Hey Silver Fox – Why We Go Gray When We Do

I remember finding those first few gray hairs and feeling that mild sense of panic that most folks get when they do the same.  The question often asked is – Does stress cause the gray or is it a by-product of finding the gray?

The American Academy of Dermatology says that our hair gets its hue from melanin which is the same pigment that determines your skin and eye color and it’s chemistry not psychology that turns us gray.

With hair, you start to lose the melanin as you get older and although it's not fully understood why hair's melanin production is affected with age, research shows that naturally-occurring hydrogen peroxide can build up in the hair follicle as we age, which may affect the melanin, essentially bleaching the hair from the inside out.

Dermatologist researchers say that there is some evidence that stress hormones may disrupt the delivery of melanin to the hair but that genetics plays the biggest role when it comes to when you will start going gray. (FOX)