A study published in the journal eLife, shows strong evidence that psychological stress is linked to the greying of hair. The team also discovered that hair colour can be restored when stressors are removed.
For the analysis, the researchers asked participants to examine their schedules and rate their stress levels each week. Using a specially developed high-resolution scanning technique, hairs from the volunteers were analysed for signs of pigment loss. The scans revealed very small variations in color, showing that pigment loss doesn't always continue.
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To better understand how stress produces grey hair, the team also measured levels of proteins in the hair and how they changed over the length of each hair. Using a mathematical model to expand their results across a greater number of people and ages, the team suggested that gray and white hairs can indeed regain their color in some circumstances.
It should be noted that grey and white hair is typically caused by the pigment cells in our hair follicles slowly dying as we get older, which means there's a lack of the pigment melanin. According to researchers, reducing stress in a 70-year-old whose hair has been grey for years will not darken their hair or increasing stress in a 10-year-old will not be enough to tip their hair over the grey threshold.
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