Can a sudden shock turn hair white overnight?

[Nursefoxfire]

just having an argument...umm...heated discussion with my husband. He said that shock and stress can turn hair white, I claim that it has more to do with heredity.

Can anyone explain in layman's terms how hair turns white? And whether shock can turn a person's hair white instantly (I'm thinking of Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, I think after his deranged wife-in-the-attic attempted to kill him his hair turned white over night)?

[Soapy Sam]

The version I heard is that in someone who is already graying, a severe shock can cause hair to fall out over a matter of days. This simply makes already gray / white hairs far more obvious.
No idea if there's any truth in this.
Prolonged stress (over months) certainly can cause signs of premature aging, one of which is loss of hair pigment, especially if it's nutrition related.

[Modified]

The version I heard is that in someone who is already graying, a severe shock can cause hair to fall out over a matter of days. This simply makes already gray / white hairs far more obvious.

I have also heard that the gray hair may stay while the rest falls out. Makes sense to me, because my gray hairs are much thicker and wavier than the rest, so besides the color there is some structural difference.

[Yuri Nalyssus]

just having an argument...umm...heated discussion with my husband. He said that shock and stress can turn hair white, I claim that it has more to do with heredity.

Can anyone explain in layman's terms how hair turns white? And whether shock can turn a person's hair white instantly (I'm thinking of Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, I think after his deranged wife-in-the-attic attempted to kill him his hair turned white over night)?
Hair is non-living and cannot change colour naturally. So (short of using bleach) hair that is already grown cannot turn white overnight or indeed at all.

When hair does turn white naturally the pigment cells in the hair follicle that colour the growing hair have been switched off for some reason (disease, injury, old age for example) and the hair that grows from that time is white. The overall colour of the hair will only change as fast as the hair grows.

Yuri

[Nursefoxfire]

Thanks Yuri! That was very understandable!

[Mojo]

The version I heard is that in someone who is already graying, a severe shock can cause hair to fall out over a matter of days. This simply makes already gray / white hairs far more obvious.


Someone I know developed alopecia in patches on his head while going through a divorce. His hair still looked dark generally, although on close inspection there was some grey in it. Where he had alopecia it seemed to be the dark hairs that had fallen out, so it showed up as white patches. They were noticeable more because of the apparent colour change than because the hair was thinner.

If this had happened over the whole of his head it would probably have looked very much as if he had suddenly gone white.

[alfaniner]

Well, if it happened to Gilligan, it must be true!

[Yuri Nalyssus]

just having an argument...umm...heated discussion with my husband. He said that shock and stress can turn hair white, I claim that it has more to do with heredity.
There's a relevant and very interesting piece in Journal of the Royal Society of medicine about whether this is a myth or not - http://jrsm.rsmjournals.com/cgi/content/full/101/12/574

Thanks to Mike Heap of the Association for Sceptical Enquiry (ASKE) for that one.

Yuri

[Rolfe]

Secondly, alopecia totalis selectively affecting the pigmented hair in an individual in whom the hair was part white and partially pigmented.


I always thought it was that. Possibly (speculating here) the white hairs are in the earlier part of the hair growth cycle (because the hair whitening is of relatively recent onset) and less easily triggered into catagen arrest.

The "not getting access to a temporary hair dye" is an interesting theory too though. I was thinking that even a dye would have to grow out, but if it was something that washed out and had to be re-applied frequently, then yes.

Rolfe.

[mhaze]

just having an argument...umm...heated discussion with my husband. He said that shock and stress can turn hair white, I claim that it has more to do with heredity.

Can anyone explain in layman's terms how hair turns white? And whether shock can turn a person's hair white instantly (I'm thinking of Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, I think after his deranged wife-in-the-attic attempted to kill him his hair turned white over night)?I once saw a co worker with dark hair come in with white hair.

Pure white, no salt and pepper. His hair looked like someone really old but this guy was in his 30s.

Can't prove he wasn't using some kind of dye previously though.

[BenBurch]

Anecdotal; My grandfather was in the Kaiser's army in late 1917 and was saved from the horrible battles of WW-1 by getting an infection. Back then, the only way to combat a really bad infection was to surgically excise the tissue, and finally he had several infected ribs and a whole lot of tissue removed from his side and he was in the hospital for 9 months.

