Every one of us is born with a particular hair color, tone and texture. We usually inherited our looks, facial features, body structure, hair and eye color, texture etc from our parents. As they say, its all in the genes.

But as one gets older one must note that the body changes. This can affect the hair color texture too. Many a times new born babies will be born with poker straight hair and will experience curled hair as they get older. This in part is due to changing hormones, external causes like exposure to sun light, certain pollutants in the air etc.

Similarly when a person experiences gray hair, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is aging.
Gray hair strands can even appear on a teen-aged person’s healthy head of hair. Although most people categorize this as pre-mature aging, what they don’t realize is that it could be caused by another factor completely.

When people start observing gray hair earlier in life, it is known as premature graying of the hair. Many well known celebrities have had premature gray hair, one of them being Steve Martin…

When one experiences premature graying, their hair color will change to gray and may remain that way until they are very old. Gray hair can make people feel insecure about their health and looks. That’s because most people identify gray hair with aging. It can feed into someone’s confidence level fortunately though; there are many ways to mask premature graying. One can use natural products that color the hair or even company manufactured hair coloring products. These products are widely used and common amongst people who experience premature graying.

As for the reasons people get gray hair earlier than usual, there are several. Sometimes a person’s health or certain illnesses may cause premature graying while for others it could just be a genetic problem.

Either way, if it helps to refer to the commonly known causes of gray hair then refer to the list below:

Causes of premature gray hair:

Melanin loss

The reason our hair gets its natural hair color is due to high levels of melanin. The formula is simple, the more the melanin the darker the hair and the lesser the melanin the lighter the hair.
When there is a loss or shortage of melanin in the body then the hair starts getting a lighter color which looks like gray hair.

Hereditary factors play a role

If either of your parents had gray hair earlier on in life then the chances are that you too will. Hair color and how soon you age are all dependent on your inherited genes.

Prolonged sun exposure

Long hours of direct sun exposure change the hair color. As everyone is made different, for some people prolonged sun exposure could lead to bleached hair which looks brown and for some people it could lead to gray hair… There is a way to avoid prolonged and direct exposure to the sun. One can wear a cap when out in the sun or cover the head with a scarf.

Stress

Some people claim that high stress levels caused their hair to turn gray. This holds true for certain people, other times stress can result in other changes in the body like hair fall, skin break outs etc. The point is that everyone’s body reacts differently to different things.

Natural Aging Process

The most common cause of gray / white hair is the natural aging process, as one grows older the melanin reduces and turns hair into a lighter shade.

Thankfully, due to modern technology people can find several ways to hide their gray hair if they are not comfortable with it.
Furthermore, there are several myths surrounding treating gray hair. But here are some actual facts that are worth a read:

• If you pluck a gray hair, two more gray strands will not grow back
• Gray hair is difficult to color because it resists color. Try bleaching it first.
• Gray hair can be sign of vitamin deficiencies in the body.
• People who smoke daily have higher chances of getting premature gray hair.
• One cannot get gray hair overnight, it is a process that happens slowly over the years.
• It is not possible to reverse the graying hair. One can only color it again with the help of external products.