The appearance of gray hair is a common sign of aging, but it can trigger strong emotions in you. These can be pride or insecurity. If you feel the latter, you surely want a remedy for your gray hair development. But the fear of damaging your hair with chemicals and dyes product is daunting if you’re dealing with early graying or wish to return to your natural hair color.
The excellent news is that there are solutions you can do that don’t use chemicals or hair dye. So read on to learn how to reverse gray hair without dye and how to prevent it.
Why do we get gray hair?
Your hair follicles lose their pigment cells naturally as you age. If the number of pigment cells in a follicle decreases, the resulting hair will have less melanin and gradually lighten to a translucent shade, such as white, silver, or gray.
As an additional point, a recent study confirms that stress might indeed speed up the aging process of hair. The graying of hair has been linked to the body’s fight-or-flight reaction. Melanocytes are cells responsible for creating pigment, giving your hair its color. The other reasons also are lower antioxidant intake and vitamin deficiency.
Are hair dyes the solution?
The answer to whether a hair dye can repair gray hair is yes. The dye will assist your hair in concealing your gray hairs and lessen their visibility. Even so, hair dye negatively affects and harms your hair and skin due to its chemical components, so you should avoid this remedy.
Adverse effects of using hair dyes
Using hair dye to reverse your gray hair has several negative consequences. The harsh dyeing chemicals in the peroxide leave hair feeling dry and straw-like. Your hair will become weaker and more susceptible to damage due to these structural changes over time and after repeated dyeing treatments.
Dye damage weakens the hair’s ability to retain color. Also, some people, even you, have severe adverse reactions to certain ingredients in hair dyes. You also may experience hair loss as a result of using hair dyes.
Additionally, suppose you have a slight sensitivity to paraphenylenediamine (PPD), an active ingredient in hair dye. You may experience irritation and inflammation of the scalp, forehead, neck, eyelids, or ears after using hair color. Redness, swelling, blistering, dryness, thickening, and cracking are all possible reactions to PPD on the skin. In addition, there’s a chance it’ll burn or sting a little.
How to naturally reverse gray hair
The power of preventing your hair from going gray could depend on the underlying cause of your gray hair. Graying cannot be stopped or even reversed if a hereditary factor is at play, despite what confident marketers might have you believe.
Because of this, the aging process can be slowed or even reversed in cases of dietary deficits and underlying health issues. So get your natural hair color back by maintaining an active lifestyle that includes eating balanced, nutrient-rich food and minimizing stress. And there are also studies showing that stem cells can be a solution, but advanced research is needed.
How reversing gray hair is possible
How is reversing gray hair possible? In a nutshell: stem cells arise in action. As the building blocks of the developing human body, stem cells are employed in an ever-expanding range of medical treatments. Yet, stem cell research into hair is still in its infancy, mainly because most likely had no idea these cells were strong enough to re-color your gray hair.
The stem cells in your hair follicles are called melanocytes. According to research, there may be a finite supply of melanocytes in the scalp; if they’re gone, your hair will lose its pigmentation. Nonetheless, this is by no means a proven scientific fact. Alternately, future melanocyte restoration may be possible because of developments in stem cell therapy.
In addition, gray hair may be temporarily reversible, according to a recent study. The researchers looked at root hairs to see if and how they changed over time. They discovered that stress was responsible for the graying of their hair and that alleviating their stress helped restore some of its natural colors.
Due to the study’s limitations, hair changes in color were only detectable using a high-resolution scanner. Yet these results provide evidence that aging into gray is not a necessary process. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to generalize about the effects of this because everyone or even your circumstances and genetic characteristics are unique.
How to prevent gray hair
Below are ways you can do to prevent getting gray hair.
Reduce stress
Reduce stress by keeping a healthy lifestyle by eating right, getting adequate sleep, and exercising regularly.
Further, try these stress-relieving activities to prevent the development of gray hair; activities you might try such as deep muscle relaxation, breathing techniques, meditation, yoga, or even swimming to relieve stress. Also, it is helpful to boost your peace by listening to peaceful music or going outdoors.
Increase your antioxidant intake
You can prevent the development of gray hair by paying attention to what you put into your body. Oxidative stress can be mitigated by eating foods high in antioxidants.
Sample of foods high in antioxidants include:
- olive oil
- green tea
- berries and dark leafy green vegetables
- fish
Resolving your deficiency
Eating more vitamin-rich meals can prevent gray hair caused by a lack of specific vitamins. Hair health and color depend on B complex vitamins, including Biotin, B6, and B12. Taking a B complex supplement can help delay the growth of gray hair. In addition, you can cure deficits by taking vitamin supplements, which are widely available without a prescription.
Reversing gray hair without damage
You will encounter the development of gray hair at varying ages due to the natural progression of aging. Early graying may be caused by genetics, health factors (such as smoking and stress), and surrounding factors.
Although recent studies suggest that you can partially reverse gray hair, more research is expected. Don’t risk further harm to your hair by using hair dye if you can avoid gray hair by following the three tips mentioned above.
