The pigmentation of the hair follicle is what gives our hair its color. Like our skin, the hair is also colored due to the pigment called melanin. The two chemicals eumelanin and phaeomelanin, both different types of melanin, are responsible for the different shades of color in the hair.
When the amount of melanin present in the hair is more, the color is darker. As the amount of melanin decreases, the color also starts to fade to lighter shades. Melanin levels in the hair follicles can vary with time and therefore the color of hair keeps changing with time too.
Graying of hair is another natural process, usually associated with ageing. Though there are a lot of people who experience premature graying of hair, it is still considered a natural part of the aging process. The graying process does not stay limited only to the hair on your head. Hairs all over the body get affected too. This means that the eyebrows might also start graying.
If you are younger than thirty years of age, this graying of hair could cause some alarm. However, premature graying is usually heredity and so if someone in your family’s had that problem then it just means that you have inherited the trait. If you are older than thirty, there’s not much you can do to stop the graying. It’s a natural process and it will happen whether you like it or not. There shouldn’t be cause for worry.
The fluctuation in the melanin content can cause changes in the hair color over a period of time. The hair usually turns gray first and then white. Around the world, many people have white hair by the time they reach forty years of age. Achromotrichia, or the natural graying of hair, is caused by two genes called Bcl2 and Bcl-w. After a certain age, melanocytes, the cells which produce melanin in the hair follicles, die and the production of melanin ceases. The new hairs that grow out therefore grow without the color pigment right from the roots.
For premature graying, smoking is an identified cause. However, once the melanocytes are dead, there’s hardly anything that can be done about it. A lot of people prefer plucking out the white hairs from their eyebrows. While that’s a good idea for the short term, it doesn’t serve as a long term solution. Do not try to dye these strands of white hair as the area around your eyes is very sensitive and you may end up with a severe allergic reaction.