So where does our grey hair come from. Part of it is genes and part of it could be the kids or your job or just plain stress.
Physical stress can trigger melanin-producing cells in hair follicles, called melanocytes, to stop producing color — thus turning hair white or grey, according to researchers from Harvard and the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CRID) in São Paulo.
“For the longest time it’s been said that stress makes the hair turn white, but until now there was no scientific basis for this belief,” said CRID researcher Thiago Mattar Cunha in a statement. “Our study proved that the phenomenon does indeed occur.”
According to Cunha, stem cells naturally stop producing melanocytes as a person ages, thus leading to hair pigment loss. Their study shows that “intense” activity of the sympathetic nerve system can speed up this process: “In our model, therefore, pain accelerated the aging of melanocyte stem cells.”