Scientists reckon they’ve finally worked out why hair turns grey, which means they might be able to develop a treatment to stop folks from going salt-and-pepper.
I don’t know about you but this is absolutely fantastic news for my luscious dark locks ‘cos I started sprouting grey hairs when I was 11, and spent years plucking the bastards out until I had to start going to the hairdresser to cover them up. The cruel trials and tribulations of being a raven-haired vixen, I tell you.
Alas, enough about me. A new study out of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine looked at melanocyte stem cells, or McSCs, which are known to control hair colour.
The long and short of it is these cells are zesty little things that love nothing more than moving between growth compartments in hair follicles. As hair ages, however, the McSCs may get stuck, which means they lose the ability to mature and create the protein pigments that give hair follicles their colour.
The research was conducted using mice, which we fucking hate to see. But scientists think if they can find a way to get those McSCs moving and shaking again, we might be able to bid adieu to grey hair.
“The newfound mechanisms raise the possibility that the same fixed-positioning of melanocyte stem cells may exist in humans,” study lead and postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health Qi Sun said.
“If so, it presents a potential pathway for reversing or preventing the greying of human hair by helping jammed cells to move again between developing hair follicle compartments.”
Now, it must be noted that there’s absolutely nothing wrong, nor shameful about going grey — especially among women.
If a woman lets her greys grow out, she looks “old” and is accused of letting herself go. But if men go grey, suddenly they’re handsome “silver foxes”. It’s sexist and ageist bullshit and it needs to stop.
If you want to rock your grey hair, embrace it. We love to see it. If you’re like me, however, and want to keep the greys at bay, there might be a treatment in the pipeline which will stop ’em in their tracks altogether. We also love to see it.