While he was there, his hair turned snow-white and stayed that way his whole life.

[Professor Yaffle]

A related question: I keep hearing that once a particular hair follicle has lost its pigment, the hair will always be white. I know for a fact that this is not the case, as I have pulled out hairs that are brown at the end, white for most of the length and brown again towards the root - though there seems to be less pigment than originally.

What is the story with this?

[Rocko]

A related question: I keep hearing that once a particular hair follicle has lost its pigment, the hair will always be white. I know for a fact that this is not the case, as I have pulled out hairs that are brown at the end, white for most of the length and brown again towards the root - though there seems to be less pigment than originally.

What is the story with this?

I've noticed a couple of those in my head as well. I always assumed the follicle is stuttering with the pigmentation before it finally gives out for good. Like a car just about to run out of fuel.

[Uncayimmy]

From The Straight Dope:
Can Hair Turn White Overnight (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/538/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright)

The problem with sudden whitening, of course, is that hair is dead tissue. So you'd think it would be incapable of becoming entirely white until it grows out from the roots, a process that takes weeks.

Still, as you say, there does seem to be one way that hair can appear to turn gray in a very short period of time. What happens is that a condition called "diffuse alopecia areata" may occur in somebody with a mix of normal and gray hairs.

[fuelair]

If the sudden shock is being sprayed with really cold white paint, I suspect it is true. Otherwise, not so much.

[athon]

To give a slightly more detailed and accurate explanation, as hair ages to doesn't produce an enzyme called 'catalase' as efficiently as it used to. The body naturally produces hydrogen peroxide as a biproduct of a number of cellular reactions. This is the same sort of peroxide you use to bleach your hair. While it would normally be broken down into water and oxygen by catalase, in grey hair it destroys a number of proteins (including the pigments) and weakens the strand.

Is it possible for shock to produce grey hair? I don't know of any evidence that any of the biochemistry associated with stress or a shock can also turn off catalase production or increase hydrogen peroxide production, however I'm also not opposed to the possibility. However, as others have said, there's no way for the an existing strand to go white all at once.

Athon

[Yuri Nalyssus]

To give a slightly more detailed and accurate explanation, as hair ages to doesn't produce an enzyme called 'catalase' as efficiently as it used to. The body naturally produces hydrogen peroxide as a biproduct of a number of cellular reactions. This is the same sort of peroxide you use to bleach your hair. While it would normally be broken down into water and oxygen by catalase, in grey hair it destroys a number of proteins (including the pigments) and weakens the strand.

Is it possible for shock to produce grey hair? I don't know of any evidence that any of the biochemistry associated with stress or a shock can also turn off catalase production or increase hydrogen peroxide production, however I'm also not opposed to the possibility. However, as others have said, there's no way for the an existing strand to go white all at once.

Athon
Do you have a reference for this? I hadn't realised the body produced sufficient H2O2 to bleach hair.

Yuri

[paximperium]

Do you have a reference for this? I hadn't realised the body produced sufficient H2O2 to bleach hair.

Yuri
I believe that it is a recent study. I heard it on NPR science Friday. This adds one new process to aging and I believe the big breakthrough it the discovery of one of the mechanisms where this occurs.

Try looking up one of the NPR Science Friday episodes...I believe in was 4 weeks ago.

[Yuri Nalyssus]

I believe that it is a recent study. I heard it on NPR science Friday. This adds one new process to aging and I believe the big breakthrough it the discovery of one of the mechanisms where this occurs.

Try looking up one of the NPR Science Friday episodes...I believe in was 4 weeks ago.
Coo, that took me ages, but I now know tons more about cornstarch and volcanoes and I am depressed to learn that my brain bears more than a passing resemblance to that of a 3 million year old fish :(. Oh, and by the way, Alaska is disappearing.

Here's the link - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101242469&ft=2&f=510221

(Haven't read/listened to it myself yet)

Yuri

[athon]

Glad you found a link. I've got another link at work, to the actual paper I think, so if you need more I'll see if I can find it.

I agree that it surprised me that cells could produce enough peroxide to bleach the pigments. My first question was if it could produce that much, why doesn't it kill the cell?

