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Asked by 534erbb42 to Hephzi, Imogen, Jen, Jennifer, Tom on 12 Mar 2015.
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Thomas Barrett answered on 12 Mar 2015:
Every hair follicle contains pigment cells called melanocytes. These are what produce the colour of your hair. As you get older these cells stop working as much and your hair begins to lose its colour. Eventually all of these cells die off and there is nothing left to produce colourful hair (unless you have a bottle of hair dye of course 😛 )
The age at which you’ll get your first gray hair (assuming your hair doesn’t simply fall out!!) is largely determined by genetics. But things like smoking can make your hair grey faster.
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Imogen Napper answered on 12 Mar 2015:
The root of every strand of hair is surrounded by a tube of tissue under the skin that is called the hair follicle. Each hair follicle contains a certain number of pigment cells. These pigment cells continuously produce a chemical called melanin that gives the growing shaft of hair its colour of brown, blonde, red, and anything in between.
Melanin is the same stuff that makes our skin’s colour fair or darker. It also helps determine whether a person will burn or tan in the sun. The dark or light colour of someone’s hair depends on how much melanin each hair contains.
As we get older, the pigment cells in our hair follicles gradually die. When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, that strand of hair will no longer contain as much melanin and will become a more transparent colour — like gray, silver, or white — as it grows. As people continue to get older, fewer pigment cells will be around to produce melanin. Eventually, the hair will look completely grey!
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Jen Machin answered on 13 Mar 2015:
This is a really good question and actually I didn’t know the answer. Thanks for explaining it so well Tom and Imogen! 😀
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