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Hairanoia! from Kendall & Beate of Mane Attraction

Dear Kendall & Beate,

I am in my early forties and have been noticing more and more gray hair. What causes hair to gray and is there anything that can be done?

Graying is the result of the natural (gulp) aging process in humans. When, how much and how quickly we gray, as with so much of who we are, is predisposed by heredity. In some instances, graying can be brought on by serious illness, nervous shock or emotional stress. But chances are it's one more thing we can thank or blame our parents for.

Melanin is the pigment in your hair strand. The darker your hair is, the more melanin you have. Gray hair is an absence of melanin. If you want to get technical gray hair is really mottled hair. Instead of melanin it has flecks of white or yellow-white scattered along the hair shaft. Gray hair does not begin your natural color and then fade or turn gray. It is already gray as it grows out from your scalp.

There are many options for gray hair. Leaving it and loving it is one but seeing that you wrote, this is highly unlikely. Temporary or semi permanent color will partially cover your gray. These typically last four to six weeks and gradually fade away. The advantage of temporary color is that there is no line of demarcation as the hair grows out. The disadvantage is that you don’t get one hundred percent gray coverage and you can only deposit color. You cannot lighten your hair with semi permanent color.

If you don’t want to see any gray then consider a permanent color. It will completely cover your gray. Depending on how fast your hair grows you will need to color the re-growth every three to six weeks.

Another option is a weave or highlighting and lowlighting. This process camouflages the gray. Fine strands of hair are taken and isolated in foil and colored. Anywhere from twenty five to seventy five percent of your hair is woven and foiled with the remaining (gray hair included) left out. Weaves are more labor intensive and are the most expensive of the options but also have the least amount of maintenance. Most clients go eight to twelve weeks between weaves.

~ Kendall

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