Hair Color Basics
It is well understood that it is the absence of pigments that causes white hair; however, why exactly this occurs is to some extent a mystery. While most adults seem to relate the graying of hair to stress, many times this is not the case. It is a fact that everyone's chances of going gray increase by 10 to 20 percent for every 10 years after the age of 30. As backwards as it may seem, our hair is initially white. It only gets its color from natural pigmentations known as melanin. This pigment is produced long before we are born, and is what gives us our natural hair color. The color itself depends on the amount of melanin and how it is distributed throughout the hair strand.
Pigments
Our hairs have two different kinds of pigments: dark and light. These two different types of pigments work together, blending to form the different types of natural hair colors we see every day. The melanin itself is constructed of melanocytes, which are pigmentation cells. These cells work to organize themselves at hair follicle openings on the skin's surface. As hair is formed, these melanocytes inject those different types of pigments into specialized sets of proteins in the hair known as keratin. This is what gives hair its color.
Formation of White Hairs
Scientists suggest that the sole reason for the graying of hair into eventually being white stems from both age and genetic makeup. It is believed that genes determine at what rate the pigment potential of each individual hair follicle starts to diminish. Since some hairs turn gray or white before others, this rate of pigment loss must be subjective to each follicle. We see these differences between people, as hair color is not purely based on age and can differ between persons. Scientists contribute the onset of white hair to a reduction in the production of pigments due to decreased functioning of melanocyte stem cells. While this factor is the most basic influence on the lack of pigment in white hair, it is not the only one. Factors within the body such as gene defects and irregular hormones can also contribute. Outside factors, such as pollutants, chemicals and even climate, can also be part of the problem.
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