50 shades: We love grey hair, but science now says its reversible?

Very interesting.

Personally I can't wait until my hair starts going grey as I think grey hair looks fab, but not everyone is of the same opinion. My mam and my aunts are not fans of turning into silver stranded queens and instead opt to have their hair coloured. But other than hitting the salon every month there's not really much else that can be done for getting rid of grey hair...or is there? In a recent study researchers plucked 397 hair samples from the heads of 14 healthy people ranging in age from nine to 39, all of whom identified as having some gray hairs or two-colored hairs. Participants in the study were asked as part of the research to keep a stress diary and in particular to note times of extreme stress. Strands of hair were then looked at during and after these times of extreme stress with some interesting findings. Speaking on the findings Martin Picard, PhD, associate professor of behavioral medicine said;

"Just like tree rings hold information about past decades, and rocks hold information about past centuries, hairs hold information about past months and years. When one donor reported an increase in stress, a hair lost its pigment. When the donor reported a reduction in stress, the same hair regained its pigment."

Yes that's right, the reversal of greying in hair can occur when our stress is greatly reduced, in fact one participant in the study had their repigmentation correspond directly to the time they were on a two-week vacation. Ultimately the study found that while stress may cause grey hair it doesn't mean that this greying is permanent and that relaxation can help bring back your hair's colour;

"If hairs are about to go gray anyway, a stressful event might trigger that change earlier. And when the stressful event ends, if a hair is just above the threshold, then it could revert back to dark."

I've always noticed that grey hair comes in differently for people who are greying naturally versus those who are greying from stress so it's very interesting to know that the stress greying can actually be reversed.