by fraqed on 6/24/21, 10:01 AM with 132 comments
by twodave on 6/24/21, 12:45 PM
- bought a house (in 2007, yeesh)
- got married
- started my first job (which at the time felt like drinking out of a fire hose)
Shortly after, my wife and I went through the stress of trying and failing to get pregnant. Then infertility treatments for several months. Then my wife had surgery. Infertility treatments no longer an option, we turned to adoption. 6 weeks later (seriously), we brought home our first child.
After that, it was like kids fell into our laps every couple of years. After the second child, I struggled with a pretty severe addiction that nearly claimed my marriage. Since then we've adopted two more. We now have kids aged 12, 9, 6 and 4.
Has it been all stress all the time? Not at all. I feel incredibly blessed to be living this life. But the hair (mostly on the sides) hasn't gone back to its normal color either, so I guess either it's genetic or there's an undercurrent of stress I've just become accustomed to.
Edit: formatting
by junon on 6/24/21, 11:05 AM
I woke up one day and seemingly overnight my beard had a grey patch - almost white, in fact. It fell out in the week after.
Almost a year and a half later, after leaving that job, I took the pandemic to really focus on my stress levels and be happier (I am). The grey patch is starting to fade away and some color is beginning to return. Certainly not the stark white that was there before, and definitely not grey either.
Idk if I believe it, maybe something else was happening. But it sure seemed stress related at the time.
EDIT: I'm < 30 and my family doesn't have a history of grey hair - quite the opposite. Forgot to mention this
by kowlo on 6/24/21, 11:16 AM
Work overloaded me and caused so much stress that I had stress-induced alopecia. My beard fell out in patches, and I had random patches of hair fall out on the back of my head, almost like perfect circles. Besides that, I couldn't really enjoy myself anymore, and I would often spend my non-work time vegetating.
Then there's the teeth grinding and all the damage that comes with that.
The hair came back, but the damage done to my teeth is not reversible.
These are just the physical damages, the damages to mental health are either still on the mend or scarred.
by thunderbong on 6/24/21, 11:22 AM
>> Reducing stress in your life is a good goal, but it won't necessarily turn your hair to a normal color.
>> "Based on our mathematical modeling, we think hair needs to reach a threshold before it turns gray," Picard says. "In middle age, when the hair is near that threshold because of biological age and other factors, stress will push it over the threshold and it transitions to gray.
>> "But we don't think that reducing stress in a 70-year-old who's been gray for years will darken their hair or increasing stress in a 10-year-old will be enough to tip their hair over the gray threshold."
by throwaway2016a on 6/24/21, 1:11 PM
We may not have risk of falling off a roof or getting shot so I don't want to overstate anything but the stress some of us have from our careers is definitely not helping our health. Combine that with generally sitting in our chair all day and it gets worse.
My new job is also a startup but I'm a founder this time and have more latitude to take a mental health break or block out time mid-day to do a workout. Everyone is different but I think quantifiably... based on my gray hair (to come back full circle to the article)... the lack of a steady paycheck is much LESS stressful than the job at a more established company where I got paid well but was pretty much on call 24x7.
by BatteryMountain on 6/24/21, 12:57 PM
by mnd999 on 6/24/21, 11:55 AM
by wchar_t on 6/24/21, 11:49 AM
by ndr on 6/24/21, 10:46 AM
> “There was one individual who went on vacation, and five hairs on that person’s head reverted back to dark during the vacation, synchronized in time,” Picard says.
by kator on 6/24/21, 11:27 AM
Fast forward a bit, my daughter started getting grey hair around 18 years old. We had assumed when she was young it wouldn't happen because she had jet black hair, and that color most likely came from mom's family line.
