What Causes White Hair—And Can It Be Stopped?

It always comes as a bit of a surprise, but one day when you’re getting ready, you take a close look in the mirror and notice a few strands of hair that aren’t the color you’re used to. So what happened? Why did your hair start to go silver and white?

In this post, we’ll cover what causes your hair to turn white and what white hair treatments are available.

What Causes Hair to Turn White?

Your hair, just like your skin and eyes, contains melanin. Melanin is why your hair is black, brown, red, or blond. As you get older, your hair follicles may not produce as much melanin as they once did, and they may even stop melanin production altogether, which will leave your hair gray, silver, or white.

What Causes the Lack of Melanin?

The cause of white hair is a lack of melanin, but lower melanin is caused by a wide range of factors. The biggest reasons are genetics and age. It is just as natural to get your mother’s eyes or your dad’s ears as it is to get their hair. Genetics can be a natural timer for the color of your hair.

There might be a natural timer to your hair color turning white, but for many of us, you might have noticed your white hair coming in a bit earlier or thicker than your family, so what’s happened there?

Some external factors can affect melanin production in your hair, which will cause it to turn white earlier. Stress, smoking, vitamin deficiencies, and disease can all make your body produce less melanin than normal, which will cause your hair to turn white.

What Can I Do to Prevent or Treat White Hair?

If external factors are causing your hair to turn white, addressing those can help slow the spread of white hair, and in some cases even stop or reverse the color change.

Make Life Changes

Quitting smoking and tackling your mental health and stress levels can feel like big tasks, but they can help improve your quality of life and address bigger issues than your hair color.

Check Your Thyroid

There are times when an illness called Graves’ disease, which is associated with your thyroid, will lead to a head of silvery hair. If you are experiencing untimely gray hair, you might also want to have your thyroid checked.

Use Supplements

Supplements can also help you fight against what causes white hair. This can include eating food rich in antioxidants, addressing any vitamin or mineral deficiencies, and even adding additional supplements like curry leaves, bhringraj oil, black tea, and vitamin B12 to your diet.

Try Hair Dye

There is always the option to dye your hair. This can get expensive, even if you only use the box dyes that you can do at home, and it can also cause even more stress and damage to your hair and scalp, which can increase the number of white hairs you have.

Embrace Your Silver Fox

While it might not be the solution you’re looking for, another option is to embrace your hair for what it is. Having gray, white, or silver hair isn’t a bad thing, and when you are surrounded by people trying to fight against their white hair, accepting yours and being willing to show it with pride and confidence will help you stand out and be noticed.

How Can I Stop My White Hair from Growing?

If you have white hair, there’s nothing you can do to make your white hair grow less than your regular hair or to stop specific hairs from growing altogether. In some cases, if you address the causes at the root of the issue, you can pause or slow your hair from turning white, but it is not possible to stop your hair from growing.

Focus on Hair Health with ELUXE

Instead of focusing on stopping your white hair from growing, make sure your hair is healthy and strong no matter what color it is. Using ELUXE will help with regular deep cleanings that will keep your hair thick and strong.