You should never pull out grey hairs and that's not because more greys will grow in its place.
If it was that easy to grow an abundance of new hair strands after plucking one out - regardless of their colour - it would be such a cost-effective way to solve hair loss.
Grey hairs are a natural part of aging and we’re all bound to see more of them as time ticks on. But why does this happen, you ask?
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The number of melanin granules gradually begin to decrease naturally as we get older.
Melanin is the pigment that provides colour to the skin and our hair. Once melanocytes, the cells that produce melanin, begin to slow down and produce less pigment, we lose the colour in our hair.
The ‘grey’ tone is due to the percentage of your natural hair colour left, causing many different shades of grey, silver and eventually white, at which point the hair doesn’t have any melanin left at all.
The time our hair starts to turn grey depends on genetics and stress can amplify the greying process but stress does not cause individual strands hair to turn grey, according to Harvard University, stress can cause hair to shed three times faster than normal and for middle-aged people, when the hair grows back might be grey, speeding up the process because your hair is falling out at a quicker rate.
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Hair experts are now warning people against reaching for the tweezers as soon as they spot a grey, no matter how tempting it may be. Some rascals might even opt to use their bare fingers.
With either method you could be doing real damage to your hair follicle by doing so.
Michael Van Clarke, a London-based hairstylist and founder of 3''' More Inches, explained how hair growth cycles can be affected when a strand of hair is plucked from the head.
“The plucked hair whose life you shortened will rest and start its next growth cycle after about three months,” the hairstylist told Huffington Post about what really happens when you pluck a grey hair.
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“At each cycle after about age 20, the hair grows back a little thinner and stays around for a slightly shorter time. Cycles on the head average five years and there are a limited number of growth cycles,” he explained.
The damage caused by plucking out hair can be difficult to correct.
Stylist Jennifer Korab warned: “By plucking the hair, you may traumatise the hair follicle, which can lead to infection or even bald patch.
“You may be doing more harm than good.”
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More hairs aren’t appearing because you plucked one, they’re showing up because time is passing. “ If you make plucking a habit when less than 1% of the head is grey, you’ll have less hair to work with in a few years’ time, when 10% of the hairs are grey,” Van Clarke explained.
So, the next time you’re doing your hair and you spot a pesky grey strand, stay away from the tweezers. At the end of the day, grey hairs are just a natural sign of ageing and we should all try to embrace it!
Gregory Robinson