gossip
"Some gray hair is tanned"
Recently, there have been articles on the Internet saying that the scalp can be damaged by ultraviolet rays, so sun exposure may be one of the reasons for the increase in gray hair.
Myth analysis
Actually, this statement is not very rigorous.
Quite simply, if you spend a lot of time in the sun, you will have gray hair, so do your African friends (or friends from the south) near the equator have gray hair? Apparently not.
Buddhism has clouds: three thousand troubles, a trace is better than a trace. Now, hair is really a problem for a lot of people. One of the worries is hair loss, which we have talked about many times, and another is gray hair.
There are different opinions about the cause of gray hair, and some even believe that basking in the sun is an accomplice. Is this really the case? What the hell is wrong with gray hair? Today, we're going to talk about it.
Can you get a tanned hair?
Let's start with the conclusion, this kind of risk is small, so don't worry too much. There is a saying on the Internet that regular sun exposure, the "photobleaching" reaction degrades the pigment of the hair, and "tans the hair".
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In fact, this statement is too arbitrary. Quite simply, if you spend a lot of time in the sun, you will have gray hair, so do your African friends (or friends from the south) near the equator have gray hair? Apparently not.
Let's take the data to speak, some scholars have found that on average, Caucasian hair begins to turn gray around the age of 35, Asians start to gray in their 30s and close to 40s, and Africans have the latest gray hair, which only begins to turn gray around the age of 45. Even, Bantu people in Africa rarely have gray hair before the age of 40~50.
It seems that the effect of ultraviolet rays is not as great as the influence of rumors.
The real reason for gray hair
There may be these
Now let's talk about the causes and triggers of gray hair.
In fact, there are too many causes of gray hair, and the relationship with ultraviolet rays is not particularly clear. Although, it can be seen on medical databases that UV rays have a negative effect on the hair of rats, this is not convincing enough, because this is based on animal experiments under ideal conditions, and the conclusions cannot be simply replicated in humans. What's more, there aren't any studies of people with sun exposure and gray hair today.
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Gray hair is actually more related to age, genes, ethnicity, hair color, etc., which can also be seen from the statistics mentioned above. This may be related to external factors, but the relationship is weaker and less universal.
Occasionally, gray hair may be associated with ultraviolet rays, stress, smoking, medication, malnutrition, immune diseases, etc. But we don't need to exaggerate these risks so as not to cause unnecessary anxiety and panic. As scholars have admitted, there is no answer to the question of whether external factors (such as ultraviolet rays) play a role in the process of hair graying.
If you want to summarize the real causes of gray hair in one sentence, then you can say that gray hair is mainly determined by genetic factors, but sometimes various environmental factors are involved.
How to prevent graying hair?
This kind of question is inevitably familiar, and it is reminiscent of "How can I live forever?" in "Journey to the West?" "One thing these two issues have in common is that they are both a little bit difficult.
To be honest, gray hair is not necessarily preventable, because there are many fundamental factors that cannot be changed, let alone reversed, such as age and race.
Therefore, we need to adjust our mental expectations and not expect too much from any preventive measures. This is not to say that there is nothing to be done at all, and there may be some potential benefits to some measures. For example:
(1) Ensuring a balanced diet may help slow down the formation of gray hair. If there are deficiencies in certain nutrients, such as calcium, ferritin, vitamin B12, etc., it is important to correct them as they are associated with early-onset gray hair.
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(2) Life factors such as smoking and mental stress are somewhat related to gray hair. Therefore, lifestyle changes and trying to live a healthy lifestyle, such as reducing stress and quitting smoking, may slow down the formation of gray hair.
(3) Although there are few direct studies on the relationship between ultraviolet rays and gray hair, considering the potential negative effects of ultraviolet rays on skin and hair health, daily attention to sun protection may also have a certain preventive effect.
(4) Certain topical products also seem to have the potential to prevent gray hair. For example, Korea have recruited people to do research and found that kudzu root extract has some preventive effects. Its preventive effect is due to antioxidant activity and promotion of melanocyte expression. However, the research was funded by the company, and the credibility is not particularly high, but it is hopeful.
My hair is already gray, what else can I do?
Although modern medicine is very developed, the effective treatment of gray hair is still a bottleneck.
We know that most people's gray hair is actually just a matter of aesthetics, and as we get older, gray hair grows slowly. If you don't mind this beauty, you can live peacefully with them, which is at least a little better than hair loss.
If you mind, then you can still find a way.
If you have a lot of gray hair, you can directly choose hair dye, and the effect of hair dye is immediate. It's just that there are 2 disadvantages, one is that the newly grown hair is still white, and the approximate rate is that it will be 1.3cm white every month, and the other is that there is a small probability of irritation and allergy to hair dye, which is manifested as itching and rash on the skin at the contact site.
If there are few gray hairs, then you can cut them off at the base with clean scissors and nail clippers. It's safe to do this, it's not risky, it's just repeated every few months.
I believe that there are still people who choose to unplug it directly. Objectively speaking, this is not impossible. However, from a medical point of view, it is not very recommended. One is that this will damage the hair follicles, and it is possible that one hair will be plucked out and one will be missing, and the other is that there will be a risk of local infection, and bacteria will take the opportunity to enter the wound and cause folliculitis, which will appear as small red particles or small white pustules.
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So, to sum up, sun exposure usually doesn't make hair gray, and the main reason for gray hair is genetics. As for external factors, such as ultraviolet rays, stress, smoking, malnutrition, etc., there may be some influence, but the overall relationship is not so great.
It's not quite a sure way to prevent your hair from turning gray, but it may be beneficial to maintain a balanced diet, lifestyle changes, sun protection, and certain topical products, but don't expect too much. For hair that has turned gray, you can choose to dye or cut it, but it is not recommended to pull it out to avoid damage to the hair follicles and infection.
According to the "rumor" mirror
Many rumors from life are actually "partial generalizations". At first glance, it seems to make sense, but in fact, there is no substantive research to back it up. When encountering this kind of rumor, it is best for us to take some examples that are in line with it and ask whether it is true, if it is not true, the rumor will be self-defeating.
Source: Science refutes rumors