Biologically, ageing is defined as a time-related deterioration of the functions vital for survival and fertility but ageing is just another word for living, living a different phase of life while embracing the changes that occur on mental and physical levels and counting the year of fun you have had and get ready for more. As far as ageing is time related it’s natural and should be accepted gracefully but if it occurs to you prior it becomes a matter of worry. Know all about premature greying of hair, the reasons and remedies.
With this busy lifestyle, pressure, pollution and stress, greying of hair have become a common problem bothering not just middle-aged women but also young girls. Sure, it’s a sign of wisdom but in cases of premature greying, it reveals that your body lacks melanin and that severely affects the self-esteem of young ladies. You need to find a way to replenish it. There are hundreds of natural ways to prevent premature greying. Let us look at some of the most effective ones.
Causes Of Premature Graying Of Hair
Before dealing with the problem, we need to know the reasons for premature greying of hair. It may be due to one or more of the following.
1. Genetics
No matter how much we blame the millennial lifestyle for premature grey hair, genetics tops the list. Those sequences of proteins determine more about us than we think they do. If greying of hair has started early there may be a chance that your mother and grandmother’s hair too greyed early, and/or now your children will experience greying of hair early too.
2. Stress
Stress is a reason for most of the unpleasant changes occurring in our bodies with age. Millennial lifestyle has its drawbacks and one of them is this never-ending traumatic pressure on our minds. Messed up mental harm shows on your bodies in the form of wrinkles, dark circles around eyes, and hair issues such as hair fall and greying of hair.
3. Autoimmune Diseases
These are the ones in which our body cells attack the existing healthy cells to create an imbalance. In conditions such as alopecia and vitiligo, our own body causes loss of pigmentation of hair and skin.
4. Thyroid Dysfunctions
Hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism may mess up with our metabolisms and lead to hair fall and premature greying of hair. These disorders affect melanin secretion in our bodies.
5. Vitamin B12 Deficiency
Cyanocobalamin or vitamin B12 promotes healthy hair growth and colour. Inadequate diet or diseases such as pernicious anaemia lead to a deficiency in it.
6. Smoking
Smoking constricts blood vessels. This leads to less nourishment of hair follicles. Besides this, toxins contained in cigarette smoke damage hair roots leading to hair fall and grey hair.
7. Make-up Products
Routine colouring and bleaching of hair may result in weakening of roots or make them lose enough melanin to trigger their greying.
Myths About Premature Graying Of Hair
1. Stress is the major cause of premature grey hair
Well, this myth isn’t entirely false. Usually, premature greying is because of genetics or because of some premature ageing syndromes. Stress just catalyzes the process.
2. Plucking grey hair can lead to more of them
This isn’t true. If you pluck a grey hair, more grey hairs don’t grow. Also, this doesn’t increase their rate of growth. On the contrary, hair growth decreases with age. However, it is not recommended.
3. Dyeing your hair repeatedly can lead to more grey strands
This is another myth. No matter how much you dye or colour your hair, it doesn’t lead to grey hair. However, this may cause damage to your existing hair by causing hair fall.
4. Reversing the process of greying is possible
There is no scientific proof for this yet. Some natural products are claimed to increase melanin content in your follicles. Some food items are also said to improve hair health.
5. Grey hair is limp and coarser
The texture of your hair doesn’t change. There may be a chance that your hair has grown rougher or stringy with age but it’s not because of the loss of pigmentation in follicles.
7 Effective Home Remedies To Prevent Greying
Natural is always better for premature grey hair treatment than using chemicals on your hair without an expert’s recommendation. Most of the crises of this age are due to an unhealthy lifestyle. Stress and pollution are walls blocking the path leading to well-being. Lack of a healthy diet from a young age contributes to it. Moreover, nowadays kids don’t get enough exercise to boost up their body functions. It is therefore essential to work on our lifestyles a little. Meanwhile, we need to provide our bodies with the supplements they need and what could be better than grandma’s home remedies for premature grey hair, right?
1. Natural Oils
One sure shot way to rid your hair of many problems is massaging oil. It improves blood circulation replenishing it with nutrients. The following tricks from Ayurveda work wonders.
- Bringamalakadi Taila prevents excessive heating of the scalp, thus, stopping the loss of pigmentation. It makes hair stronger.
- Brahmi Bringaraj Taila helps reduce stress levels, thus, slowing down the process of greying of hair.
- Coconut oil is the most commonly used one in our homes. Its cooling properties help us with a variety of hair problems, one of them being this.
- Sesame seed or til oil provides antioxidants and vitamins to prevent premature greying of hair.
- Mahadeva (Veronica Cineraria) is a rare herb that grows like a weed. Its oil helps prevent grey hair, dandruff, and hair fall.
2. Hibiscus Rinse
Antioxidants and vitamins in hibiscus are said to aid the production of melanin, thus darkening your hair. Soak the leaves and petals of the flower overnight in water. Wash your hair with this water in the morning.
3. Black Tea Rinse
Add two tablespoons of black tea and a teaspoon of salt to one cup of water. Cool and rinse fresh clean hair with it. Repeat this regularly to darken your hair.
