New findings suggest how stress may trigger gray hair Harvard Gazette
Table Of Content More on Hair Loss Senior Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publishing; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing Are Grey and White Hairs Permanent? Gray Hair Can Return to Its Original Color—and Stress Is Involved, of Course Women's Health Additionally, a 2020 study conducted on mice found the connection between stress and gray hair may be plausible. Researchers found that under acute stress, hair in mice turns gray because an overactive sympathetic nervous system (“fight or flight”) can lead to the rapid depletion of melanocyte stem cells, the cells involved in creating pigment. Your hair color is determined by pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. New melanocytes are made from melanocyte stem cells that live in the hair follicle at the base of your hair strand. The research team, led by Dr. Ya-Chieh Hsu of Harvard University, used mice to examine stress and hair graying. The mice were exposed to three types of stress involving mild, short