Contents:
- Medical Video: Dark Brown to Silver Hair | 3 Step Tutorial
- Overview of the process of hair growth
- What causes hair to have color?
- What causes gray hair?
Medical Video: Dark Brown to Silver Hair | 3 Step Tutorial
Regardless of what color your hair is right now thanks to the help of the cold hand of a salon employee or indeed your natural color, most of us will start graying at around 30 years of age and may eventually be completely white once you turn 50 years old. Most people think that gray hair is a natural process that occurs when we grow old. But do you know what exactly is behind the cause of gray hair? Here's the process.
Overview of the process of hair growth
The hair growth process has three phases:
- Anagen: this is the active growth stage of hair fibers and can last for 2-7 years. As much as 80-85 percent of the hair you have is currently in the anagen phase.
- Katagen: this phase is also sometimes referred to as the transition phase, which is the time when hair growth begins to stop. This phase usually lasts 10-20 days.
- Telogen: this phase occurs when hair growth really stops and hair starts to fall out. 10-15 percent of the hair is in the telogen phase, which generally lasts up to 100 days. After the telogen phase is complete, the hair growth process starts back to the anagen phase.
In the process of normal hair growth, the speed of hair growth is around 1 centimeter per month.
What causes hair to have color?
At first, human hair is only white. Hair gets the natural color of a pigment called melanin. This melanin pigment is produced by melanocyte cells and sent to hair cells that grow to give color to the hair.
Hair color depends on the presence and ratio between the two groups of melanin. Eumelanin plays a role in the formation of black and brown, while pheomelanin plays a role in the formation of orange and yellow colors. Each person's genes determine the ratio between the two types of melanin, therefore hair color in one family is usually similar.
When the hair stops growing, the hair follicles undergo structural changes and enter the resting period. During this process, usually melanocyte cells will die naturally. However, melanocyte stem cells in the hair follicle will produce a new set of melanocytes at the beginning of the next hair growth cycle so that they can still give color to the hair.
There are several other factors that can change hair color, become lighter or darker. Scientists have grouped them into two groups, namely internal and external factors.
Internal factors:
- Genetic disorders
- Hormone
- Age
External factor:
- Climate
- Pollutant
- Poison
- Exposure to chemicals
What causes gray hair?
As we get older, human hair follicles will be damaged caused by free radicals. In this damaged follicle there will be no melanocyte cells and melanocyte stem cells. Without the collection of melanocyte stem cells, the next hair growth cycle will continue without the presence of melanocytes so that it will not be able to produce pigments in new hair and only white.
Although there is no definitive explanation for the cause of gray hair, this accumulation of damage to melanocyte stem cells is most likely the cause of the loss of the hair color collection. So that in the end each hair follicle will not be able to produce colored hair.