Athon

[Skeptiquette]

I actually came across some reference to graying hair and oxidative stress in my prior reading. So I did a quick search and the first article that came up was:

Senile hair graying: H2O2-mediated oxidative stress affects human hair color by blunting methionine sulfoxide repair.
FASEB J. 2009 Feb 23. [Epub ahead of print]
Wood JM, Decker H, Hartmann H, Chavan B, Rokos H, Spencer JD, Hasse S, Thornton MJ, Shalbaf M, Paus R, Schallreuter KU.

I think you are on the right track with correlating increased H2O2 levels in the hair follicle with graying, but not due to bleaching.

The increasing levels of H2O2, actually alter proteins involved in melanogenisis due to oxidation of certain met residues. I skimmed the article and here is an excerpt from figure 7.:

H2O2 prevents Met-S=O repair in tyrosinase. In the brown hair follicle, H2O2 is generated in the micromolar range, which can activate transcription of many proteins, including catalase, tyrosinase, MSRA, and MSRB. Moreover, this ROS promotes enzyme activities in a dose-dependent manner (36, 58–60). In the presence of millimolar H2O2 concentrations, oxidation of Met, Cys, Trp, and Sec residues in protein sequences are taking place, consequently altering the tertiary structures (26, 27). These structural changes often lead to deactivation of the affected protein/enzyme. This finding has been documented for catalase, MSRA, and MSRB (23, 37, 58, 61). Low catalase levels and activities have been documented in the gray hair follicle, which in turn leads to increased H2O2 levels (43). Here, we provide evidence that tyrosinase activity is interrupted due to oxidation of Met 374 in the enzyme active site by this ROS. The resulting Met-S=O cannot be repaired, because MSRA and MSRB are also deactivated by H2O2, as evidenced by low enzyme activities in gray hair follicle extracts, or they can originate from low protein levels. The same scenario applies for catalase. Taken together, a shift in the H2O2 redox balance can significantly alter melanogenesis in the human hair follicle.

MSRA and MSRB = Methionine sulfoxide reductases A and B, respectively.

As far as the OP's question, I don't know. But extreme stress is related to increased cellular oxidative stress. So, it seems plausible that extreme stress could functionally alter the melanogenisis resulting in gray hair.

skeptiquette:)

[Yuri Nalyssus]

I think you are on the right track with correlating increased H2O2 levels in the hair follicle with graying, but not due to bleaching.

The increasing levels of H2O2, actually alter proteins involved in melanogenisis due to oxidation of certain met residues.
Happier now, that makes far more sense - H2O2 impairing melanogenesis. Bleaching is ridiculous :blush:. [Must remember to read references before posting them!].

Re-grounding to the OP though; regardless of the mechanism of hair turning white there is no way that already pigmented hair could do so overnight by any natural process.

Yuri

[athon]

I actually came across some reference to graying hair and oxidative stress in my prior reading. So I did a quick search and the first article that came up was:

Senile hair graying: H2O2-mediated oxidative stress affects human hair color by blunting methionine sulfoxide repair.
FASEB J. 2009 Feb 23. [Epub ahead of print]
Wood JM, Decker H, Hartmann H, Chavan B, Rokos H, Spencer JD, Hasse S, Thornton MJ, Shalbaf M, Paus R, Schallreuter KU.

I think you are on the right track with correlating increased H2O2 levels in the hair follicle with graying, but not due to bleaching.

The increasing levels of H2O2, actually alter proteins involved in melanogenisis due to oxidation of certain met residues. I skimmed the article and here is an excerpt from figure 7.:



MSRA and MSRB = Methionine sulfoxide reductases A and B, respectively.

As far as the OP's question, I don't know. But extreme stress is related to increased cellular oxidative stress. So, it seems plausible that extreme stress could functionally alter the melanogenisis resulting in gray hair.

skeptiquette:)

Good stuff. Thanks Skeptiquette. It's a good day when I'm corrected with good information.

Cheers muchly,

Athon

[Skeptiquette]

I agree with both Yuri and Athon that although psychological stress could conceivably induce oxidative stress [1], resulting in increased H2O2 production, which at millimolar concentrations in the hair follicle can impair melanogenesis, the sudden(overnight)change of hair color seems implausible.