It's interesting that stress can also contribute, now I wonder how much of my grey is stress induced vs genetics! These days I'm almost 98% grey with limited hair loss, my father is 70% grey with substantial hair loss, and my mom is 100% grey with a full head of hair.
by KMag on 6/24/21, 12:29 PM
by ConfusedDog on 6/24/21, 11:17 AM
by aimor on 6/24/21, 12:37 PM
Other hairy questions I've been curious about: What's the deal with that one long dark hair on my shoulder, and why is there one in about the same place on each shoulder? Why does it feel so good to pluck out some hairs, but other ones give a lot of resistance and hurt? Why do some hairs grow in pairs? Is body hair effective at baffling mosquitos?
by mattlondon on 6/24/21, 1:30 PM
So the hair stopped being grey halfway through growing... Less stress?
by hermannj314 on 6/24/21, 11:40 AM
I know I am stressed and I see the evidence - restless sleep, elevated WBC, worsening anxiety.
I, unfortunately, haven't found a good routine way to manage stress.
by qwerty456127 on 6/24/21, 10:47 AM
by 41209 on 6/24/21, 11:33 AM
No faang offer is worth dropping dead
by amelius on 6/24/21, 1:20 PM
From Wikipedia:
> Despite the lack of any recognized syndromes of PABA deficiency in humans, except for those who lack the colonic bacteria that generate PABA, many claims of benefit are made by commercial suppliers of PABA as a nutritional supplement. The benefit is claimed for (...) and premature grey hair.
by benoror on 6/24/21, 3:14 PM
by logronoide on 6/24/21, 2:15 PM
by cableshaft on 6/24/21, 11:55 AM
by larinzod on 6/24/21, 1:17 PM
by anotherevan on 6/24/21, 12:39 PM
I don't recall life being especially stressful at that time. I went through an unbelievable amount of stress in the middle five years of my forties which didn't cause a recurrence.
I do have these thick grey hairs in my beard though, that stand out among the thinner, wiry brown ones. Not sure what that is about.
by atulatul on 6/24/21, 1:26 PM
"There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine."
by poidos on 6/24/21, 1:40 PM
I first noticed them (and assumed they were from stress) the summer after high school -- back then, it was a single, stark-white hair that popped up. I was certainly stressed in undergrad and then grad school, but I didn't feel horribly so while going through it, though I do have more than one now. :)
I understand the vanity aspect of dying them away, but that never resonated with me -- it seems like one of the few dignified parts of aging.
by GLGirty on 6/24/21, 3:45 PM
My wife tried intermittent fasting after reading some health claims about it. (i.e. autophagy). In the beginning I was skeptical.
After a month or so of intermittent fasts, her hairdresser noticed an obvious line of salt and pepper hair that was growing in brown at the roots.
I now believe the health claims of fasting have merit, and I hope future research can quantify the degree of benefits.
by aantix on 6/24/21, 1:50 PM
Avoidance of all stress isn't practical, so give your body the nutrients it needs to cope.
by sbehlasp on 6/24/21, 12:47 PM
by jansan on 6/24/21, 1:07 PM
Is there any way that this could actually have happened the way he told it?
by jhugo on 6/24/21, 11:44 AM
by dan-robertson on 6/24/21, 12:03 PM
by fernandotakai on 6/24/21, 1:35 PM
but then, the pandemic hit + more work related stress and now my beard has a ton of grey hair. also, finding more and more grey hair in my head daily.
i always thought it was just... you know, getting older but it literally started appearing all of sudden.
it's nice to know it's not "just" an age thing.
by amelius on 6/24/21, 1:25 PM
by yawaworht1978 on 6/24/21, 11:36 AM
by soperj on 6/24/21, 2:39 PM
by nsonha on 6/24/21, 12:12 PM
by hcarvalhoalves on 6/24/21, 1:41 PM
by Gravityloss on 6/24/21, 1:26 PM
by ezconnect on 6/24/21, 1:41 PM
by pgreenwood on 6/25/21, 3:03 AM
Anyway in the last month or so some coloured hair has started to come back, hopefully it continues.
by fnord77 on 6/24/21, 1:08 PM