Many of us have heard stories of people who turned their hair white overnight, usually because of great sadness. Even in history such cases have been recorded.
According to historians, when Marie Antoinette was captured after her failed escape attempt and brought back to Paris, she took off her wig to show one of her courtiers how her hair had turned gray during her short absence. . Others wrote that - even worse - her hair suddenly turned gray the night before her execution.
Whatever the truth, the question remains:can a person's hair suddenly turn white?
The answer is not yet clear, as biochemistry has not yet provided adequate explanations. However, yes, this possibility is generally considered acceptable. Your hair can turn white or gray relatively quickly. The question is "why?".
Can fear or anxiety change your hair color?
The truth is that any sudden and unusual (to you) emotion can change your hair color, just not immediately. Your psychological state seems to have a significant impact on the hormones that can affect the amount of melanin deposited in each hair, however the effect of these negative emotions also takes time to show.
The hairs you see right now on your head emerged from their follicles a long time ago, not last night. Thus, graying or any other color change is a gradual process, occurring over several months or years.
Some researchers have described situations in which some people's hair has turned brown from blonde or white from brown as a result of a traumatic experience. There are even cases where the color has returned to normal after a period of weeks or months - although the most common is that it remains white or grey.
Diseases that may explain the graying of hair
Your emotions can't change your hair color immediately, but it's still possible to turn gray overnight. How; A disease called “diffuse alopecia areata” can lead to sudden hair loss. Although the biochemistry of alopecia is not yet fully understood, it is known that in people who have a mixture of dark and gray or white hair, hair without color is less likely to fall out. This results in a person looking like they've gone white overnight when in fact they've just lost their hair - their black hair to be specific.
Another medical condition called “canities subita” is closely related to alopecia but may not involve losing as much hair.
"Today, the syndrome is interpreted as an acute episode of diffuse alopecia areata in which very sudden graying is caused by the loss of melanocytic hairs in this supposed immune-mediated disorder," explains American biologist Michael Nam. "This observation has led some experts to hypothesize that this autoimmune disease may be related to the melanin pigment system," he continued.
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