Reverse Gray Hair

Short gray hair
Photo: Morakot Kawinchan/Shutterstock
Q: Is there any known natural remedy (such as vitamins) which can reverse gray hair?
 
A: In short, NO. There are dozens of products out there on late-night television infomercials and on websites that claim to have a “miracle cure” for gray hair.
 
There are even homeopathic sites that claim to have remedies to make your hair turn back to its natural color – one of the most commonly proposed remedies is molasses and bee pollen. There are people who claim that this has worked for them, but any evidence offered is purely anecdotal.
 
That being said, there are cases where the hair may return to its naturally pigmented state after going gray. The possibility of this occurring generally depends on the cause of the gray in the first place.
 
If an individual is genetically predisposed to go gray at a certain age, his/her hair follicles will begin to stop producing melanin in the hair. This is usually NOT a reversible proposition.
 
However, there are some circumstances and external factors that can affect the hair follicles and cause them to stop producing melanin in the hair. These include certain illnesses, some medications, and - in certain people – stress. In these cases, where the gray hair is a symptom of a condition that is treatable, removing the cause can result in the hair returning to normal.
 
In some cases, patients taking specific chemotherapy drugs experienced prematurely graying of the hair as a result of the drugs’ effect on the body. After the drugs were stopped, the hair began to return to its normal color. There are also cases of patients with thyroid conditions who experienced graying of the hair finding their hair returning to normal once their thyroid conditions were under control once again.
 
I would like to take a moment to caution our readers about the use of “vitamins” and “supplements” to treat things like gray hair and hair loss. Many of these products make promises that they simply cannot deliver. Some even claim to have FDA approval and offer this as evidence that the product works.
 
In fact, most of these claims of approval by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) are as sources of the vitamins they contain. The only thing that is signified by the status of FDA approval is that the product is considered not to be a danger to the public in its use and distribution. Very few products are “approved” because they are proven to do what they claim.
 
I realize that this is each person’s choice to try or use any product they feel comfortable with, but I also despise the notion that people could be misled into spending their hard-earned money on products that intentionally mislead the individual they are supposedly trying to serve.
 
©Hairfinder.com
 
See also:
 
Going gray
 
How and why hair turns gray
 
Can gray hair be reversed or slowed down without coloring?
 
My hair color is going darker instead of gray. Why is this happening?
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