Did the first white hair appear? And you're pondering whether to tear them up, going against all the urban legends that suggest it's a bad idea. Yes, because for years we have been told that nothing can be done to stop hair graying, except to treat it cosmetically. Today, however, a new hope is opening up, supported by several studies including According to experts, gray hair, if it has sprouted after a moment of great stress, could return to its natural color.
You have lost your job, you have suffered a bereavement, you have faced a personal or couple crisis and your body has decided to send you unequivocal signals about the stress you are facing. One of these could be the graying of the hair: this color change is known as achromotrichia, or lack of pigmentation of the hair. Naturally different from canitis, i.e. the physiological and progressive decline in the presence of melanin in the hair follicle due to aging.
During the study, the researchers found evidence that white hair can return to its natural color. They analyzed 400 samples from 14 volunteers to study the role of melanin and other proteins involved in pigmentation. Through an innovative imaging technique, they realized that graying is never uniform. When white appears on the tips, the famous hope of making the process reversible opens up. How come? Hair grows from the roots. Therefore, if the gray is on the tips, it means that this mutation has occurred in a well-defined period of time and is not permanent.
Inoltre, considerando che i capelli crescono mediamente 1 cm al mese, hanno potuto ricostruire la storia di ogni volontario per collocare l’ingrigimento in un momento particolare della vita. È stato evidente come i capelli bianchi fossero legati a periodi di stress e come, per esempio, una vacanza potesse scatenare la ripresa della pigmentazione. Da che cosa dipende tutto ciò? Prima di tutto devi considerare che lo stress accelera l’invecchiamento umano. E poi dal rimodellamento attivo delle vie metaboliche che riguardano soprattutto il metabolismo dei mitocondri, piuttosto che una perdita passiva di fattori pro-pigmentanti nel tempo.
These studies have opened the door to innovative therapies, perhaps to create supplements containing antioxidants or molecules that promote melanocyte metabolism and melanosome synthesis and help people in times of stress. Be careful, though, because not only trauma can change your hair color, but also your lifestyle, smoking, age, and genetics. If gray hair is not linked to a well-circumscribed and resolved event of stress, it is not reversible.
