Once the first gray strand of hair appears, many of us begin to suffer agonisingly. We begin to think that we are and look older than we actually are. We would then reach for the bottle of coloration solution.
Unknowingly to some, while that is going on, and if there is some truth that stress causes graying, you will become embroiled in that cycle of graying causing stress and stress causing greater graying and the cycle continuing to repeat itself resulting in a state of very heightened stress.
The question that now needs answering is this: can stress really cause the premature/graying of hair?
President Obama has, very often times, been photographed in very close-up ‘takes’ of his head showing his hair before and after becoming the President of the US. The photographs showed him with jet black hair before he was the president and distinct streaks of noticeable graying hair after having spent some time in the seat of the presidency.
One question needs asking at this point: is it fair and acceptable that because his presidency coincided with a world in dire political, economic and military straights, which as president, he had to attempt to resolve, that, the difficulties experienced in sorting out those problems have caused his hair to change color?
The generally accepted conclusion is and was that stress was the cause since he had to give solutions to the world’s weighty problems.
As to definitive causative evidence of stress, the ‘jury is still out’ but on the evidence that has surfaced so far, a cautious yes response to stress being the cause is given and accepted.
Several evidential assumptions exist showing how stress can affect hair:
- Unhappy and unfruitful days of activity and their repetition eventually take their toll on the entire body resulting in hair discoloration
- A stressful body can result in different forms of anxiety, depression and anger. You, the sufferer, may complain of back-pains and headaches, sore joints and muscles. What is happening is that the condition called ‘stress’ is having severe knock-on effects on the entire body. One area that succumbs very readily to the assaults is the hair. It goes gray.
An explanation of the above goes something like this: stress causes the body to work overtime expending its nutrients that it needs for survival. The body by not getting the required nutrients causes your hair strands to suffer most in preference to other parts of the body and will begin to turn gray.
As to your head, you will notice the following processes taking place: at first, your hair will lack lustre; it will become limp and eventually it will turn gray. You must also remember however that, that is just one in a long list of things that ‘stress’ will affect adversely.
Long term stressors is not good for the body for it accelerates ageing. When the contributing factors are not removed, your immune system becomes weakened. Cells throughout the body also become weakened resulting in every tissue and organ ageing rapidly.
People in prolonged stressful occupations like that of President begin to age rapidly – an aging process that is seen over time in their faces, graying of hair and behavior.
What I would now like to do is offer some comments on the findings above, about whether there is a positive and causative link between going gray and stress.
That one causes the other is not fully accepted and in Obama’s case, the word ‘speculation’ was given at the idea that Obama’s work-load resulted in him going gray.
Researchers were very adamant that concerns that disappear after a short while would have little effects on the body but if the concerns are very prolonged and sustained, then there is that possibility of hair going gray due to stress.