Posedenie (Canities)

Graying (Canities) is a loss of pigmentation in the hair, causing it to change color and become gray or white. Usually, with age, all people turn gray, and they most often begin to turn gray at the temples. Individual gray areas on the head may appear in patients with alopecia areata or vitiligo.

Graying (Canities): What is it and why does it happen?

Each of us, regardless of nationality, gender and age, is faced with aging and natural changes in the body. One such change is graying of hair. Graying is the process of loss of pigmentation in the hair, causing it to change color and become gray or white. Usually, with age, all people turn gray, and they most often begin to turn gray at the temples.

Since graying is a natural process of aging, it is not always associated with any pathologies or diseases. However, isolated gray areas on the head may appear in patients with alopecia areata or vitiligo.

Alopecia areata is a scalp condition in which patches of baldness appear on the skin. This can happen due to a compromised immune system, as well as due to disruption of the hair follicles. Vitiligo is a disease in which pigment cells in the skin are destroyed, resulting in white patches on the skin and hair.

In addition to age and disease, other factors can affect hair graying. For example, genetic predisposition can cause gray hair to appear at an early age. Graying can also be caused by stress, depression, eating disorders, smoking, and environmental influences such as air pollution.

How to keep your hair healthy and slow down the graying process? Luckily, there are several methods that can help keep your hair healthy and slow down the process of graying. It is important to eat healthily with adequate amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals such as zinc, iron, vitamin C, E, A and B12. It is also helpful to quit smoking, control your stress levels, exercise, use professional hair care products, and avoid frequent use of hot hair styling tools.

Graying is a natural aging process that everyone experiences. However, with proper hair care and a healthy lifestyle, you can keep your hair healthy and slow down the graying process. If gray hair appears at an early age or if there are other symptoms, you should consult a doctor for advice and diagnosis of possible diseases.

A gray (or white) head is a common physiological phenomenon over the age of 30. Natural replacement of the natural pigment melanin with pigments of a different color can lead to hair coloring white. And over time, the color of the hair shafts changes. And this happens due to the aging of the body. Even in early adolescence, people may experience so-called youthful graying. Such a curl appears only in a small area. But it happens that due to heredity, large areas with such a problem appear.

It’s worth saying right away that there is no consensus on the reasons for the appearance of gray hair, but scientists know that the process is facilitated by a drop in melanin production in the human body. The process of replacing a dark pigment with a lighter one, which does not perceive visible light, begins gradually. Certain pigments that are responsible for melanin acquiring a lightish tint change. The affected area begins to turn white, sometimes when exposed to sunlight it can become virtually transparent. This process often starts after age 35, although some people don't experience their first gray hairs until later in life. In rare cases, this can happen before the 25th year of life. Although, in addition to genetics, other factors also influence the appearance of the problem, such as stress, disruption of the endocrine glands, or even iron overload in the body. The percentage of which is known to affect the possibility of self-dyeing gray hair.