I’m 24 and I have gray hair! What’s going on?
- asks Kat from London
Lindsey Bewley • October 8, 2007
![Gray hair can happen at any age--even in your teens or early twenties. [Credit: Abouthair.com]](https://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/hair1.jpg)
Gray hair can happen at any age--even in your teens or early twenties. [Credit: Abouthair.com]
I was only 18 when I spotted my first gray hairs, interlopers among my chestnut-colored tresses. As a freshman in college, I chalked these gray hairs up to stress from calculus class and a bad boyfriend. But by the time I aced calculus and dumped the boyfriend, those silver wisps were still there—and now, at the age of 25, a few gray strands have multiplied to what seems like nearly a hundred, silently taunting me when I look in the mirror as if to say, “You’re getting old. You’re getting old. You’re getting old.”
To explain the mystery of graying hair, you must get to the root of the problem, err, I mean the root of your hair. Under the scalp, a tube of tissue called the hair follicle surrounds the root of every hair strand. Each follicle contains a number of pigment cells that produce melanin, the polymer that gives the growing shaft of hair its color. Usually these pigment cells continuously produce melanin, but if your body stops generating it, the strand of hair will have very little pigment to paint over it’s normally transparent hue; this base-transparency will then present itself as gray, white, or silver.
Melanin production is brought to a halt for a variety of reasons–some natural, some indicators of greater health issues. As people continue to get older, the number of pigment cells around to produce melanin will actually be reduced. Eventually, these cells will be so depleted, the hair will look completely gray. Incidentally, melanin also provides moisture to the hair strand, so when less is produced, hair tends to grow brittle, losing its bounce. This is why as your hair leans towards the color of the snowy peaks of the Alps, its texture becomes dryer and coarser, making it more curly or wiry.
My gray hair started when I was still in my teens—a far cry from the usual graying age range of 30 to 50. But it turns out that people can get gray hair at any age, depending on genetics. This means that most of us will start having gray hairs around the same age that our parents or grandparents first did. I called my mother to find out our family’s graying hairstory. She told me it wasn’t any surprise that I had started to gray at a young age—her uncle’s hair was completely white by the time he was 25. Aha! I thought. Now this mystery is starting to make sense.
Researchers have shown that gender plays a role in graying. The average male starts to gray around age 30, while women typically began to notice lighter strands around age 35. In some families, many members develop white hair in their 20s. “It obviously clusters in families in one sense. Whether that is a single gene or common gene we don’t know,” writes Dr. Meyer in the magazine Scientific American. “Generally speaking, among Caucasians, 50% are 50% gray by age 50. There is, however, wide variation. This number differs for other ethnic groups, again demonstrating the effect of genetics.” But this biological fact of life varies greatly from person to person, which made dermatologists and geneticists conclude that age is not the the only indicator of when gray hair will appear.
For starters, smoking is known to decrease melanin production. Sometimes, the arrival of gray hair can be a sign of an underlying health problem. Werner’s syndrome, a disease that mirrors the symptoms of aging in people as young as 20, can spur the premature growth of gray hair. Pernicious anemia, a disease marked by a vitamin B12 deficiency, is also associated with decreased melanin production.
Although there are people who think that a big shock or trauma can turn a person’s hair white overnight, only a rare disease has been known to cause this phenomenon. Called alopecia areata, the condition causes the thicker, darker hairs to stop growing before it affects the growth of gray hairs—meaning people with the disease seem to “go gray” overnight as the darker strands are diminished and the gray ones keep on growing strong.
Overnight graying myth aside, what about that pesky old wive’s tale that says pulling out a gray will result in five more springing in it’s place? That’s also wrong! So yank away. I, however, don’t have that kind of patience, so it’s back to the salon for me, for a little color to cover those stubborn grays.
369 Comments
i am 10….i have gray hairs…i get teased at school saying ima die when i am 20. WTF! 10 year old gray hair!
Also on my gray hair patches there are weird bumps. I poked at them today and it was bleeding like crazy.
