The appearance of gray hair is a natural thing to happen, starting from around the age of 35+ or so. As you age and age, your body makes less melanin, and you tend to see gray hair appearing. But wait, what do you mean by “You’re having grey hair in your 20s?!”.
Haha, just kidding. Let me tell you that having grey hair in your 20s is not really a huge thing these days. Why, you ask? Let’s look into the multiple reasons that cause it, and you will then have the answer to your question.
Reasons What Causes Grey Hair In Your 20s
Gray hair concerns are spreading widely daily, with more and more humans discovering them and fretting over them. I mean, come on! Worrying about them after getting them is next to useless. Instead, what we can try to do is to get to know the reasons why it is happening and try to eradicate them.
Having gray hair has multiple reasons. Each differs from person to person, but it can be considered when evaluating why you have gray hair even when you did not reach the age for it!
Causes for Premature Graying
Let us look into a few well-known common reasons why we get those gray hair.
- Genetics: Genetics contributes to the most common factor for the early graying of your hair. If your parents or grandparents had premature graying, there is a high chance that you might, too. We cannot control genetics and alter its effects, but this point can reassure us that our lifestyle is not unhealthy.
- Daily Lifestyle: Your daily lifestyle can also contribute to premature graying. This means to have a lifestyle that incorporates unhealthy living, which may then give rise to the appearance of gray hair for you. A diet lacking vitamins and minerals like vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, etc., can lead to premature graying. Smoking is the second thing from the lifestyle that can be included and holds a major value here. The intake of toxins from cigarettes causes damage to your hair follicles, which then leads to an increase in gray hair.
- Stress: Stress is one of the reasons why we get gray hair. These days, stress is not just for people aged 40+ or 45+; it is common in adults in their 20s, too. Reasons for stress can be multiple, like education, job, life, and so on.
- Environmental Factors: Pollution in today’s world is nowhere less. The harmful chemicals contained in it lead to an increase in your body’s oxidative stress, which accelerates the process of aging, meaning the appearance of grey hair.
- An imbalance in the hormones: As we all know, our body hormones play a vital role in skin and hair health. People suffering from PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), thyroid, internal disorders, etc, have a hormonal imbalance that may lead to gray hair.
Things To Do To Avoid Premature Aging
As we just saw the reasons that cause premature graying or the appearance of grey hair for you, we can similarly conclude on what to avoid or take precautions to avoid them. While we cannot do anything about genetics, let’s look into the other precautions we can take:
- Have a healthy and balanced diet. This is good not only for avoiding gray hair but also for having a healthy body.
- Try to avoid taking stress of any kind. Yes, in this world, there are many things we worry about. But did worrying solve our problems? No, it gave you those problems with gray hair to worry more! So, always try to relax and not stress anything much.
- Pollution and environmental damage were the next cause that we saw. Avoid exposing your hair to pollution, harmful chemicals, or even UV radiation, as this can help you reduce premature graying.
- Take good care of your hair by avoiding chemical treatments, reducing the use of styling heat tools, using sulfate-free shampoos and conditioners, etc.
How to Avoid the Gray Hair?
There are many ways you can try to avoid the gray hair. Let’s look into some of them below.
External Treatment of Your Hair
- Using hair masks that do not contain chemicals would be a good start.
- Do not use a lot of heat hair styling tools.
- Trim your hair regularly to keep it healthy.
- Use hair products that are gentle for your hair.
Natural Remedies
There are a few natural remedies that you may want to consider to avoid early graying.
- Have an intake of fruits that are rich in Vitamin C and antioxidants.
- Curry leaves are really good for your hair health, be it hair loss or premature aging.
- Biotin can help you slow down the graying. Taking supplements for this can help you avoid gray hair.
Frequently Asked Questions
With you trying to search for why you have gray hair in your 20s, you may also have the following questions:
What are some myths about gray hair?
There are a few myths we have related to gray hair. To start with, many people believe that you will only get your hair to start graying once you reach the age of 40. But no, this is absolutely not true at all!
Another myth that scares people from not coloring their hair is that dyeing your hair leads to more gray hair. Like no, hair coloring has nothing to do with premature aging! Another very common myth is that – Plucking gray hair leads to more. How is it possible when the root of that hair can only have one hair to grow back? So, no. Plucking gray hair only gets back that same hair to grow; that is it.
Is it normal to have gray hair in your 20s?
Yes, in this generation specifically, it is quite normal to have gray hair in your 20s. As we discussed in the first half of this report, those causes could be a reason as to why you may have premature graying.
Can I pluck my gray hair? Would it be bad for my hair?
Would plucking be bad for your hair? Absolutely not! It would be like doing more good than harm to your hair. Plucking frequently may destroy the hair follicles and damage them to an extent that they may not be able to grow back further!
Would shampooing once a week reduce my chance of having early gray hair?
There is no such authentic claim on this, but you must try to shampoo your hair less to avoid unnatural ingredients and give it minimal chemical exposure. This will help you avoid an early appearance of gray hair.
Closing Statement
Your hair makes you look so good; treat it with the same love it gives you, not by trying to avoid and suppress the gray hair by using chemicals and unhealthy things on it, but rather, choosing to accept them and embrace them.
You may have them dyed or left the same way; just remember to understand why you are getting them; this will keep you at ease!
