If you pull out one grey hair, 10 will grow back? Should you pull it out? The answer is…

"If you pull out one grey hair, 10 will grow back?"

There is a rumor that white hair cannot be pulled out, because if you pull it out, 10 more hairs will grow. Is this true?

Rumor analysis: This statement is incorrect.

I believe someone around you has said this: Don’t pull out white hair, the more you pull, the more hair you will have. How many more hairs will you have? Some say that pulling out one hair will grow 3 hairs, and the more exaggerated statement is that pulling out one hair will grow 10 hairs. Is this really the case? Of course not! If this is true, dermatologists will probably wake up laughing in their dreams, because people with hair loss will be saved! Just imagine, 1 becomes 10, 10 becomes 100... If you keep pulling, there will be more and more hairs, and hair loss will no longer be a medical problem that bothers us. Curious readers may still have many doubts that have not been figured out, such as why white hair cannot be completely pulled out, how white hair is formed, and how to deal with white hair. Today is National Hair Care Day, let’s talk about the white hair that bothers everyone.

Why can’t we completely remove all the white hair?

Some people mistakenly think that the problem with pulling out white hair is that it grows back again. In fact, it is not. If you don't pull out the white hair, new white hair will often grow out continuously. Why is this so? A very common reason is that you are old. It's not that you have reached old age, but that you are just older than before. Let's look at a few sets of data:

White people generally start to get gray hair around the age of 35, Asians generally start to get gray hair in their 30s to 40s, and black people start to get gray hair around the age of 45.

In addition, half of the people will have a lot of gray hair by the time they are 50 years old.

Therefore, if the number of white hairs gradually grows after the age of 30, it is generally a natural phenomenon as mentioned above, and it is not surprising. This is the same reason why our skin is no longer tender, fine lines appear around the eyes, and spots appear on the cheekbones. The mechanism of this kind of hair turning white is that the melanocytes in the hair follicles are not active enough to produce normal melanin, so the hair that grows out is no longer black. If you look closely, some hair is gray and some is white. Gray hair has reduced pigmentation, and white hair has no pigmentation at all.

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Moreover, if someone in the family has similar white hair, then through inheritance, it will also affect the offspring to a certain extent. In other words, this situation of insufficient melanocyte activity has a certain genetic tendency. In addition, a small number of people will have premature gray hair. The definition of Asians is to have more than 5 white hairs before the age of 25, which is not uncommon. If this premature graying of hair is not large-scale and does not continue to worsen, there is usually no need to worry too much. Why does premature graying of hair occur? Scholars speculate that it may be related to some factors, such as:

Environmental factors: UV exposure from sunlight

Personal behavior: smoking, the effects of certain drugs

Nutritional factors: trace element deficiency, nutrient deficiency

Disease factors: vitiligo, thyroid disease

Readers who have premature gray hair can compare and contrast. If the premature gray hair is widespread or even getting worse, you can seek medical attention in time and ask a dermatologist to assist in the evaluation.

Should I pluck my white hair or not?

Although pulling out white hair will not make more white hair grow, it is still a question whether to pull out or not. From a medical point of view, you can pull out the white hair, but there are risks. The reason why you can pull out is that if you pull out one hair, there will be one less hair. If the hair follicle is damaged, the corresponding hair follicle will not be able to continue to produce white hair. But the risk to be noted is that after the hair follicle is damaged, there is a certain probability of infection. For example, bacteria take advantage of the situation and cause bacterial folliculitis on the scalp, which manifests as small white or red particles and pustules in the center of the hair follicle. If there are a lot of white hairs, the operation is also troublesome, and the pain of pulling out the hair and the probability of infection will be superimposed. Therefore, whether to pull out or not is not a factual judgment, but a value judgment. There is no standard answer and you have to weigh it yourself. So, if you don't pull out, are there any other ways? Answer: There are many ways. Method 1: Leave it alone. Seriously speaking, this is indeed a way. An objective fact we need to know is that no one is perfect, and the same is true for skin. Hair will turn white, skin will become rough, wrinkles will increase... If you can adapt to the changes of nature, it is not a bad idea (and it will save money and worry). Method 2: Cut it off at the root. That is, cut off the white hair at the root of the hair. One advantage of doing this is that it does not damage the hair follicles and there is no need to worry about folliculitis; but there is also a disadvantage, that is, after a while, the white hair will appear again - specifically, it will grow about 1.3 cm in 1 month. Method 3: Dyeing hair. Dyeing hair is a good way to quickly improve your appearance. This is also a solution recommended by doctors and is suitable for middle-aged and elderly people with a lot of white hair. What about drug treatment? Unfortunately, there is currently no definite and effective drug that can turn white hair black.

What should I do if I don’t want to have gray hair?

Unfortunately, there is no good way to prevent it. Scientists have done experiments on mice and found that there are 3 genes that can help maintain the number of melanocytes. By manipulating these genes, they successfully prevented or reduced the gray hair of mice. However, there are currently no products based on this research. Some studies have shown that smoking is more likely to cause gray hair. Specifically, the data is like this - among smokers, the probability of having gray hair before the age of 30 is 2.5 times that of non-smokers. So if you don't want to have gray hair, for long-term smokers, you can try to quit smoking.

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If you sleep well and live happily every day, will you have fewer white hairs? The answer is "uncertain", because there is no exact relationship between stress, emotional problems and white hair. Most white hair and stress are two different things. It can be seen that it is mostly futile to avoid white hair. Similarly, Diana Jewell, author of "Going Gray, Looking Great", also admitted that "the statement that gray hair will make you old is far from realistic. If you were young, energetic and healthy before you had gray hair, you will still be so after you have gray hair. It all depends on your attitude towards it... If you think it is just another color, you won't be afraid of graying." "Accept what we can't change", this sentence is also suitable for those of us with gray hair.

Looking in the mirror of rumors

Rumors like "Pulling out one white hair will cause 10 to grow" are actually our anxiety about aging. In the face of aging, what we can do is to accept the arrival of the first white hair with a positive attitude, and welcome the arrival of more white hair with a more tolerant attitude.

Author | Tang Jiaoqing, attending physician of dermatology, doctor of medicine, popular science author

Review | Feng Jun, deputy chief physician of the Dermatology Department of Sinopharm Tongmei General Hospital