ear turned gray. I didn't notice it until a friend pointed it out at school. Very strange. Fast foward 14 more years and I still have my gray patch, which is now short and very hard to notice and as far as I can tell I don't have any more gray hair anywhere. What's up with that?
 
I was surprised to learn that it's not unknown for people to start going grey in their teens, and not just in patches but in the sense that much older people would expect.

Only famous person I know this to be true of is Marge Simpson, though. :D

Homer: I was telling Marge we could save some money if she only dyed her hair once a month.

Edna: [gasps] Marge dyes her hair?

Homer: Oh, yeah. She's been as grey as a mule since she was seventeen.

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/1F20.html
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wjousts said:
I suddenly developed a large gray streak in my hair when I was about 14. I had very long hair at the time and a streak of maybe a dozen hairs just above my right ear turned gray. I didn't notice it until a friend pointed it out at school. Very strange. Fast foward 14 more years and I still have my gray patch, which is now short and very hard to notice and as far as I can tell I don't have any more gray hair anywhere. What's up with that?
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I got a couple of grey, well white really, spots on the back of my head, they just turned up when I was around 17 I think. They look like one patch when my hair is longer about 3 mm, but it's pretty obivous. People keep asking if I dye my hair, I am polite, but I want to say "Why would I dye a white patch on the back of my head? Do I look like I'm insane?"
 
Yahweh said:
*Brushes hair*

My hair is so soft, so shiny, and full of color. Youth is such a great thing, and to see others who have lost it only makes me treasure my youth more :)

*evil*
Click to expand...

That's interesting about your back hair Yahweh, but what about the hair on your head? ;)
 
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