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Gray Hair

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Where hair color comes from

THE SHORT ANSWER

Hair color is made on the spot by melanocytes in the follicle during the growth phase, and it is settled once the strand leaves the scalp. A white hair grows out white; it is not a dark hair fading on your head.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

A salt-and-pepper head is mostly dark and white hairs mixed together; each follicle has its own reserve.

EVIDENCEREVIEW 2 · OPEN 1 · MECH 1

READ THE ORIGINAL

Hair turning white is not finished hair fading. It is the follicle no longer putting pigment into the stretch of hair it is making now.

Hair color is melanin. It is made by melanocytes, cells whose job is to make pigment, in the bulb at the base of the follicle, and handed to the neighboring cells that are turning into the hair strand. Black-brown and red-yellow melanin come in different proportions, which is what makes hair black, brown or red.

This pigment line runs only during the hair's growth phase. It shuts down in the regression phase and is absent in the resting phase. Every new hair needs a fresh crew of melanocytes in the bulb, and they are resupplied by a small group of melanocyte stem cells higher up in the follicle.

Once the strand grows out of the scalp it is keratin with no living cells, and its color was settled inside the follicle. So a white hair is white as it grows; it is not a dark hair slowly turning white on your head.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.

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