What actually happens when your hair turns grey?

You stop producing one type of allele and start producing another.

What actually happens when your hair turns grey?

Melanocytes, which manufacture and store the pigment that combines with hair-making cells called keratinocytes to color the hair, are specialized cells spawned by colorless melanocyte stem cells.

What actually happens during the graying process is that the melanocyte cells not only become depleted, they also make errors as they age, turning into 'fully committed' pigment cells that position themselves in the wrong part of the hair follicle, thus leading to a loss of pigmentation.

What actually happens when your hair turns grey?

The pigment is lost, so the hair appears white