[DoctorBeaver (OP)]

Yes, I know it's down to reduced pigment - but why does it happen?

[Karen W.]

Perhaps it's part of the folicle dying..I am not sure!

[DoctorBeaver (OP)]

Perhaps it's part of the folicle dying..I am not sure!

Personally, I think it's down to children  [!]

[Karen W.]

Could be thats what me gran me mom and everyone else in the world says.. and stress Biggie I think!

[paul.fr]

The root of every strand of hair is surrounded by a tube of tissue under the skin that is called the hair follicle. Each hair follicle contains a certain number of pigment cells. These pigment cells continuously produce a chemical called melanin that gives the growing shaft of hair its color of brown, blonde, red, and anything in between.

Melanin is the same stuff that makes our skin's color fair or darker. It also helps determine whether a person will burn or tan in the sun. The dark or light color of someone's hair depends on how much melanin each hair contains.

As we get older, the pigment cells in 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 will become a more transparent color - like gray, silver, or white - as it grows. As people continue to get older, fewer pigment cells will be around to produce melanin. Eventually, the hair will look completely gray.

Ofcourse, shock can also turn your hair grey.

[Karen W.]

I had a friend who as an adult ran an extremely high fever and was hospitalized for a long period of time with this High fever they struggled to keep her fever down. over the course of two weeks she started getting this weird odd path of white growth coming from out of the side of her head.Over the next couple months that patch of hair grew in white, not gray but white .. it never went back. It looks as if it were dyed.. the doctor said it was the fever as it began happening then and whilst in their care... This is what she told me... Have you ever heard of that?

[DoctorBeaver (OP)]

So why does shock sometimes turn your hair white/grey?

[kdlynn]

and i've noticed that i have a few grey hairs that grow occasionally on my head, but only on the right side... why only on the right side?

[DoctorBeaver (OP)]

and i've noticed that i have a few grey hairs that grow occasionally on my head, but only on the right side... why only on the right side?

Are you by any chance left-handed?

[kdlynn]

no i'm extremely right handed. i can't really do anything with my left hand.

[kdlynn]

i'm pretty sure i only have a left hand to hold things while my right hand is busy. lol

[DoctorBeaver (OP)]

I asked because, when thinking, left-handed people tend to scratch their heads with their right hand & vice versa. I was just theorising that there may be a connection.

[Karen W.]

So why does shock sometimes turn your hair white/grey?

I don't know about shock, but her doctor told her(not me) that it was from an extremely high fever, In her case with the small round gray patch.. , The Elvira thing.. you know!

[DoctorBeaver (OP)]

"The Elvira" is an anagram of "Vile heart".

[Karen W.]

Well Yes You are right! Good with words DOC!

[Cut Chemist]

It is interesting that melanin is the pigment that colors hair, and melanin is also the pigment that causes skin to tan when exposed to sunlight....

But sunlight bleaches hair, causing it to go from brown to blonde over the course of a summer.

Shouldn't hair get darker when exposed to sunlight and "tan" just like skin??

[DoctorBeaver (OP)]

It is interesting that melanin is the pigment that colors hair, and melanin is also the pigment that causes skin to tan when exposed to sunlight....

But sunlight bleaches hair, causing it to go from brown to blonde over the course of a summer.

Shouldn't hair get darker when exposed to sunlight and "tan" just like skin??

 []

[Karen W.]

Good point!

[kdlynn]

i don't know about blonde... but my hair is usually red by the end of the summer

[DoctorBeaver (OP)]

My eyes are normally red by the time the pub shuts  []