What should you do if your hair is gray or white? Have you tried plucking them off? Do you know that there is a wives tale that says that if you pick them out, you will grow a few more white hairs? Right now, that sounds a little unsettling.
Does plucking gray hairs increase your white and gray hairs, and is it risky to remove gray hairs?
No, it’s not true, and removing a grey hair won’t cause another one to sprout in its place. This is only a myth. This myth has certainly spread, in our opinion, since it could appear true even when it isn’t. When white hair is pulled out, it takes a long time for it to regrow and has to be rather long to be apparent. More white hair may develop throughout that period, but that is just because time passes, and white hair is a sign of age. As a result, many mistakenly believe that having grey hair means they have plucked grey hair. The logical fallacy that indicates correlation demonstrates causality is illogical since the fact is that correlation does not indicate causation.
How does graying hair happen?
A hair follicle, which has pigment cells of its own, surrounds every single hair. These pigment cells are in charge of continuously producing melanin, a chemical that provides fresh hair color while growing. The main element that affects whether your skin is light or dark is melanin. It also determines whether your hair is light or dark in hue.
As we age, more and more pigment-producing follicle cells will die. Since there are fewer pigment-producing cells in the hair follicle, there is less melanin, which causes the hair to lighten or eventually become entirely transparent. This process causes your hair to go gray.
Although the majority of individuals discover their first white hair at the beginning of aging (often in their 40s or 50s), older people are not the only ones who have gray hair. On the other hand, premature graying and gray hair may occur in persons as young as their 20s. Genes, oxidative stress (an imbalance in antioxidant activity & free radical activity), depression, and several other disorders are only a few of the specific elements that influence this occurrence.
Does plucking one gray hair prompt the growth of more in its place?
After plucking a strand of white hair, just one strand will sprout in its place since a hair follicle only surrounds one hair. Most of the time, just one hair will sprout in the same place. Furthermore, nearby hairs are scarcely impacted until their hair follicles lose their pigment cells.
The new hair will often be gray like the old hair. Greys often have a rougher texture than regular hairs and are anticipated to be faded in color, yet there are still a few very unusual instances when the hair is darker than the previous one.
Does plucking white hair cause more graying?
If you wonder whether or not a new white hair will grow in its place after you pluck out your white hair, the answer is yes, just as with gray hair. No, is the answer. A single follicle produces only one hair. Your next hair may also become white due to reduced melanin amount in the follicle cells, but this won’t happen if you just take the white hair out of your head. You may pluck one gray hair at a time, and it will grow back.
Furthermore, because a white hair follicle no longer holds active follicle cells and isn’t making pigment, your hair will continue to be white once it regrows.
What will be happening to the hair follicle once white hair is plucked out?
We frequently see our moms and grandparents pulling out their white hairs. It appears natural that if your hair becomes white, you have to take it out, but let’s investigate this from a medical science perspective to see whether a professional in the expertise would advise plucking white hairs.
How Will Occur if White Hair is Plucked out?
According to dermatological specialists, dealing with premature greying and white hair is not something that should be done with forceful actions. This method of getting rid of gray or white hair may gradually harm the skin on your head. You may often anticipate it to regrow following removing a gray hair from your scalp. Naturally, after a few times, a new hair will appear in its place with less color than your other naturally pigmented hairs. When this occurs, it implies that the forceful action of plucking your hair is not too harmful to the hair follicles to continue processing and growing new hairs.
However, if you repeatedly pluck gray hairs from the same follicle, it will permanently harm the follicle and leave significant scarring. The hair follicle will shrink as a result of the surrounding cells dying. It will be unable to continue performing its job of hair reproduction.
As you can see, plucking at white hair in this situation is a horrible habit. If you often resort to plucking them out as a quick solution for a better look because you have white hair covering many large portions of your head, the issue will become more terrible for your appearance. The after-effects may include other hair loss-related diseases such as alopecia areata, bald patches, and thinning hair.
Why not pull out your white hair
It turns out that plucking off the white hair won’t be of any use at all. Even if you pick it off, the new hair that grows out will be just as coarse as the previous one. After all, the pigment-producing cells that normally make melanin for the hair shaft are dead; therefore, pulling the hair would be ineffective. You won’t grow any less white hair, but neither will you get any more.
The worst part is that, as a result, you could repeatedly traumatize the hair follicles. In this situation, the hair cells will probably be dead. You might get a bald patch, a follicle infection, and more.
White Hair Plucking Side Effects
A deeper examination of the harm of pulling out grey hair or white hair will do to your scalp reveals certain unintended negative consequences that might occur:
Damaged hair follicles
Cells around follicles may die if grey hairs are pulled out often. The follicles will get damaged as a result, and they will no longer produce new hair.
Scalp injuries
After you remove your gray hair, the skin on the top of your head is vulnerable to infections and scarring. Once you’ve pulled out your grey hair in this manner, you may hold the hair strand up to your eye to see whether or not it has a white bulb at the base. If, however, you observe that the tip of its root is red, you have cut it off from the blood supply, and the hair will probably never grow back in that spot again.
Weaker hairstyle
Your hair’s texture will change if you pluck out gray hair which is another negative effect. The hair will get coarser, more brittle, and weaker as it ages. Therefore, you may wish to gently trim the hair off the next time.
Advice For Preventing Hair Graying Too Soon
We must acknowledge that having grey hair is never pleasant, and it is much less acceptable for those whose hair is graying early in life. Our actual ages are increased by a few numbers due to the gray and white hairs.
You may want to gently snip it off rather than pluck it, as pulling your hair out can be bad for your scalp. What other workable strategies are there to prevent gray hair from appearing and interfering with your life?
Stay joyful and avoid stress.
In the era of the rat race and fast-paced life, many contemporary individuals struggle with chronic stress, anxiety, and depression. It has been shown that stress has a bad impact on neurobiology, hastening the aging of your hair. Pay close attention to your mental health and use calming techniques to calm your thoughts.
To keep your heart relaxed and at rest, try yoga or meditation. Additionally, it’s important to obtain adequate sleep if you want to avoid stress. To prevent insomnia, try setting a timer for when you should go to bed and limiting your internet and TV use.
To protect hair follicles, stay away from products with chemicals.
If you have graying hair, you should avoid utilizing chemicals like ammonia, phthalates and hydrogen peroxide since they damage your hair cells and cause your hair to lose their pigmentation.
To protect your hair from harm, use herbal shampoos, conditioners, and colors rather than ones containing chemicals.
Beware of external influences.
On a hot summer day, the sun’s intense rays might hasten your hair’s color fade process. And pollution is. To preserve the natural color of your hair, you should always wear a hat while outside on a sunny day.
Acceptance of Your gray hairs.
A few strands of gray hairs may not be a significant enough issue to warrant your anxiety or alarm. If the color of your hair is just a little bit fading, you can choose to use a clear gloss salon treatment to make your locks shine and seem more attractive.
Takeaway
In conclusion, pulling your hair out won’t cause you to develop additional white or grey hair. Only one hair will grow out from the follicle around it after you pluck one hair. Additionally, this has no impact on any nearby hairs.
If your hair does start to gray, one piece of advice we can give you is to not spend time plucking it out. One gray hair may be plucked, and another will sprout in its place. In severe circumstances, eliminating grey hairs in this manner might result in skin problems on the scalp, including male- or female-pattern baldness, skin infections, and more. Your head may develop bald spots as a result of these injuries.
There are other methods to treat your grey hairs, including utilizing herbal shampoo products or, contrary to popular perception, leaving them alone, so they retain their appeal.
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