Aging may not be the most fascinating thing in the world, but you can take comfort from the fact that everyone has experienced it. Ultimately, everyone is worried about wrinkles, sagging skin, and gray or gray hair. All of these are natural components of aging, so when you find your first gray hair, your thoughts should help alleviate the blow.

Gray or gray hair is the result of melanocytes gradually disappearing from the hair follicles with age. Melanocytes provide color to our skin and hair. Claudine Yap Silva, MD, FPDS St. Luke Medical Center Global City dermatology.

According to Mae Ramirez-Quizon, MD, FPDS, dermatologists at BGC St. Luke’s Medical City specialize in hair and nail diseases. Melanocytes are the cells that produce melanin in the hair follicle bulb. Melanin is responsible for providing the color of our hair.

"As we age, the melanocytes in our hair follicles gradually die. When they become less, the melanin will decrease, and the hair related to the hair follicles will become more and more transparent-gray and gray in descending order of melanin content. Silver or white," she continued.

Maria Rica S. Mallari, MD, director of the Hair Department of the Dermatology Center of St. Luke’s Medical Center, pointed out that in addition to aging, other causes of gray or gray hair include genetics, stress, nutritional deficiencies, and autoimmune diseases.

Therefore, if your parents grow white hair very early, then you are also likely to become white prematurely.

Premature whitening is defined as hair turning white in the 20s and 30s. Malari said that some people even grow gray hair because of genetics in childhood.

"Other people may have more gray hair due to stress, which can lead to reduced cell function and nutrients in the hair follicles," she continued. Yap-Silva agrees, “Some studies have shown that stress hormones can cause melanocytes to migrate from hair follicles, leading to gray hair.”

In fact, if you have ever noticed that your vain activity increases significantly during periods of stress, it’s because "stress events may cause cellular oxidative stress. [When this happens,] the free radicals that destroy cells in the body cannot be detected. Some antioxidants are counteracted. Therefore, stress may cause hair follicles to age, reduce pigmentation, and even cause hair loss," Mallari said.

More importantly, you may have noticed that when the stressful period is over, there are no longer so many or so obvious gray hairs. “Once the stressful event is over and nutrients are absorbed, the body will slowly recover and the hair follicles will start to produce pigment again,” Malali commented.

Ramirez-Quizon pointed out that premature whitening may also be due to a large amount of pro-oxidant substances in hair follicles that cause higher oxidative damage to melanocytes. "It is speculated that oxidative damage comes from ultraviolet (UV), pollution, emotional factors or inflammatory causes."

There is also smoking. She pointed out that smoking is significantly related to premature whitening due to the pro-oxidation effect of smoking on hair follicle melanocytes. As Malali said, smoking can lead to a decline in cell function, which in turn reduces the production of pigment cells in the hair follicles.

Ramirez-Quizon observed that vitamin deficiencies, especially vitamin B12 deficiencies, have been shown to cause skin whitening and deficiencies in copper, iron, calcium, and zinc. She went on to say that although supplements can reverse defects, it is not clear whether they can reverse premature whitening. It is worth noting that Yap-Silva and Mallari agree that supplements may help.

According to Ramirez Quezon, as for Pinoy's belief that pulling out white hair will make it proliferate, this is the story of an old woman. Yap-Silva said that what actually happened was that when people pulled out their white hair, they all started to grow at the same time, so it looked like the white hair "multiplied".

Or, you really just get older: "It is possible that after a period of time-because this is a physiological and normal process-new gray hairs will grow, and it seems that the number of gray hairs has increased," Yap-Silva points out.

Another popular Pinoy myth is that tying the hair while it is still wet can cause the hair to turn white. This is not true, but Malali still advises against it because it can cause hair damage. "Wet hair is more likely to break. When it is tied, the stratum corneum exposes fibers, causing breakage," she shared.

So what can you do when you start to turn gray? You can embrace it, on one hand.

Recently, there has been an increasingly serious white-haired revolution. Women began to have their gray hair in big and beautiful ways. However, if you are not ready to take up arms in this revolution, there are a few things you can try.

Mallari recommends a healthy diet, "from all basic food categories: meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables. [and] If you are on a diet, take supplements containing zinc, iron, vitamin B, biotin, and copper." Generally speaking Said that she promotes a healthy, stress-free and smoke-free lifestyle.

According to Ramirez-Quizon, some shampoos contain topical antioxidants such as vitamin C and E, but due to the short contact time, they are unlikely to be absorbed by the skin, so they may not affect hair pigmentation. "Other topical anti-aging products, such as green tea extract, selenium, copper, phytoestrogens and melatonin are promising in theory, but whether these translate into observable real-life changes is unclear," she added.

Ramirez-Quizon revealed that a special delivery system called liposomes designed to deliver melanin to hair follicles is under development, but it is still in its infancy. So far, after supplementing nutrition, she admits that dyeing hair is still the best choice for managing gray hair. However, Mallari cautions against using chemical hair dyes that contain peroxides or bleaching agents, as they may eventually backfire and cause premature graying of the hair. — Los Angeles, GMA News