5 reasons for premature grey hairs

What gives your hair its colour is the melanin it contains. All hair follicles contain pigment cells of melanin that determine hair colour.

However, with old age comes the death of the pigment cells in your hair follicles. This means strands of your hair will not contain as much melanin and that leads to a white, silver or grey colour.

But many young people find their hair greying, what might be the cause of this?

1. Genetics

If you start developing grey hairs at a young age, it is most likely that your parents also started greying early.

2. Stress

Some scientists do not believe that stress can cause greying of the hair. However, certain researchers have proven that stem cells in the hair follicles get depleted during stressful events and this leads to grey hairs.

3. Smoking

Premature greying can be caused by smoking. Smoking reduces the amount of blood that circulates into hair follicles because it compresses blood vessels. These toxins affect hair follicles and cause premature greying.

4. Vitamin deficiency

Deficiency vitamins lead to premature grey hairs. Vitamin B-6, B-12, biotin, Vitamin D and Vitamin E are essential vitamins your body needs that help with hair colour and growth.

Vitamin B-12 helps to transport oxygen to your hair cells. A deficiency in Vitamin B-12 affects the melanin production and invariably leads to white hairs.

5. Autoimmune diseases

Certain autoimmune diseases can cause younger people to develop grey hairs, an example of autoimmune diseases is alopecia and vitiligo.

Alopecia is an illness that attacks the immune system and causes people to lose hair in chunks. After this hair loss, the hair that grows back is usually grey or white.