The Science behind White hair

We start our life's journey with not even a single strand of hair, Then slowly strands of hair start to appear, And by the time we pass infancy, Our heads are completely covered with hair and then moving on to adolescence, We still are brimming with happiness because of that long, lustrous black hair and then comes adulthood, The time when that lustrous black hair turns white. But why does it happen ?

Hair gets its natural color black from a pigment called MELANIN. The formation of melanin begins before birth, The natural color of our hair depends on the distribution, Type, amount of Melanin in the middle layer of the hair shaft. Hair only has 2 colors, Light and dark. They blend together in different amounts to produce different colors of hair.

Melanin is made up of special cells called MELANOCYTES. They position themselves at each opening of a hair follicle. As hair is being formed, Melanocytes inject melanin into the hair cells containing Keratin. Keratin is the pigment that helps our nails, Hair and skin to grow. Throughout, The Melanocytes inject melanin into hair's keratin giving it a colorful hue.

With age comes a reduction of Melanin and hair turns grey and eventually White.

Check out my older post '' science behind aging '' and follow me on Bio geek !

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