:( scared
i am 5 years old and went grey at 3..
EVERY BODY READ CAREFULLY!!!
I am 24 and i got my first 4 gray hairs and trust me when I say that it has nothing to do with stress…its genetical!!! and I know that because I have a twin brother..both of us got our first 4 white hairs (2 on each temple)this year!BUT (AND READ CAREFULLY) I have great genes..all of my grandparents are alive and all of them have gray hair (none of them have started to go bold) and they are over 70!)and they both had gray hair by the time they where 30..fizicaly..both my grandparents are very strong and able..as for myself..I am 186cm tall and 90kg ..I am a martial arts practitioner for over 15 years and as for health…I HAVE NEVER HAD AN INJECTION IN MY LIFE OR TAKEN A SINGLE ASPIRIN (except the 2 mandatory school shots)..besides a few colds…I have never layd in bed sick…and I have never had a headake!!! (the worst I had where belly akes)…so..getting gray hair does not mean that you are unhealthy..or that you are going to go bold..or stuff like that!…and also..you could have done nothing to change it..ITS RWITEN IN THE GENES.
For those who got the grays, whites or silvers…
It’s not a bad thing.
Aging characteristics in a human could be visible in one of the two ways:
1. Gray, white, silver hair
2. wrinkles
so if you’re a type1 category, BE HAPPY that you got the hair changing genes from one of your biological parent and not the wrinkling genes!!! having white hairs is way better than getting wrinkles at a younger age.
Plus you could always dye your hair (if you really want to) but you could never dye your face to get rid of your wrinkles!!!!!
henry u are funny & vanessa i understand u cuz i cry abt gray hair too :(
I am 50 years old and I have no gray hairs. I don’t know why, but please everyone out there rule out stress as the culprit for gray hairs ’cause god knows I have had and still do my own share of stress through out my years, oh did ui mention they still card me at the stores.
PLEASE DONT HATE ME! I am 51 and I have NO grey hair at all, Idid find a grey pubic hair few years ago but lucked it out andnomore since. I dont know why? My mum was fairly old and no more than 30% grey by time she died at 76. I wonder if its connected to losing all my hair to chemotherapy at 26?
Howevr, people are alwys asking me what colour I use, and often dont believe me when I say I havent and dont need too!
i have a gray hair problem iam 25 and iam depress abt that,ia there any cure abt that?????
I once thought that I had a batch of grey pubic hairs, but luckily it turned out to be a bit of dried up yoghurt.
But yeah, my first strand of silver appeared when I was 14, and by the time I was 21 it became noticeable. Apart from being commonly reffered to as ‘the silver fox’, I don’t really find having greys at a young age a problem.
well im 14 years old and i have about 45% white hair and its a little depressing because some people tease me and i started going grey when i was 7 i think or maybe 6 thats why there is a lot. is their a way to remove it naturally or is there a way to lessen it. because i like to have a few white hairs cause it looks cool. :) be proud of what you are, because you are not the only one with white hair here sistah :))
My grandson is 14 and has a patch of gray about the size of a dime on the back of his head and now he is getting gray on top also. No one in our family has gray hair, so it is not because of genes (great grandparents still living also) We have had him tested and he is medically great. So what is the cause??? Right now, he is using dark brown mascara to cover the one patch, but the kids at school have noticed it for several years. Now in high school, it’s “dude, you got gray hair…Hahahahah” and its very hurtful to him. Any solutions??
I’m Hispanic, my mom is from Mexico, and my dad is Hispanic also. I am just about to be 29 years old and have quite a few white hairs majority on the left side of my head. When I was born I was a light blondish brown. When I was about 4 to 7 I became a bright blonde with some dark under highlights, then grew out to light brown. I don’t know what the cause of that was. Weird
hi i am shubham iam 18 yrs old now. igot my first gray hair at the age of 14yrs of age.at first it looks very odd as my hairs has a dark black colour and my hairs are so much rough but afterwards I GET USED TO IT.BUT NOW WHEN I START TAKING CARE OF MY HEALTH SLOWLY SLOWLY MY HAIRS GETTING BLACK AGAINLY ONE BY ONE I CANT BELIEVE IT BUT WHEN YOU WILL THINK LITTLE IN A POSITIVE WAY TOU WILL START RECAPTURING YOUR BLACK COLOUR OF YOUR BACK!……………
I found my first strand of grey hair when i was 8. im 15 now and have grey hairs in the back and top of my hair. Im pretty sure it is genetics because i don’t have much stress at this age. I kinda think its cool as long as there is no medical issues involved.
