Did anyone experience Premature Greying?

Feelslikefar

Feelslikefar

Senior Member
Location
Nashville, TN
Looking in the mirror the other day at my pure white hair.
It's been that way for years.
When I retired from the military 30 years ago, I was almost pure white.

Remember the first time I saw some grey hairs when I was was in high school.
Just a few mixed in with the others.

What's going on? Too young to have this Curse!
People turned grey from age and worry and I didn't have a care in the world.
Thankfully, I was living in Hawaii at the time and my hair was Sunbeached to a more blonde shade.

When I joined the Military at 18, that all changed.
Now my hair was starting to be what they called 'Salt and Pepper'.
Probably not a bad look for older men to show maturity, but for an 18 year old, not a good look.

I'm 72 with very long hair and no signs of hair loss, so I guess that the other side of premature grey!
 

My brother started going grey in his teenage years. Now he just shaves his entire head, like my husband does.

I started greying in my late forties and have quite a bit of grey but I like it. It definitely makes me look older but I donā€™t want the hassle of colouring the roots every 2 weeks which is what Iā€™d have to do.
 
I started getting grey hair while still in high school and then started balding in my late 30s.

I applied for a job once when I was 20 and the owner of the company... it was an exterminator company... he goes "you're 20 years old and you have grey hair? What they hell's wrong with you? Naaa... we don't want you."

It was all for the best, though. I found a decent job the next day.
 
Men, you have a choice or lose your colour. Thatā€™s a comment I made years ago and it seems true.
 
Feelslikefar said:
Looking in the mirror the other day at my pure white hair.
It's been that way for years.
When I retired from the military 30 years ago, I was almost pure white.

Remember the first time I saw some grey hairs when I was was in high school.
Just a few mixed in with the others.

What's going on? Too young to have this Curse!
People turned grey from age and worry and I didn't have a care in the world.
Thankfully, I was living in Hawaii at the time and my hair was Sunbeached to a more blonde shade.

When I joined the Military at 18, that all changed.
Now my hair was starting to be what they called 'Salt and Pepper'.
Probably not a bad look for older men to show maturity, but for an 18 year old, not a good look.

I'm 72 with very long hair and no signs of hair loss, so I guess that the other side of premature grey!
Click to expand...
I have no idea if mine was premature because I started coloring it early on. If I had it to do over I would never have touched it.
When I got to the point that the color matched the gray I stopped cold turkey and never looked back.
 
Whatchaā€™ll look like now, hmmmm?

What causes gray hair at an early age? Here's what to know.

Science research has found the onset of gray hair is primarily caused by a reduction of melanocyte stem cells in hair follicles due to genetics. Have known a few other men that began graying in their 30s and by time they were 50 were mostly white. This person is at the opposite extreme. Have never dyed my hair that is still mostly thin light brown. My French ancestry father was dark brunette, very hairy everywhere, with pattern baldness developing in his 20s, while I'm the opposite that probably draws on my mother's northeastern European lineage. But my mother's genetics does have a tendency by senior years for minor pattern baldness.

What science has found is there are a few independent general aging categories such that a person might age greatly in one way while not in others. Thus gray hair alone is not an indication someone will loose health and fitness in other ways. Telomere gene end capping length is also a significant factor while lifestyle factors modulate over genetic factors.

One thing I did notice going to a 40 year high school reunion, was some of the most mature and attractive members during high school years seem to have aged the most with numbers gray and wrinkled. This person looked weirdly out of place.
 
Feelslikefar said:
Looking in the mirror the other day at my pure white hair.
It's been that way for years.
When I retired from the military 30 years ago, I was almost pure white.

Remember the first time I saw some grey hairs when I was was in high school.
Just a few mixed in with the others.

What's going on? Too young to have this Curse!
People turned grey from age and worry and I didn't have a care in the world.
Thankfully, I was living in Hawaii at the time and my hair was Sunbeached to a more blonde shade.

When I joined the Military at 18, that all changed.
Now my hair was starting to be what they called 'Salt and Pepper'.
Probably not a bad look for older men to show maturity, but for an 18 year old, not a good look.

I'm 72 with very long hair and no signs of hair loss, so I guess that the other side of premature grey!
Click to expand...
Hi there: Yep, I had grey hair early also so did my Nana one else in my family. I didn't want to be grey in my teen's early 20s I died for a while my natural color dark brown. I realized hair dying is not good for you at all. I stopped that was good. I had a salty, pepper but in swirles, I didn't like that LOL, I left it alone, natural is better. I like silver white is fine, some people go grey early naturally. I was finally OK with it šŸ˜Š
 
MaidMarian said:
I found my first gray hair at age 14. When I was in my 20 s, my hair was salt and pepper and people my age thought it was cool and used to ask me how I got my hair that way. Lol. Itā€™s white now and I love it.
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Wow, that is young. My hair turned salt and pepper in my mid-twenties. I loved it. But it wasn't exactly white. My hair is very fine so it's shiny because it reflects light and it is mildly a silver tone. My friends would secretly wonder what l did to get it that way (one of them told me).
 
Feelslikefar said:
Looking in the mirror the other day at my pure white hair.
It's been that way for years.
When I retired from the military 30 years ago, I was almost pure white.

Remember the first time I saw some grey hairs when I was was in high school.
Just a few mixed in with the others.

What's going on? Too young to have this Curse!
People turned grey from age and worry and I didn't have a care in the world.
Thankfully, I was living in Hawaii at the time and my hair was Sunbeached to a more blonde shade.

