Why and when a hair goes gray?

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Old 02-26-2006
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Why and when a hair goes gray?

Observing my body closely, suddenly on day I find a particular hair on my chest turn gray. Suddenly a wart appears from nowhwere.

Does the med sci has any answers.
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Old 02-27-2006
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

it's really very difficult to answer, cause there are many reasons can make your hair grey:
1. as the age goes, you hair will become grey;
2. if you use head too much, work too hard, your hair will become grey;
3. if you like, just dye your hair to grey, it will be grey also.



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Old 02-27-2006
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

it was explained to me that hair goes gray because you stop absorbing the minerals that support hair color. Copper causes red hair. When you stop absorbing copper efficiently your red hair will go gray. I am not sure about the minerals behind the other hair colors.

As for warts, stop playing with frogs.

Bill
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Old 02-27-2006
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

I imagine cortisol plays a role also. Greater amount of stress very strongly equates with greater amount of gray/grey...

Wiki doesn't expressly discuss this, but has some other useful insights:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_hair


Cheers.
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Old 02-28-2006
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

But, all these factors should apply to all hair, why only to a particular strand?
Are the biochemical processes occuring in our body totally stochastic? If so, the basic paradigm of biochemistry to explain all phenomena in a living organism- as if the processes in the organism body are the same as in a thermostated test tube, has its limitations. It is not the truth we all swear by.
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Old 02-28-2006
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

Apparently, hair goes gray when the stem cells at the hair root die off, and melanin can't be added to the hairshaft anymore. The cells probably die of old age, I guess.
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Old 06-12-2007
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

Hallenrm,

I have my own theory. This is Andrew Gray. I am 50 years old. About two years ago I got a fungal infection.

Now everyone has candida, but I had a bad spot on my colon which grew through into my left lung.

How do I know it was fungus? Because I inhaled Nystatin, a powerful antifungal and had a huge reaction.

Long story short: I took antifungals for years. I have only one gray spot on my body which is in my mustache. It is now turning back brown.

Theory: Hair turns gray because as we age our fungal load increases, including candida in hair folicles. It makes sense, as the hair nearest the digestive tract turns first, and the hair furthest turns last.

Andrew A. Gray

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Old 07-21-2008
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBigDog View Post
it was explained to me that hair goes gray because you stop absorbing the minerals that support hair color. Copper causes red hair. When you stop absorbing copper efficiently your red hair will go gray. I am not sure about the minerals behind the other hair colors.

As for warts, stop playing with frogs.

Bill
http://htg.addr.com/didyou.htm claim that "the number of strands of hair on a human head varies with color: BLONDE - 140,000 strands; BROWN - 110,000 strands; BLACK - 108,000 strands; RED - 90,000 strands".
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Old 07-21-2008
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Nancy Malik View Post
http://htg.addr.com/didyou.htm claim that "the number of strands of hair on a human head varies with color: BLONDE - 140,000 strands; BROWN - 110,000 strands; BLACK - 108,000 strands; RED - 90,000 strands".
That looks like some dreamt up nonsense. I encounter people with thick and thin heads of hair of all colors.
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Old 07-21-2008
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Re: Why and when a hair goes gray?

Plus, those "statistics" are completely irrelevent to this thread.
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