I am a 28 year old female and have yet to see one gray hair on my head =) My mother begain going gray at 24 and my father wasn’t silver till his late 50’s and even now at 65 his hair only has a few silver strands. So make sure your partner you choose to mutiply with has good family trates.
i’m 23 year old female and half of my hair got white,present using henna but the problem is hair falling..so,please suggest me an idea
I started going gray when I was 8 y/o. By the time I was 13 classmates would point out my graying hair in utter disbelief. I am now 24 years old and am 100% silver. My body hair is quickly graying as well. I have been tested for all of the possible conditions in the book with no resolve. I was adopted and have no way of knowing if my parents had experienced “premature” graying although I imagine one of them did. When people ask (which is the only downside to being “prematurely” gray) I will continue to tell them that it is likely genetic and that George Clooney is my father.
I am in 33 with 60% white. It started from head in late college days and now expanding to arms and chest. Early I was comfortable and enjoying but now my colleagues and friends consider 10-15 years older. Well, couple of years ago I heard that there is some cure in homeopathic medicine. I don’t know but if somebody tried any cure to get black back except coloring.
Im a 28 yr old..about 50 grey hair…all on the sides for some reason…and honestly it doesnt bother me at all….i will explain why…
for the longest time I was worried about losing hair…cause i have ridiculous hairfall…like if i my massage my head right now..i can get like 50-60 hairs falling…its that bad.. and its been like that for a few years..and i always wondered my wedding album would suck if im bald…tried different oil treatments for my hair…nothing worked….but atleast I’m married and my album looks good….im still not bald…my 10 yr old cousin come up to me and say u have grey hair..and ur not even 30…does it bother me…may be….but i really dont care..atleast i have hair….now i have a new mission b4 i loose all my hair..i want to grow it out…like 5-6 inches long..and see…a new look i never tried long hair..always had short hair..and I want to do it b4 its too late and I have no hair left.. I m still more worried about going bald than white hair….and im 100% sure i will go with hair transplant if i go bald :)
I am 24 years old and I started to see several white hair since several months. Its not good to see this at this age.
I’m 13 and i have 12+ strips of ’em at the upper-back part of my hair. Please help… I don’t want my hair to be white in a couple of years.
23 years old i got greys, im excited really for a number of reasons, first george clooney has made the salt and pepper look a friggin symbol of sexy so thats just gonna be awesome, second for anybody who cares the Bible (#1 best selling book since forever every week by the way) talks about being okay even proud of your grey hairs because every single on of them was earned, grey hair being a sign of distinction and knowledge, third if it does get too bad one can always die there hair in this day and age, who besides those closest to you is gonna know the diffrence right.
So if your worried about it remember, Its sexy, you’ve earned them be proud, and if all else fails you can always hide it
:P from your friend Matt the Canadian
i found my first grey hair when i was one. and im 3 now and im completely grey. It sux. but im real mature for my age and i can pick up 5 year olds.
Dont worry about it I was quite young when I found my first grey hair. I am now 65 and still have 95% dark hair. It funny when people say about stress causing you to go grey because i’ve had loads of stress in my life as well. I’m adopted so don’t really know when my father and mother started going grey.
Came across this while looking to find out how hair turns gray, am 27 and have noticed a couple of hairs are gray at the root shaft and brunette at the tip, have been on tablets for 3 months and wondered if the gray growth correlated with the tablet taking or not, but Mum turned gray at 21 so whatever is the cause I’ve still beaten the genes for a few years!
