Why Does Hair Turn White or Gray?

The hair is a product of the skin and it’s made from millions of tiny fibers. In the center of every hair fiber there is something called follicle. There is melanin in every follicle of hair. Melanin is a pigment which is produced from cells called melanocytes.

Many humans have dark hair. Hair has only two types of pigments: dark (eumelanin) and light (phaeomelanin). 

They blend together to make up the wide range of hair colors. 

After the 30^th year, human hair begins to turn white or gray. 

This happens because of the reduction of the melanin pigment in the hair follicle.

Hydrogen, which brunettes used to become blonde, is a perpetrator of this effect.

 Human body is constantly producing hydrogen in small quantities. It’s a product of a chemical reaction in the metabolism. 

Younger people successfully eliminate this compound. The elderly humans can’t eliminate hydrogen from the body like younger people.

When hydrogen is completely free in the body, he is blocking the enzyme called tyrosinase. 

This enzyme is necessary for producing melanin from the melanocytes. 

Thus, the hair of older people becomes grey or white.

Scientists believe that in the future we’ll have drugs for blocking the hydrogen or for activating the melanocytes to produce melanin again. Before that, the only option is using the mentioned perpetrator for dyeing the hair.