The CBB :: View topic - Hair turning grey overnight

#1: Hair turning grey overnight Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 8:35 pm

There's a programme on tv at the moment about bridges - not particularly intresting, one snippet of information caught my attention When the original Tay bridge collapsed, the designer's hair apparently did turn grey overnight after he learned of the disaster. I don't know if this is a verifiable fact though, or just a myth that has grown up around the event

#2: Hair turning grey/white overnight Author: Becky, Location: Newport, South Wales, UK

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 8:53 pm

Hair can indeed turn white overnight from shock - it happened to my uncle's father during WW2 when his best friend was killed by a mine while standing a few feet away from him.

#3: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 9:12 pm

We've had this before - the way I understand it, hair, the stuff actually already grown, is dead material - it's only the root that's alive. Therefore it cannot change colour. However, it is possible for a shock to cause all natural (brown, red, black, blond) hair to fall out as the roots are asffected, leaving only the hair that has lost it's colour- ie the white. So if a person had some natural hair colour and some white - possible for any adult, they could have a shock and be left with a head of white hair.

#4: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 1:15 pm

I knew someone whose hair seemed to turn white overnight, but not quite that way... When I was a small child, my Auntie Pearl (brevet aunt) had lovely red hair. It was a beautiful colour - the same as on the DW of Anne of the Island - Then I saw her at church one week and suddenly it had all turned white! I asked her why that had happened (which I later got told off by my parents for, even though Auntie Pearl thought it was funny) and she kindly explained that it had been red because she had dyed it, but now she had decided not to dye it any more! Liz

#5: Author: Helen C, Location: Sheffield/Luton

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 1:37 pm

I neaver believed my mum when she said it really could happen. Must be so weird for your hair just to change like that.

#6: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 5:20 pm

You should try looking in the mirror whan it happens naturally!

#7: Re: Hair turning grey/white overnight Author: Guest,

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 6:39 pm

Becky wrote:

Hair can indeed turn white overnight from shock - it happened to my uncle's father during WW2 when his best friend was killed by a mine while standing a few feet away from him.

Uh huh, it can Embarassed

#8: Author: Sophoife, Location: down under Down Under

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 8:01 pm

Much of the silver (I prefer that to grey or white!) hair I have appeared in the space of a week in which I was very stressed. Now of course it's coming in natural-like rather than induced.

#9: Author: Lisa_T, Location: Belfast

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:08 am

What causes the change? I have a few (which shows due to the rest being dark, bah) and i pluck them out and notice they always regrow. is it something to do with the root dying?

#10: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 2:20 am

Lisa_T wrote:

What causes the change? ... is it something to do with the root dying?

In hair follicles, there are cells (melanocytes) that produce the pigment used to color hair. Making the pigment requires a number of enzymes, and one of them, tyrosinase, seems to fizzle out with age (Something happens to the genes that produce it, they think – I don’t believe it’s 100% clear just what the problem is though.)

#11: Author: auntie karry, Location: Stoke on Trent

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:02 am

This can happen at any age - my paternal grandmother was white at 14, and my fathe at 21 - my mum never knew him with any other colour hair! I am 46 and have more grey (or silver) hair than most of my contemporaries!

#12: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:52 pm

Andy was going grey at age 20 when I met him. Matty got his first white hair at around age 3 Shocked

I pulled it out and 10 years on it hasn't appeared to regrow!

#13: Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:38 pm

I have cousins who were snow white by the time they were 20. Their brother was grey by that time as well.

#14: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 5:22 pm

Haven't they heard of hair colourants? I'm staying defiantly blonde until I'm too old to colour my hair any longer. Makes mystic signs to ward off the brillo-pad perms that OAPs seem to wear.

#15: Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:13 pm

Jennie wrote:

Haven't they heard of hair colourants? I'm staying defiantly blonde until I'm too old to colour my hair any longer. Makes mystic signs to ward off the brillo-pad perms that OAPs seem to wear.

LOL Jennie! I was incredibly fair haired as a child, always longed for black straight hair (grass is greener syndrome). It went mousy in my 30's and I lightened it for years. I'd always said I would not go grey till youngest was married - 5 years ago that happened and I let it grow out naturally. Weird, the colour I had been lightening it to was virtually indistinguishable from my natural silver . No one really noticed Shocked

I think brillo pad perms are few and far between nowadays. I don't know anyone with that paricular disaster.

#16: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:57 pm

Quote:

I think brillo pad perms are few and far between nowadays. I don't know anyone with that paricular disaster.

You have obviously never met my mother! Strangely, I was trying to persuade her to change her hair style last night, but to no avail.

#17: Author: Shander, Location: Canada

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:14 pm

I'm just on 23 and I found my first grey hair when I was 21 which coincided with a very stressful part of my life. I ended up with four or six grey hairs then, but then life smoothed out and I haven't found any since.

#18: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:12 pm

I found my first grey hairs in 2001 (I was 23) and they have been becoming more numerous every year since. What annoys me most is that they grow faster than the brown ones! Evil or Very Mad

#19: Author: Katie, Location: London, but my heart belongs to Harrogate

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:31 pm

I've been told that redheads go white, rather than grey, which I think sounds rather dignified. Not noticed any creeping in yet, though. In a similar vein, my dad went bald at about 20, so that doesn't bode well for any sons I may have!

#20: Author: Emily, Location: Land of White Coats and Stethoscopes.

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:04 am

I found a white hair last summer, before I was even 19! Was NOT impressed. Haven't noticed any more though Confused

#21: Author: Rachael,

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:24 am

Katie wrote:

I think that's the same for all fair-haired people ... I think the point is that if you have brown/black hair, any white is very prominent against the dark and thus gives the effect of grey Fairer people hide the white hairs for longer and the overall effect is a dignified transition from fair to silvery white David Gower is a good example of this ... I had my first white hair at 14 and have always had a few since them - in recent years it's becoming more noticeable but as my Mum was completely grey by my age, I guess I should be thankful. She's been white ever since I can remember and yes, it does look very dignified ...

#22: Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!!

Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:02 pm

My dad has been grey as long as I can remember, whereas mum has only really gained any NOTICEABLE grey in the last 5 years or so. Hopefully I'll take after mum! Wink

#23: Author: Laura, Location: London (ish)

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:55 pm

Emily wrote:

I found a white hair last summer, before I was even 19! Was NOT impressed. Haven't noticed any more though Confused

According to one of my friends they're 'lucky', although I'm quite sceptical of that! She therefore refuses to pull them out!

#24: Author: Katie, Location: London, but my heart belongs to Harrogate

Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 6:14 pm

Vikki wrote:

My dad has been grey as long as I can remember, whereas mum has only really gained any NOTICEABLE grey in the last 5 years or so. Hopefully I'll take after mum! Wink

My dad has been bald for as long as I can remember (although that shouldn't affect me!) and what's left is now grey. Mum only really started to go properly grey after she broke her wrist pretty badly a few years ago - stress and pain and all that, which I suppose is a milder form of what happened to Bill really. I never thought of that till I started typing this. Hmmm.....

#25: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:16 am

thankfully blondes don't go grey - we go "ash" which is dignified and i'm quite happy to do....so white hairs don't concern me at all not like my sister whose hair is jet black *snickers evilly*

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