We have all heard the myth that if you pull out grey hairs, even more will grow – up to seven for each and every one. Is that really true? Of course it’s not!
It happens to everyone sooner or later – you look in the mirror and there they are, the merciless reflection of your first grey hairs. If you are blonde, they are much less noticeable and far easier hidden, but it’s a shock for everyone anyway. What should we do? Our first instinct would be to pull out grey hairs as soon as we find them, but we often hesitate because of an old wives’ tale that even more grey hair will grow if we do.
Well you can relax: this superstition is just that and pulling out grey hairs will not trigger the growth of others. The reason is simple: a hair root contains just one hair and that will always be the same, so the most that can regrow there is just one hair. If you pull out grey hairs, however, you might cause a minor trauma that can lead to two things. The first is that more sebum will be produced and the hair will grow thinner. The second? Even worse! The trauma will no longer allow the same hair to grow. So pulling out grey hairs is never a good idea.
And when it comes to grey hair, there are another couple of myths to debunk… Stress will not turn hair grey, but can do something much worse… It can cause hair to fall out! And lifestyle doesn’t matter much when it comes to your first grey hairs, but genetics does: look at your parents and your grandfathers to get an idea of when you will have grey hairs and will be able to start plucking them out!