However, a relatively short transformation from normal hair color to gray at an earlier than expected (young age), seems entirely plausible. Take for example, the anecdote offered earlier about the soldier in WWI. It could be hypothesized that the extreme psychological stress of war induced an elevated level of cellular oxidative stress resulting in distruption of melanogenesis (other elements of war including but not limited to: diet, infection, toxic exposures, etc. could also contribute significantly to oxidant load. Actually, in this particular case, infection and surgery seem more like prime candidates for prooxidant conditions than psychological stress, I would say a combination of factors is likely.)

It seems like graying associated with ageing would be more likely due to a decreased capacity to detoxify normal prooxidant loads, rather than a increased oxidant load overwhelming the normal antioxidant system.[2]

In either case I was thinking that this would be an absolutely prime target for PNC enzyme therapy[3]. Joobz, would be able to offer plenty of insight into this. It seems as though it would be feasible to use a targeted (to hair follicle specific Cellular Adhesion Molecules CAM's) polymer nanocarrier to transport catalase to the H202 overwhelmed hair follicle. Resulting in a substantial decrease (from millimolar back to micromolar, well that would be the goal) in H2O2 concentration, thus allowing the normal progression of melanogenesis and reversion from gray to normal hair color.

Joobz, would this be feasible? Do you know of anyone working on any project like this?

This could be a novel approach to treating graying hair in the ageing population!


1. Sahin E, Gümüşlü S. Stress-dependent induction of protein oxidation, lipid peroxidation and anti-oxidants in peripheral tissues of rats: comparison of three stress models (immobilization, cold and immobilization-cold). Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2007 May-Jun;34(5-6):425-31

Abstract:

1. It is known that stress causes disruption of homeostasis and an imbalanced anti-oxidant status in several organs. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of three stress models on protein oxidation, lipid peroxidation and anti-oxidant enzyme activities in the liver, kidney and heart, and to investigate the relationship between corticosterone and some oxidative stress parameters. In addition, we investigated the most effective stress model for each parameter in each tissue. 2. Thirty-six male Wistar rats (aged 3 months old, weighing 220 +/- 20 g) were divided randomly into four groups of nine rats each: control (C), immobilization stress (IS), cold stress (CS), and immobilization-cold stress (ICS). 3. Results showed that corticosterone levels were increased in all stress groups. Levels of protein carbonyl (PC), conjugated dienes (CD) and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) were increased, whereas reduced glutathione (GSH) levels were decreased in all tissues of all stress groups. Copper, zinc-superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD) activities were increased in the liver and kidney of all stress groups, but were decreased in heart of the IS and CS groups. Catalase (CAT) activities were increased in liver of the CS group and in kidney and heart of all stress groups, but were decreased in liver of the IS and ICS groups. Selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase (Se-GSH-Px) activities were increased in liver of the CS and ICS groups and in heart of all stress groups, but were decreased in kidney of the IS group. Also, Se-GSH-Px activity levels remained unchanged in liver of the IS group and in kidney of the CS and ICS groups. The increased CAT activity and unchanged Se-GSH-Px activity observed in kidney suggest that H2O2 may be primarily scavenged by CAT. 4. The strong correlations between corticosterone and oxidative damage markers (e.g. protein oxidation, lipid peroxidation and GSH levels) suggest a relationship between these parameters. Liver was affected most by the CS model, whereas kidney and heart were affected most by ICS model. Stress-induced changes in the activities of anti-oxidant enzymes and GSH levels were found to be tissue- and enzyme-specific. In conclusion, results of the present study suggest that each stress model affects the different organ tissues in different ways

2. Kermici M, Pruche F, Roguet R, Prunieras M. Evidence for an age-correlated change in glutathione metabolism enzyme activities in human hair follicle. Mech Ageing Dev. 1990 Mar 31;53(1):73-84

Abstract:

In this investigation, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), glutathione reductase (GSSG-RD), glutathione-S-transferase (GSH-S-T), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GT) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) were measured in human hair follicle obtained by plucking as source of keratinized cells. This non-invasive method was used on 27 men and women volunteers ranging from 19 to 102 years. Our results show that GSSG-RD, GSH-S-T, gamma-GT and G6PDH activities decrease as a function of age, whereas GSH-PX activity does not vary. We discriminated 2 groups: a first one from 19 to 60 years with a large dispersion of the enzymatic activities and a second one corresponding to elderly people (up to 70) with a smaller dispersion of the values. This study suggests the keratinocytes possess an age-correlated enzymatic detoxification response potential.