I think some of the very younger posters might be interested to realise that hair is not all one, uniform color and that they could be mistaking very light ash blonde tones in between the blacks and the brunettes. From my own experience my hair has thick black strands, some thin light blonde, some medium reds and a load of brunette. (and now some gray! Lol!)
But whether your hairs are gray or not, just think of Dame Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dame Judy Dench – all very classy older women and they all look great with a head of gray, so maybe it is something we should aspire to naturally, knowing you can look good and be positive with it… Or just reach for a bottle pf hair dye!
Im 17 and already i have loads of gray on the backside of my head. I feel really insecure about it at times and when i go to school i ALWAYS am wearing something to cover it like a hat or a beanie… Im glad there are others like me so i know how you guys must feel or vice versa. Hopefully one day i overcome my insecurity and just live life like all the others who dont worry about gray hairs.
When i was 12 years old A cometology teacher told me I would be gray before I was 21. My hair is an unusual shade of light reddish blonde. I am now 67 and my hair has just enough gray in it to look blonde. The only thing that has ever bothered me about the color is that even beautians think it is bleached and toned. One even said your hair is too porus to be natural. She didn’t even understand that perms do that. Next time around I want to have dark black hair.
I’m 15 now, but already have some grey hairs, maybe it’s about 5-10 , not so many though, but I’m sure it’ll be getting worse and worse. Geez, it’s not just that my hair is curly and thick, but also with grey hairs! Oh my God, it does really really make me depressed. That’s really sucks
Am goin to be 23 in couple of months. I have black/dark brown hair. Last week i spotted a strand of white hair n i was shocked n disappointed to know the fact tat my hair is started getting grey. Am not able to take it coz i feel its too early for it. In my case its not genetic coz my mom is 50 n she’s not had any white hair yet n my dad spotted his first white hair in his 40’s. I don’t have any stressfull issue as well. Am not able to find the right reason for my premature white hair. As well i want to know some good home remedies for same
i’m 21yrs old i have white hair in front of the head, any suggeest for this
Could all this premature gray hair be caused by an outside stimulus? Do you people have hair mites or something? Have you eaten the wrong thing? Just wondering.
I’m only 15, and about 10% gray.
All of my grandparents and both my parents have about as much gray as I do.
I’m currently 21, I was 15 when i saw my first silver hair. My mom and I thought it was due to stress from exams and all that stuff but after everything passed more hair kept popping up. I have no one in my family who had grey or silver hair at a young age, apparently I’m the only one so I pretty much accepted things as they are.
even if gray hair is a result of aging i still think it looks nice
in fact i’d rather have gray hair than black hair
if its dark gray
I started going grey when I was about 7. Now I’m 15 and I’m 100% white. It’s so depressing.
I started turning grey (white) in my early 20’s. My young children did not like it
so I spent bunches of money to be a blonde for 20 years.
It has been snow white for 35 years now and I do and have enjoyed
it so much. I get a compiment on it nearly every where I go
The main thing to do is keep yourself in a nice up to date cut, that doesn’t
require a perm. I try to get a little tan even if I have to use a bronzer, wear bright
colors ( I have enjoyed all of the lime greens). I’m 75 now and it is not as much fun
since I have grown in to it………but if you are lucky
enough to be all white before time. just enjoy and try not covering it. I think you
will love it and you’ll be considered attractive.
NC
Hi, i am only 26 years old. I have a lot of grey hair. Pls suggest some remedy.
Thanks in advance…..!
Oh come on guys!
it’s a normal thing to have SOME grey hair at 20
why r u people so worried about
Have had grey hair since I was 18 but it’s only now that I’m 21 that you can really start to see grey strands poking out everywhere. Makes me look very strange because I have dark hair and the grey sticks out like a road flair, was thinking about using some just for men to dye it, any suggestions?
I am 17 and found my first gray hair today. I am really excited and hope it goes white soon. I will be the classiest college freshman ever.