When I joined the Military at 18, that all changed.
Now my hair was starting to be what they called 'Salt and Pepper'.
Probably not a bad look for older men to show maturity, but for an 18 year old, not a good look.

I'm 72 with very long hair and no signs of hair loss, so I guess that the other side of premature grey!
Click to expand...
My father had completely white hair from a very young age. In fact, he looked so much like James Coburn he actually got to meet him.

I started finding silver hairs in my early twenties and have been dying my hair ever since. It's now blue with brown tips -- so I'm kinda rock'n the Medusa thing, now that I think about it.

Is there a chance of your early gray being a result of heredity?
 
PeppermintPatty said:
My brother started going grey in his teenage years. Now he just shaves his entire head, like my husband does.

I started greying in my late forties and have quite a bit of grey but I like it. It definitely makes me look older but I donā€™t want the hassle of colouring the roots every 2 weeks which is what Iā€™d have to do.
Click to expand...
I wish I could do this too. I tried letting my hair go natural beginning in June of 2023, but just over a year in I realized I really don't like my natural color; it's kind of brassy and not really the pretty silver I was hoping for.

Glad for you in getting a nice color. :)
 
Medusa said:
I wish I could do this too. I tried letting my hair go natural beginning in June of 2023, but just over a year in I realized I really don't like my natural color; it's kind of brassy and not really the pretty silver I was hoping for.

Glad for you in getting a nice color. :)
Click to expand...
Did you try using blue or purple shampoo I used strictly for removing brassy colours?
My friend has short blond hair which she partially dyes yet grows in her natural colour. She uses purple shampoo to tone down the brassy colour and it seems to work good on her. It does strip some of her coloured hair also though.
 
Genetics is the strongest key on hair phenotypes: thickness, color, graying, loss. This is, UNLESS a medical problem or the treatment of a medical problem; or a genetic mutation is involved. STRESS can cause premature graying, also, exposure to extreme stress is classified as a "medical problem".

My DD began getting gray hair at 20, she has tons of hair, dark wavy. She has colored her dark brown hair since, and she is 48 now.
DD father had gray hair at 20 also; he has tons of hair, dark wavy; is now totally white at 76: gorgeous thick white hair, just as HIS father had.

The genetics are SO strong in my DD's dad's side of the gene pool: they all look like mini me s.

No one I meet believes MY long hair it is it's natural color. I have very light brown hair, with LOTS of natural variation in color, very shiny due to this trait. The sun has always been my "highlighter"; no one can tell (me either) if I have any or much gray hair at all. I do see one or two here and there, but am nearly 70 and if I do have gray it looks like highlights. My hairdresser loves my hair and uses it as an example to chemically do other client's hair. Photo was two years ago, my hair is much longer now, but color the same. Feel very blessed. tempImagehsCpzD.jpg
 
PeppermintPatty said:
Did you try using blue or purple shampoo I used strictly for removing brassy colours?
My friend has short blond hair which she partially dyes yet grows in her natural colour. She uses purple shampoo to tone down the brassy colour and it seems to work good on her. It does strip some of her coloured hair also though.
Click to expand...
I was using Loreal's Purple Shampoo for quite a while, which I'm sure helped with the brassiness, but I just didn't like the color. My hair is naturally (well, not now) brown so I'm not sure how that affects the gray/silver. I'm just sticking with the blues and greens now, accepting that I will be dying my hair for life.
 
I always thought it was an old wives tale that hair could turn grey over night until mine did. Mine took more like a month to turn fully gray. I was 26 and had a negative terrifying experience from which I developed anxiety disorder. I felt that I was too young too be grey, it reminded me of my traumatic experience, and my missed my natural brown hair, so I began to color my hair then and have kept it up ever since. It's a hassle because I want my hair to be as thick and healthy as possible and hair color really isn't healthy for you so I have a ton of other things to put in my hair besides now.

But my anxiety disorder is managed mostly through diet and exercise, I no longer have to take meds for it though they do work best. And my hair remains brown through coloring. I think my hair is all white under there but that upsets me so I continue to color my hair and hydrate my scalp.

So far all is good. I'm happy with it and that's what really counts.
:giggle:
 
CooCooforCoCoPuffs said:
Genetics is the strongest key on hair phenotypes: thickness, color, graying, loss. This is, UNLESS a medical problem or the treatment of a medical problem; or a genetic mutation is involved. STRESS can cause premature graying, also, exposure to extreme stress is classified as a "medical problem".

My DD began getting gray hair at 20, she has tons of hair, dark wavy. She has colored her dark brown hair since, and she is 48 now.
DD father had gray hair at 20 also; he has tons of hair, dark wavy; is now totally white at 76: gorgeous thick white hair, just as HIS father had.

The genetics are SO strong in my DD's dad's side of the gene pool: they all look like mini me s.

No one I meet believes MY long hair it is it's natural color. I have very light brown hair, with LOTS of natural variation in color, very shiny due to this trait. The sun has always been my "highlighter"; no one can tell (me either) if I have any or much gray hair at all. I do see one or two here and there, but am nearly 70 and if I do have gray it looks like highlights. My hairdresser loves my hair and uses it as an example to chemically do other client's hair. Photo was two years ago, my hair is much longer now, but color the same. Feel very blessed. View attachment 390480
Click to expand...
You are very pretty and look great for your age. To me, your hair DOES look very natural ; not coloured. You are gorgeous.
 

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