+Plucking Grey Hair Won’t Make More Grow

Posted on by Emily in General

+Plucking Grey Hair Won’t Make More Grow

You’ve heard the old wives tale– taking a pair of tweezers to rogue grey hairs will only make more grow in later. However it may have gotten started, the idea that removing grey hairs will only cause more to spread is everyone’s fear. One grey hair is bad enough to remove, but what if you’re only making the problem worse?

This has always been a great fear of mine. I had been told by an aunt at a young age that for every grey hair that you pluck, 7 more will grow in its place. I started getting white hairs at the age of 19, so you can imagine my fear that I was exacerbating the problem.

+Plucking Grey Hair Won’t Make More Grow

The truth is that plucking grey/white hairs from your head won’t make more grow. You might be seeing more down the road, but it has nothing to do with you removing the original! It’s most likely that you’re simply going through the greying process. It’s a part of growing older, sadly.

It can be especially hard for people like myself who have very dark hair and end up with white strands which stick out like a sore thumb. Like I said before, I’ve been plucking grey and white hairs from my head since I was a teenager and there are only more to take care of the older I get!

Let’s take a look at the science of greying to better understand what’s going on with those pesky hairs.

Surprisingly, all hair follicles start out white. Keratin, the protein that makes up the hair strand, is colorless. The color comes from the pigment melanin. After the hair follicle’s out of its resting phase, new stems cells of keratin and melanin are made and the hair grows from your head. Keratin stem cells outlast melanin stem cells, however, so the hair will continue to grow even if there’s less pigment being produced. Younger people are better able to keep the balance of both types of stem cells and therefore don’t have grey hairs on their heads.

+Plucking Grey Hair Won't Make More Grow

Plucking your grey hairs then, aren’t related in any way to other hair follicles’ melanin stem cells. So you can pluck confidently! The only thing that can make your hair grey faster is cellular stress  brought on by your environment. Pollutants, toxins and other chemicals can cause this kind of cellular damage.

Related: Does Lemon Juice Really Lighten Your Hair?

+Plucking Grey Hair Won’t Make More Grow

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