I was wondering about gray hair because my sister has gone about 1 quarter gray and I have yet to see a single gray hair. I am 26 my sister is 27. She has been going gray for some time now. If genetics are involved then I guess I get my hair from my dad even though the color is my mom’s. My dad hasn’t grayed much age 57 but my mom is 95 percent gray at 55. I do believe that you can go gray from stress I have alot of health issues and was hospitalized when I was 17 and a huge streak of my hair went gray and about a year after my hospital stay my hair went back to normal. I have very dark hair so a single strand of gray would stick out I dont have not one gray hair on my head. I think it is weird.
My brother 7 years younger than me who is 32 was in a car accident some years ago. Can’t remember when. Seems long ago probably early 20’s. He was thrown from his car and landed on the road. He had head trauma and brain surgery. He came out of the hospital fully gray and still is. He wasn’t before. I’m 39 and i’m still not gray.
My Uncle from my Father’s side of the family had a screwed up gall bladder surgery that resulted in bile leaking into his internal body cavity after he returned home. And had to return at some point to have it repaired. He spent a long hospital stay at the end of which his hair is fully gray/white where before he was mostly dark hair. He physically aged to where he looks 20 years older than my father who is same age. He even speaks slow, unsure, and shaky. Also developed parkinson’s soon afterward. His hair didn’t just age, he did as well.
I think age is just what we call slow damage over time. And if you have serious medical trauma resulting in extensive damage over a short time then their doesn’t seem any logical reason why it wouldn’t appear as having aged.
I first got silver hair in the 4th grade. I am now 23 and have lot of silver hair and may be 50% silver by the time I turn 30. However it doesn’t bother me because it is everyone’s natural hair color.
I will be 37 in less than a month, and I have yet to spot a gray hair…. I’ve had a couple that looked like they were getting lighter..my hair is dark brown. I am a Hispanic female. A lot of my classmates do have those unruly grays…I guess I’m just genetically lucky…this far anyway! :)
I first started to have white hair when I was 11 or 12 years old, and ever since then it has just started to grow, I’m 15 now and I’m about 30 percent covered with white hair.
I noticed my first gray hair at 25 but it was just the one. Now I’m 27 and noticed 2 or 3 more right by the original. I can’t see any more but I’m worried that more are appearing. Nothing in my genes should suggest I should go gray young. My mother is 64 and only has a handful of gray hairs now. Her mother only went really grey around 80. My dad didn’t have any gray hairs at all until he was 46-48 and didn’t go noticeably gray till his mid to late 50s. None of my uncles or aunts grayed until their 50s. So I wonder if these are just a few random grays that won’t turn out to be anything.
I used to have a lot of grey. Since I started eating vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, seeds, nuts, oils, mostly raw (pesto is one of my favorite foods), I hardly have any grey. I eat very little carbs. I am 59 going on 60 and the change has been remarkable. I only have few strands of grey on the right side of my head directly above my forehead. A friend of mine said probably all of the natural antioxidants from my changed diet turned my hair dark again. There’s a you tube video with some guy in his 70’s or 80’s who started using molasses, (I think that was what it was, at least) and his hair turned dark again. When I viewed the video I did not believe it but now that I see what has happened o my hair I believe. You will also notice that your body will smell better, too. Although I love garlic and that will keep you healthy but not make you smell so sweet! Don’t eat white food except for cauliflower and potatoes. (I don’t eat potatoes either because I really don’t care about them except for potato chips.)
I’m a 15 year old guy, just starting my sophomore year in less than 5 weeks. Over the summer I’ve been noticing grey hairs starting to appear out of nowhere, like a magician making a rabbit appear out of his hat. According to my parents, I’m practically an exact copy of my father. His family has a lot of hair. Thick, bushy, and very soft hair. All of the males in his blood-line (ie ancestors & grandparents etc.) Had passed away with a full head of hair, but all grey. My mother’s side (both male and female) had strong, long, thick, and slightly curly hair. Yet, all of them had bald spots in their 20s-60s. Their hair later grows back (depending on age) with either a patch of normal hair or long hair.