4. Ghee
Massage your scalp with ghee twice a week. This helps to impart nutrients to your scalp naturally and prevents the ageing of hair. Some other ghee benefits for hair include treating dandruff & split-ends, moisturizing the scalp and improving the overall texture of your hair.
5. Amaranth
Apply fresh amaranthus juice on your hair thrice a week. Amaranth helps you to retain your hair’s natural colour, stops greying, and prevents hair loss.
6. Onion
When it comes to hair health, onions have magical properties. Squeeze an onion and strain it so that you are left with only the juice. Apply this on your scalp twice a week. Let it stay for thirty minutes and then shampoo as usual.
7. Food for Hair
Let us not forget that a balanced diet is a solution to most of our problems any day. It’s a very slow but sure way to work.
- Freshly grated ginger mixed with honey is one such preferable addition to your daily diet.
- One tablespoon of blackstrap molasses (not from beet sugar but sugarcane juice) is believed to reverse the greying process.
- Drink six ounces of freshly made amla (gooseberry) juice daily.
- Eat a tablespoon of black sesame seeds two or three times a week. It is also believed to reverse the hair ageing process.
- Drinking one or two ounces of freshly prepared wheatgrass juice every day might work wonders for you. Do try it.
- Fo-ti (polygonum multiflorum) is a traditional Chinese medicine taken as a supplement. 1000 milligrams twice a day with food is said to reverse the greying process.
- Drinking 8 ounces of carrot juice daily doesn’t only benefit your eyes but also works best as a premature grey hair treatment.
- Eat food rich in catalase such as garlic, cabbage, sweet potato, kale, almonds, and broccoli. Catalase is an antioxidant enzyme that decomposes toxic hydrogen peroxide to harmless water and oxygen.
- Indian ginseng of ashwagandha supplements with food can do miraculous tricks for your health.
5 DIY Hair Dyes
1. Henna
When it comes to DIY hair dyes or hair masks, henna tops the list. This age-old method still works like gold. The intensity of colour also depends on the amount of tea or coffee used. You can also mix hibiscus powder to avail of the plants’ benefits.
How To Use It:
- Make a cup of black tea or coffee.
- Add henna powder to it and make a paste with the consistency like that of yoghurt (dahi).
- Allow the mixture to sit for six hours or so.
- Then, add an oil of your choice, and your henna hair dye is ready.
- Apply it on and keep it for 1-3 hours, depending on the intensity of colour you want.
- Wash your hair with a mild shampoo and get immediate results.
2. Walnut Powder
Black walnuts are used to make natural hair dyes just like henna.
How To Use It:
- Mix the powdered shell of black walnut with hot water and leave it on for a few hours.
- Shampoo it off.
3. Black Pepper
Black pepper has immense benefits for your body. It works not only as an immunity booster but also as a hair health booster. It helps in the growth and darkening of hair.
How To Use It:
- Mix a tablespoon of freshly grounded black pepper in one of lemon juice.
- Add half a cup of yoghurt to make a paste. Leave it on for an hour.
- Then, wash off with lukewarm water.
- Repeat this thrice a week.
4. Bhringraj
This potent Ayurvedic ingredient can treat hair issues like hair fall, dandruff, premature graying of hair and make your hair stronger, thicker and healthier.
How To Use It:
- Heat bhringraj with coconut oil at low flame.
- Massage the warm mixture on your scalp.
- Wash it off after an hour.
- Repeat 2-3 times a week to get strong, shiny, and even dark hair.
5. Ridged Gourd
When it comes to hair health, our very own torai is not far behind to help us.
How To Use It:
- Boil a piece of the ridged gourd in coconut oil until the latter turns dark.
- Let it cool down till it’s lukewarm before you apply it.
- Leave it on for 45 minutes.
- Repeat this thrice a week for visible benefits.
Measures To Prevent Greying Of Hairs
Prevention is better than cure. It is better to know how to stop premature greying of hair and do the needful than worry about it when it’s already made its mark. The following steps may help you with it.
- Cover your hair while going out in the sun
- Wash your hair with a mild shampoo and lukewarm water. Avoid too many chemicals or bleaching
- Massage your scalp with oil regularly
- Try to take a balanced diet and exercise regularly. Cut out caffeinated or alcoholic drinks
- Limit smoking
- Don’t use new dyes on your hair without doing a test run or consulting a doctor
FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What causes premature greying of hair?
A. There could be due to a variety of reasons, the most common one is genetics. Deficiency of certain nutrients and unhealthy lifestyles are also leading causes of premature greys.
Q. Can you reverse grey hair naturally?
A. Many claims have been made in this regard. Some remedies have proven to be effective permanently and semi-permanently in certain cases.
Q. At what age is it normal to get grey hair?
A. It is reported that 50 per cent of the population will have 50 percent grey strands on their head by the time they are 50. Men’s hair tends to age sooner than women’s.
Q. Does grey hair signify a shorter lifespan or poor health?
A. No, usually grey hair does not signify a shorter lifespan or even poor health. However, you need to find out the reasons for the premature greying of your hair. If it’s because of genetics, well and good. However, if it’s because of an unhealthy lifestyle or some disease, the other consequences of the same can make your lifespan shorter.