3. Dziubla TD, Shuvaev VV, Hong NK, Hawkins BJ, Madesh M, Takano H, Simone E, Nakada MT, Fisher A, Albelda SM, Muzykantov VR. Endothelial targeting of semi-permeable polymer nanocarriers for enzyme therapies. Biomaterials. 2008 Jan;29(2):215-27. Epub 2007 Oct 24

Does this look familiar to any users here?;)

Abstract:

The medical utility of proteins, e.g. therapeutic enzymes, is greatly restricted by their labile nature and inadequate delivery. Most therapeutic enzymes do not accumulate in their targets and are inactivated by proteases. Targeting of enzymes encapsulated into substrate-permeable polymer nano-carriers (PNC) impermeable for proteases might overcome these limitations. To test this hypothesis, we designed endothelial targeted PNC loaded with catalase, an H(2)O(2)-detoxifying enzyme, and tested if this approach protects against vascular oxidative stress, a pathological process implicated in ischemia-reperfusion and other disease conditions. Encapsulation of catalase (MW 247 kD), peroxidase (MW 42 kD) and xanthine oxidase (XO, MW 300 kD) into approximately 300 nm diameter PNC composed of co-polymers of polyethylene glycol and poly-lactic/poly-glycolic acid (PEG-PLGA) was in the range approximately 10% for all enzymes. PNC/catalase and PNC/peroxidase were protected from external proteolysis and exerted enzymatic activity on their PNC diffusible substrates, H(2)O(2) and ortho-phenylendiamine, whereas activity of encapsulated XO was negligible due to polymer impermeability to the substrate. PNC targeted to platelet-endothelial cell (EC) adhesion molecule-1 delivered active encapsulated catalase to ECs and protected the endothelium against oxidative stress in cell culture and animal studies. Vascular targeting of PNC-loaded detoxifying enzymes may find wide medical applications including management of oxidative stress and other toxicities

Fulltext: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2132444&blobtype=pdf

[bonavada]

My grandad was a pipe smoker. He'd smoke in bed and tap the pipe out in a nearby ashtray. The story goes he awoke one night to find the mattress burning. It was an old horsehair type thing. He saw a large red glowing hole by his side. Apparently, my old nan used to say, he jumped up, took the stairs in three steps filled a bucket of water and put it out.

My nan used to say his hair turned white overnight, although my dad reckoned it took a few weeks. He quickly went bald shortly after as well.

BV

[joobz]

In either case I was thinking that this would be an absolutely prime target for PNC enzyme therapy[3]. Joobz, would be able to offer plenty of insight into this. It seems as though it would be feasible to use a targeted (to hair follicle specific Cellular Adhesion Molecules CAM's) polymer nanocarrier to transport catalase to the H202 overwhelmed hair follicle. Resulting in a substantial decrease (from millimolar back to micromolar, well that would be the goal) in H2O2 concentration, thus allowing the normal progression of melanogenesis and reversion from gray to normal hair color.
I think I.v. vascular immunotargeting would be overkill for grey hair. Also, I don't think the repeat injections (with high immunogenic probability) would be useful for long term use. However, A topical carrier that can penetrate the follicle could work. There's been studies about certain excipients that can aide drug delivery through the transfollicular pathway.

Joobz, would this be feasible? Do you know of anyone working on any project like this?

Seriously, this is a very interesting concept, and one that's fairly doable. Catalase is an extremely cheap protein and could possibly be delivered this way. I don't know anyone doing it, but I can do some looking into it. It's a good idea.


This could be a novel approach to treating graying hair in the ageing population!
Well, considering how cheap hair dye is, it still may be an overkill approach. but does have the advantage of no longer having "exposed roots". So, perhaps that's enough to get the vanity crowd on board.

3. Dziubla TD, Shuvaev VV, Hong NK, Hawkins BJ, Madesh M, Takano H, Simone E, Nakada MT, Fisher A, Albelda SM, Muzykantov VR. Endothelial targeting of semi-permeable polymer nanocarriers for enzyme therapies. Biomaterials. 2008 Jan;29(2):215-27. Epub 2007 Oct 24

Does this look familiar to any users here?;)

I have no clue what you're talking about.:D:o