Loss of the pigment that gives hair color is generally considered part of aging, and although popular opinion and language suggests that stress can also cause graying, science has not studied this link until recently. There was research that found a direct link in mice between gray hair and stress, but the first research in humans will not be conducted until 2021, involving 14 volunteers.
Melanin, the pigment that gives hair its color, is produced by cells that are part of hair follicles. These cells die over time, but they may also stop working due to external influences.
Columbia University staff recruited volunteers for the study over two and a half years, ages 9 to 65, including some who had already begun to lose their natural hair. Examining people’s hair under a high-resolution microscope, they saw that the pigments undergo barely visible changes, and that color loss begins but does not persist.
The volunteers’ task was to keep a diary of the stress they had experienced – and comparing this to hair samples, he found that changes in hair pigmentation were indeed detectable during periods of stress – however, this also happened in reverse.
There was an individual who went on vacation and his hair from five different points showed that his hair was starting to darken at the same time
said researcher Martin Pickard, an assistant professor at Columbia University.
A direct link has also been detected: proteins signaling stress on mitochondrial metabolism have also been detected in hair fibers.
The result of the research is that once the effects wear off, pigment production and hair color can be restored. Although this is inconsistent with experiments conducted on mice, it can be traced back to differences between the two organisms, and it also raises the question of what individual differences might exist between people, considering that the 14 volunteers represent a very small percentage of the sample. .
We do not believe that reducing stress will restore color to the hair of a 70-year-old who has been graying for years, nor that increased stress can cause a 10-year-old to go gray.
Picard said.
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