Short Wave - Why Gray Hair Is Coming For You

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

As a kid, host Aaron Scott would dress up for Halloween as an older version of himself — complete with a cane, a set of polyester britches and painted gray hair. These days, that costume is becoming a bit more of a day-to-day reality. At least, the gray hair is. So today, in honor of all you out there flirting with gray hair, whether for a witch costume or just that exciting and terrifying thing called aging, we're digging into why hair turns gray. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave, from NPR. Hey, shortwavers, Aaron Scott here. Halloween is upon us. And that means that perennial question, what are you going to dress up as? Do you try something new, or do you dig an old favorite out of the closet? One of my favorites, especially when I was younger,

was to dress up as old me, like geriatric Aaron in polyester britches leaning over a cane. A friend and I had characters that we named after each other's grandparents, Ginny and Fritzy, and to really embrace the aging process, we used to use that hair color in a spray can to turn our hair gray. I've not done this costume in a while. It might be because, as I've gotten older, geriatric aaron has gone from being silly make-believe to something that feels a lot more real and scary.

And one sign of that is, increasingly, I don't need that can of gray hairspray anymore. So today, in honor of all you out there flirting with gray hair, whether for a witch's costume or just that thing that we call aging, we're going to listen back to an episode about why hair turns gray, starring producer Britt Hansen and our MPR colleague, Ritu Chatterjee. We ask an expert why hair turns gray and find out why some of us get gray as sooner than others. And some listener mail about a recent episode that you, Ritu, actually brought to shortwave. Ooh, that's exciting. Okay, you're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Okay, Britt, we are talking about why hair turns great. So who'd you talk to?

I called Dr. Jenna Lester. She's a dermatologist and professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco. Wait, dermatologists treat hair as well? You know what? I didn't know that either, Ritu, but yes, it turns out that many dermatologists actually treat anything related to skin, nails and hair. And Jenna's been on the show before in an episode about how dermatology is evolving to better serve patients of color.

I remember that. It was a fantastic episode. Yeah, it was so good. Okay. So, Ritu, much like I did with you, I opened my conversation with Jenna in, let's say, a very professional manner. This is a hard-hitting and intrusive question, but Jenna, do you have gray hair? I do not have any gray hairs yet.

Occasionally I'll find one, and the most recent one that I found fell out not too long ago. And interestingly, two did not grow back in its place. Lucky her, Brit. And you know what? My mom used to tell me when I was little, and this is around the time her head started to turn gray first, she said, well, if you have a gray hair and it falls off or you pluck it out, the rest of your hair is going to turn gray faster. Oh my gosh. Clearly, an old superstitious tale back in India. Oh, that's really funny. Well, Ritu, guess what Jenna told me? She told me that hair doesn't actually turn gray. Huh. Yes. Like, if you have a brown hair or a blondeish hair on your head, tomorrow it's not going to be gray. It's the new hair that's coming in that will either have pigment or not have pigment. I did not know that. So once. the hair starts to grow, it stays the same color. Yeah, exactly. And to understand why some hairs grow in gray while others don't, you have to understand something called melanocytes.

Hair is the color that it is because of the melanocytes or pigment-producing cells that are concentrated around the hair follicle that give it color. Now, every hair follicle has these cells, melanocytes. And if for some reason they stop producing pigment, that's when you get a gray hair. So hair turns gray or white in any situation where those cells aren't functioning in the way that they should, so not making pigment. Okay, I get it. So gray hairs are actually just hairs without pigment. But why would a melanocyte stop producing pigment? Well, Jenna says that there's a lot of reasons, but the most straightforward one is aging, which is probably not a surprise to those of us over 30.

So over time, those cells just stop making as much pigment as they had been before or any. But there are also certain inflammatory conditions where hair can also turn white. Like Vidaligo, for example, Vidaligo is when your skin loses its pigment. So in addition to your skin being losing its pigment, your hair does as well. That's fascinating. Okay. But tell me why do some people, you, for example, get gray hair sooner than others, say, like me? Well, Jenna says that there are a number of factors that determine when people start graying.

But one of the big ones is genetics, whether or not people in your family start graying early in their lives. And then Jenna says, Some people think sun exposure can damage their melanocytes more or less. And hormones also play into it as well. So the reason why it happens is multifactorial. So it's hard to zero in on like one specific thing that might cause one person to gray sooner than another. So, you know, it's basically different for everyone. Okay, so there's genes.

There could be sun exposure, inflammation, hormones. All of these play are all. I get that. But I'm curious, Britt, what about stress? Like, is it actually true that the stress of this past year made my or your hair grayer? Yeah, I wondered about that too. And it turns out that this has been widely debated. Just last year, there was a mouse study published in the journal Nature that found that acute stress can cause graying by damaging melanocytes. And those are the pig-producing cells that we learned about earlier. Yes, exactly. And, you know, of course, this is a study in mice, not humans. Sure. But Jenna says it's still a pretty big deal.

So I think it's a proof of concept that stress does cause hair graying. All right. That means I keep telling people that the pandemic has grayed me more. Yes. You can say, you know, and there's some evidence at least in mice, so. Exactly. Okay, so Ritu, one more thing before we move on to listener mail, because I just haven't been able to let it go. I asked Jenna if she has any thoughts on gray hair, you know, in general, as a dermatologist. Because, I mean, to be honest, I myself have some really mixed feelings about mine. And I think part of that is because there's some really strong societal messaging,

especially for those of us who have been socialized female. Yes. And I really, really loved her perspective on this. I am a dermatologist, but I'm also the daughter of a geriatrician, and my mom is all about successful aging. So I don't think gray hair is something to run from. I think of it as an achievement for some people, too, because, you know, depending on what your family structure is like, you may be the first one in your family to reach the age you've reached. So some people are really proud of their grays. I think there's a lot of different ways to look at it and frame it. And maybe if you're feeling stressed about it, looking at it outside of the cosmetic lens can be helpful. Oh, gosh, Britt, I'm so glad you asked her this. And I love the way Jenna

frames this because, you know, I'm from India. And in my culture, gray hair as a sign of age, it gets you respect because it's a sign of you having lived longer, have had more life experiences. So I absolutely agree with her. Yeah, right? I just need to reframe these grays as wisdom. Yes, you do. Okay, I'm going to work on it. I'm going to work on it. Okay, so Reto, are you ready now for some listener mail? Absolutely. I love this part of the episode. Yes, me too, Reto. And I picked out some listener mail, especially for you related to when you were last on the show, which was really poignant. Thanks, Britt. I think you're talking about the episode where I talked to Emily about how to reach out when someone you know might be at risk of suicide. Yeah, Ritu, that was a really powerful episode and we got a lot of listener mail.

This email came from a listener who's a social worker. I just want to thank you for the very important episode on suicide. Our small community has been hit hard. Please remember to revisit this topic. I think discussing biochemistry and what our brains are doing. when we feel sad or low mood would be extremely interesting. Sometimes when I explain serotonin to my clients, it feels like less of a moral failing and more of a biochemical response.

Thank you again for all of the work you put into connecting people to science. I appreciate you. And we appreciate you for writing to us. Our goal with that episode was to both help remove the stigma around suicide and also to empower people with practical information that they can use to help someone who might be struggling. Yes. So it means a lot to know that it resonated with our listeners.

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you so much to all of you out there who have written in. We love hearing from you. So if you've got a note to share, email us at shortwave at nbr.org. This episode was produced and reported by the wonderful Brit Hansen. Fact-checked by Rasha Airedi and edited by Viet Le and Giselle Grayson. I'm Reed to Chatterjee. Thank you for listening to Shortwave from NPR.