At some point in life, every single one of us goes through the nightmare of seeing his/her first white hair. At which moment we instantly freak out, thinking about the possibility of all our hair eventually graying out. And the reason we freak out is due to the popular belief that graying of hair is irreversible. That once your hair starts to go gray, it will remain so forever.
But how much truth is there to that belief? Is graying of hair really irreversible as so many people believe, or is it just a myth?
I’ll go ahead and tell you straight ahead, that it’s a myth. Yes, graying of hair can be reversed, especially when it’s premature graying of hair. I’m not saying it’s easy or highly likely that you will be able to turn your gray hair back to its original color, but it certainly is possible.
If not from any other evidence, I can say this from my own personal experience. I have seen my white hair go away firsthand, without having to color them or pluck them out. My own experience is enough to bust the myth that gray hair remain gray forever.
I was around 13 years old when my first white hair showed up. I thought it was just a single oddity, so I just ignored it altogether. A few months later, I found that I had multiple white hairs and people could notice them easily if they talked to me from a near distance. I was 14 at this time and my confidence took a beating, which did not help me at all as a teenage boy.
I thought that in no time, before I would turn 20, most of my hair would be gray and I would have to rely on coloring. This was a serious pain to imagine. My mom had told me that her sister also experienced premature graying of hair so that gave me a slight relief that it is something genetic and I couldn’t do anything about it. This made sense as I was not under any stress or lack of vitamin B12 or minerals that could have otherwise caused it. What my mom also told me was that white hair can’t go away, so I would eventually have to color my hair to get rid of them – this, in contrast, was really discouraging.
Eventually, I learned to live with it and got used to it. People would point it out that I have white hair and I acted as if it was no big deal.
Fast forward 6 years, I had turned 20 years old, and I observed that most of my white hair had disappeared. I only had less than 5 or so white hair strands. I had never colored or plucked my white hair. This was something I never expected and I was totally amazed. I always thought that my graying of hair would just get worse over time.
To be honest, I really don’t know what had happened. Maybe there were changes at the hormonal level. The only major thing that changed in my lifestyle was that I started going to the gym and started to exercise regularly. I was into strength training and I also was paying attention to my health and diet. This may have been the reason most of my hair turned black again, or not. Stress is definitely not a factor since my stress levels have generally increased with age. And perhaps, this would only be possible for premature graying like in my case, and not in the case of graying of hair due to old age.
So there was no secret to getting rid of my white hair. But if I could give any recommendations, it would be to exercise. Exercise does wonders for your health and helps prevent graying of hair. If you have gray hair already, regular exercise may just help reverse it.
The whole point is, my white hair turned black again, and yours can too. My experience points out that it is certainly possible. So don’t believe people who tell you that white hair can’t turn black again. At the time of this writing, I still have 2 or 3 white hairs, but most are gone – and I hope they don’t come back anytime soon.
This is no medical advice and is solely based on my experience.
