Did you ever wonder why our hair turns grey?

By David McClelland

Did you ever wonder why our hair turns grey? We know that going grey is a natural part of growing older, but what causes it to do so? I found that each hair on our head is made up of two parts: the shaft and the root. The shaft is the colored part we see growing out of our heads. The root is the bottom part which keeps the hair anchored under the scalp. The root of every strand of hair is surrounded by a tube of tissue under the skin that is called the hair follicle. Each follicle contains a certain number of pigment cells which continuously produce the chemical melanin that gives the growing shaft of hair its color. The dark or light color of the each hair depends upon how much melanin it contains. As we age, the pigment cells of our hair follicles gradually die. When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, that strand of hair will no longer contain as much melanin and that strand will become a more transparent color – like grey, silver or white – as it grows. As people continue to get older, fewer pigment cells will be around to produce melanin and, eventually, the hair will become completely grey. The process may take ten years and is dependent on our genes so that we will begin to go grey at about the same age as our parents. Now, you understand why our hair turns grey.