A Grey Mood Doesn’t Mean Grey Hair

18th January 2013

I’ve received a few enquiries recently about whether stress can contribute to turning your hair grey. It seems to be a common – and concerning – myth, that worrying can turn you grey overnight.

Fear not – hair receives its colour genetically. It’s embedded in the hair’s structure as it forms in the root. If your hair has already grown a particular colour then it will stay that colour, although the sun can cause it to fade a little. Grey hair also forms in the root and grows into a length of hair.

Hair can only turn grey or white over long periods of time. The white-over-night myth is more likely to reflect a bout of alopecia areata, which generally targets pigmented hair and spares white hair. This means that middle-aged people with an admixture of pigmented and white hair can lead to a rapid shedding of the pigmented hair to ‘reveal’ the white hair.

So, while stress is never a desirable emotion, stewing over work won’t have too much affect on the colour of your locks – which is one less thing to worry about!