Folks, if you're worried your hair is starting to gray, all you need to do is relax!
A new study from eLife Sciences found that staying relaxed can actually reverse the graying process.
Researchers from Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons compared our hair's aging process to that of a tree and its rings.
Senior study author Martin Picard, Ph.D said in a press release, "There was one individual who went on vacation, and five hairs on that person's head reverted back to dark during the vacation, synchronized in time. Just as the rings in a tree trunk hold information about past decades in the life of a tree, our hair contains information about our biological history."
Unfortunately, relaxing will only help the hairs that haven't grown out of the follicle, and hair has to reach a threshold before changing colors.
Picard continued to say, "Based on our mathematical modeling, we think hair needs to reach a threshold before it turns gray. In middle age, when the hair is near that threshold because of biological age and other factors, stress will push it over the threshold and it transitions to gray. But we don't think that reducing stress in a 70-year-old who's been gray for years will darken their hair, or increasing stress in a 10-year-old will be enough to tip their hair over the gray threshold."
