The last thing men ”“ and women ”“ want is to go grey. It is right up there in terms of worst case scenarios with going bald. However, new scientific research has shown that there may actually be a cure out there beyond simply using the latest innovative grey hair dye. It seems that grey hair reasons include certain proteins and targeting these, according to New York University’s Langone Medical Centre, is the cure. According to them, there is unfortunately nothing that can be done in terms of grey hair prevention, if it happens, it happens. The Technical Stuff and What Causes Grey Hair It has been known for many years that a person’s hair colour is determined by stem cells In other words, grey hair genetics. There are two kinds of stem cells at work when it comes to hair. The first develop the hair follicles and the second produce the colour. These are known as melanocytes. It seems now that the WNT protein coordinates the communication between the two types of stem cells and determines pigmentation of the air. Grey hair causes, in other words, are all down to biological and genetic factors and there is very little you can do to change that. So does stress cause grey hair? There have been a number of situation in which people were frightened or went through a stressful event and ended up going grey. However, it is believed that their stressful reaction triggered the WNT proteins and that this cause sudden and premature greying. Scientific Testing Scientific tests have been carried out on black mice. The pathway of WNT protein in their melanocyte stem cells were artificially inhibited and the black mice quickly turned grey. The reason why mice are used for this type of testing (as opposed to rabbits, rats or apes) is that the hair of the mouse is the closest to human hair. Hence, if something happens to the hair or mice, it is likely that the same thing will happen to the hair of a human. If scientists can achieve grey hair reversal on mice, they can achieve it on humans too. What Does this Mean? This research is a real scientific breakthrough in terms of finding a cure for going grey. Because inhibiting the WNT protein makes the mice go grey, adding WNT protein to grooming products or to supplements could, in theory stop and reverse the greying process. In fact, scientists have stated that this is something of the very near future, providing hope for people across the world in terms of grey hair reversal. But Should We Care? The interesting question, however, is whether or not we should care about going grey. Isn’t it just part of the natural ageing process? Many people have an issue with growing old but some more interesting research also took place. A test was performed with people of varying ages who had gone grey. Their pictures were placed on popular dating websites, with their genuine details in terms of age and body. The same information was placed on dating websites with a digitally enhanced picture that made the person look as if they were no longer grey. The real, grey pictures received far more responses than the digitally enhanced pictures. So, perhaps we should just stop caring about going grey and embrace our new look. Grey Hair Treatment Until Research Has Been Completed If you, however, really can’t stand grey hair and if you are too impatient to wait for the mice testing to be completed, you have a number of options available. You could opt for permanent hair colourings, but you must be careful with that, particularly if your hair is also thinning. If you have thinning hair, you may end up colouring your scalp as well, which is not a very good look. It is generally best to opt for a semi-permanent hair colour. There are a number of products now that simply comb in and these are considered by many to be the best. Although perhaps not a real grey hair delay, you can at least hide it for that little while longer. Source
