What Causes Gray Hair?

Ask a man what causes gray hair and he will likely tell you that women are the cause. Ask a woman what causes gray hair and she will tell you that children are at the root of silver tresses. Stress, illness, fear and many more causes have been blamed for gray hair sprouting up out of nowhere. Are any of these tales true or are they just myths and old wives tales? Just what does cause gray hair?

Both your hair and skin get color from a pigment known as melanin. Every hair has three major layers: the cuticle, the outer covering of the hair shaft; the cortex, the second layer; and the medulla, the central core of the hair shaft. Melanin is primarily found in the cortex. Melanin is formed by cells called melanocytes that group together in bundles and create pigment protein complexes, known as melanosomes. Even though there are many different hair colors, there are only two types of melanin. Eumelanin is a brown or black color and pheomelanin is red. Hair color is determined by how much either or both of these melanins are present and how they are distributed in the hair shaft. If there is a lot of pheomelanin near the cuticle layer, the hair will be more red. Dark, black hair may have eumelanin even in the cuticle layer, but if the hair is lighter, then the eumelanin is only in the cortex.

Gray hair is caused by reduced melanin in the cortex layer of the hair. Hair does not turn gray. It grows as gray hair. There are some serious illnesses or severe emotional conditions that might cause the hair to turn gray; some people inherit a condition that can cause them to turn gray quite young, but usually gray hair is caused by good old fashioned aging.