Why your Hair turns Grey and What you can do to Prevent.
Fifty percent of the population has about 50% gray hair at age 50," says Dr. Anthony Oro, professor of dermatology at Stanford University. And like skin, hair changes its texture with age, says Dr. Heather Woolery Lloyd, director of ethnic skincare at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Caucasians tend to go gray earlier — and redheads earliest of all. Then Asians. Then African-Americans. Scientists haven't figured out why yet. Your hair doesn't turn gray — it grows that way. The change in hair color occurs when melanin ceases to be produced in the hair root and new hairs grow in without pigment. Our hair color comes from a pigment called melanin. When you’re young, special pigment stem cells called melanocytes inject pigment into keratin-containing cells. This keratin, a protein, makes up your hair and is responsible for giving it its color. As you age, melanin is reduced, which is why your hair turns gray and, ultimately, white (this means there’s no mela