There are plenty of women embracing gray hair, and that’s awesome! It’s a natural part of the aging process and can actually look pretty stunning, so it’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of. That being said, not all women are keen to give up on their blonde, brunette, or red hair and want to preserve them for as long as possible. Thankfully, researchers have finally found out what causes gray hair and how you might actually be able to prevent it (if you want to).
New research published in Nature looked at skin cells that mice have in common with humans called melanocyte stem cells. Those cells are responsible for producing melanin, which in turn gives our skin, hair, and eyes their color. Those stem cells eventually degrade as we get older, which is when they start failing to produce pigment, ergo gray hair.
In the study, scientists proved that this process is what’s responsible for the change in our hair color. They also found that if we could manually move all the melanocyte stem cells back to where they belong rather than having them get caught in a hair follicle bulge could potentially keep us from going grey.
Lead study author Qi Sun, a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health, said in a statement: “Our study adds to our basic understanding of how melanocyte stem cells work to color hair. The newfound mechanisms raise the possibility that the same fixed-positioning of melanocyte stem cells may exist in humans. If so, it presents a potential pathway for reversing or preventing the graying of human hair by helping jammed cells to move again between developing hair follicle compartments.”
Admittedly, this doesn’t mean much for us in layman’s terms as of yet. However, it does provide a lot of opportunities for researchers to look into ways in which we might be able to prevent gray hair for those who want to do so. It’s certainly an interesting prospect!
