Why and what makes your hair go grey when you get older?

Hair grows white when the color pigment (melanin) ceases to be produced in the hair follicle and small air spaces take its place. Please check out http://useinfo-grayhair.blogspot.com/ for more info.

Why and what makes your hair go grey when you get older?

I heard an explanation of this once.

When I was 22, and had a full head of dark brown hair that tended to get auburn highlights in the summer, my girlfriend and I were laying together and snuggling. She said, "Oh. Look." Then reached up and pulled a single hair from my head. It was gray.

I was a bit outraged by the whole event. First, what is a gray hair doing there when I am so young? And second, it did look kinda cool. Like I was growing up or something. Like I had paid some dues, and was going to be an adult. I had visions of the silver-back male gorillas in Africa. Alpha males who were the master of all that they surveyed.

And I was a bit outraged that she had pulled this single gray hair from my head.

Turns out pulling that one hair was like pulling the pin on a hand grenade. My head exploded in gray hairs. lol

As I recall the explanation was something about the color not being included in the hair anymore because the follicle was not correctly using/producing all of the proteins. Something about not being able to generate melanin, or not being able to incorporate melanin. I don't know if that is true, but it sounded plausible to me at the time.

Why and what makes your hair go grey when you get older?

Well from the books i've read since I was a kid your hair tuns gray naturally as your hair LOSES melanin ( is the determinant of the human skin %26amp; hair.) If you want to know more just refer it here.