Whether it’s adopting new silver strands or attacking them one by one with tweezers, gray hair is an inevitable part of aging. “Just as your skin and the rest of your organs age, so does your hair,” says Helen He, an assistant professor in the department of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
The aging process happens at different speeds for everyone, but most of us start to notice gray hair between the ages of 30 and 40, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. This is when melanocyte stem cells, responsible for depositing pigments in the hair shaft, can begin to become depleted or dysfunctional.
“Not much is known about why melanocyte stem cells die,” says George Cotsarelis, chair of the department of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and a follicular stem cell researcher. But there are a number of reasons, including stress or DNA damage, “that can prevent these stem cells from surviving.”
The process, called cellular senescence, causes hair to “gradually lose its pigment over time,” he adds. Some people also notice that their gray hair has a rougher texture.
Age remains a great indicator of when a person will go gray. A 2012 study of more than 4,000 participants found that between the ages of 45 and 65, almost three-quarters of them were partially gray. But experts consider it “more of a dynamic process,” says Natasha Mesinkovska, a dermatologist at UCI Health who has studied hair aging.
Previously, aging was seen as something that inevitably happened with age. Recent research suggests that “pigmentation pattern is not something written in stone,” according to Mesinkovska. This means that certain factors may have more influence on the whitening process than you think.
Influence of genetics
Genes are not the only influence, but they play an important role. “Ultimately, that’s what determines when you go gray,” says Cotsarelis.
Scientists have discovered genes that appear to influence hair aging and can affect characteristics such as baldness, eyebrow shape and beard thickness.
There may also be ethnic differences. According to research, white people tend to go gray earlier than people of African and Asian descent, and natural blondes may go gray earlier.
Premature graying of hair – before age 20 for white people, before age 25 for Asians, and before age 30 for black people – also appears to be influenced by genes. One variant, called IRF4, is “strongly linked to premature aging,” says Mesinkovska. And although rare, certain hereditary conditions, such as Griscelli syndrome, which causes pigmentation problems, can cause gray hair from birth.
Men and women are equally likely to go gray, but biological sex can influence where gray hairs first appear: men tend to go gray at the sideburns and temples, while women usually notice graying first on the front of the head.
Lifestyle matters too
Experts still don’t understand how lifestyle can affect aging, but some studies show that certain nutritional deficiencies, such as lack of vitamin B12 and iron, are associated with early gray hair. However, these deficiencies would have to be serious.
Most people will not need supplements, but it is wise to ensure that your diet meets all of your nutritional needs.
A 2020 study published in the journal Nature found that in mice, stress appeared to cause a loss of melanocyte stem cells. When the sympathetic nervous system, also known as the “fight or flight” response, was activated, these melanocyte stem cells appeared to “proliferate and migrate away from their original niche,” says Sarah Millar, a professor who has studied melanocyte stem cells.
This study was the first to establish a mechanistic link between neuron activation by stress and resulting hair aging, she adds.
In a 2021 study, researchers at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons analyzed hair strands from 14 volunteers and observed an association between aging and weeks in which participants reported higher levels of stress.
It is unclear, however, whether stress reduction will slow the process; further research is needed. Still, “I believe that chronic illnesses wear us out,” says Mesinkovska, “which is why studies on mice show that if you constantly disturb them, they turn gray.”
Not smoking, sleeping well, minimizing stress and maintaining a healthy diet are beneficial for hair follicle health. “These are generally great anti-aging habits, and part of it involves slowing down the aging process in your hair,” he says. This may also include exercising and limiting alcohol consumption.
Is it possible to slow down the progression of gray hair?
Aside from changing your lifestyle, “there’s really not much you can do” about gray strands, Cotsarelis says, other than dye your hair or love your new shade.
At least, not yet. “The next step is to understand how to reverse these changes so that you don’t have gray hair,” says Mayumi Ito Suzuki, a professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “In theory, if healthy stem cells are preserved, hair aging could be temporary,” he adds.
Suzuki’s team, which studies how melanocytes regenerate from stem cells, explored this idea in a study published in Nature in 2023. The researchers examined the pattern of stem cell localization in young and older mice.
“If they are in a different location during aging, they remain dormant and do not produce mature melanocytes, meaning they do not produce pigment,” she explains. The team is currently analyzing human samples to see if moving melanocytes can help prevent the aging process.
If you think you’re suffering from premature aging, it’s worth seeing a doctor, says Mesinkovska.
Since each new hair cycle is an opportunity for a strand to grow without pigment, hair loss can also accelerate aging, says Cotsarelis.
However, hair loss can’t always be avoided—age and hereditary predispositions are often to blame—but the American Academy of Dermatology recommends minimizing breakage by avoiding treatments that can damage hair, as well as hairstyles that pull on the scalp.
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