OMG. WHITE HAIR. FIRST ONE. TODAY.

I was doing my hair this morning, then realized ... I had a white hair!!! So I yanked it out, right?

Yeah; apparently I'm getting whites around the temples. Damn you, medicine!!! *fist shake*

Any suggestions?

This post is also published in the youlookfab forum. You can read and reply to it in either place. All replies will appear in both places.

42 Comments

  • modgrl replied 12 years ago

    I started getting them at 15. Smile at the passage of time and enjoy your dark hair while you have it.

  • MsLuna replied 12 years ago

    Colour it your natural colour? Let it stay white? :)

    I'm getting the impression that since you're a med student that you're still in your 20's. There's this myth I learned growing up that if you pluck white hair more will come (LOL!) So I suggest colouring :)

  • Diana replied 12 years ago

    Um, I think I remember finding my first white hair when I was like 5. I'm serious. But they have not increased that much in frequency since then. Mine also are kind of zebra-y, meaning they sometimes turn back to black, so there's always the chance that yours will turn back too!

    I do still pull out the ones that are in really obvious places, like on top of my head, but I probably shouldn't (i can get a little obsessive about it). I probably should be better about coloring my roots on a more frequent basis as it does prevent me from pulling out my hair.

  • Meredith1953 replied 12 years ago

    And so it begins.... The first white hairs. I started getting them by the time I was 21.

  • Vicki replied 12 years ago

    Embrace it, color it or try one if those mascara-like wands of color they sell. You are young and have the attitude, so don't be concerned.

  • Transcona Shannon replied 12 years ago

    I started going grey at 22 - the grey/white hairs are stronger than your coloured strands due to the difference in melanin, so apparently you should NOT pull them out because as you get more white strands, if you keep pulling you end up with lifeless, fine hair (this is according to the receptionist at my stylist's salon).

  • DonnaF replied 12 years ago

    DD 18 started getting them when she was 13 or 14. She has a lot more now than I did when I was in my mid-20s. I was not gray enough to consider coloring until I was in my mid-forties, however. My hair grows EXCEPTIONALLY fast, and now that I am in my late fifties, I think I am more salt than pepper since the gray shows up pretty badly less than three weeks after coloring. Since I don't relish a chemical bath every three weeks, I am going to stop coloring this summer. If you just got your first gray hair just now, you probably have a ways to go before anyone else notices gray.

  • christieanne replied 12 years ago

    It happens to us all at various times - being a brunette, it is just more obvious - that said, don't start worrying or dying yet. It's a sign of wisdom my grandmother used to say.
    Sometimes i obsess on my gray and no one else seems to notice ;)

  • rae replied 12 years ago

    OOH! Ebrace it! Like Rogue from X-Men. :D

    Or, attack it with a Sharpie. That's what we did when my friend found a patch of grays starting at work, before a client meeting.

  • replied 12 years ago

    Yep... I had them since I'm 16 or so... My grandma always told me not to pluck them, as many more will come to their funeral lol. I just dye them now, since it is no longer an isolated incident.

  • Jem replied 12 years ago

    Don't worry, it won't be your last... lol Don't worry, it will be a long time before you need to dye your hair,

  • nicoleb replied 12 years ago

    It's ok Lyn I started getting them too. ;_;

    But since i started dying my hair myself every 6 weeks or so it's not really an issue.

    Before that i just yanked them. Well i tried. Usually yanked about 6 or 7 perfectly innocent hairs before i successfully grabbing the offensive one.

  • replied 12 years ago

    You can yank for a while if there are a very few. I wouldn't worry about it. You have a long way to go before you need to start coloring.

    I heard on the radio the other day that 20-somethings are putting grey streaks in their hair as a fashion statement. Things could be going my way!

  • ManidipaM replied 12 years ago

    ROTFL over Rae's "attack it with a Sharpie"!!!

    My mum had me yank out hers and her mum's (my grandma was NOT fond of this, it turned out; she'd just humour me when I was little rather than interfere with mum's parenting!). Me, I'm too chicken to tug at myself. I've lived with mine since I was 14 or so --- and I rather like that most of them make a little streak along one side of my head :-)

    Welcome to the club, Lyn!

    I'd check on my vitamins and micronutrients --- but you already know about that and the stress! Can you get hair mascara in your natural colour? It's surely too much to dye for one or two hairs.

  • chewyspaghetti replied 12 years ago

    I found my first gray hair a few weeks ago, although I am still telling myself it was just stress. I yanked it out and told it not to come back! My hairdresser laughed at that.

  • lyn* replied 12 years ago

    LOL; I figured I'd be like Storm in XMen; not Rouge, but either will work ... :p

    I always thought I would dye it all white before dying it funny colours :D we'll see.

    Thanks, ladies, as always :)

  • Carole replied 12 years ago

    Please don't pull out your hair! If I had started that years ago I would have nothing left by now.

  • MsLuna replied 12 years ago

    @Rae OMG!!! YES!!! Rogue has awesome hair!

    @lyn* Storm works too!

    AAAGH! Good to see fellow nerds here :P

  • Joy replied 12 years ago

    Lyn, I don't know if it's true and I posted this here once before, but a professional colorist told me that some of his clients who have started taking larger doesd of vitamin D (tablets, not sun) are finding that their hair is growing in darker and not grey. This is partly true with me. I've got grey areas with dark roots now. Of course it takes time to show itself.

  • CocoLion replied 12 years ago

    I'm 53 and still have no visible grey hairs. But plenty of wrinkles. If you have grey hair young, it means you won't have too many wrinkles later in life. But if you have no grey hair, you will have more wrinkles. This is my very unscientific theory, but meant to make you feel better!

  • goldenpig replied 12 years ago

    Cheer up Lyn! Grey hairs are a sign of wisdom! Patients prefer to see grey hairs--they feel more confident that you are experienced. So it's a sign that you are graduating and finally becoming a real doctor now! Perfect timing! :)

    I am starting to get more and more. I used to pluck the stray greys, but now it's getting to the point that I can't keep up. I may have to start coloring at some point but for now I'm not worrying about it.

  • Scarlet replied 12 years ago

    I have a white eyebrow hair--it's official because it's regrown twice. I think there might be one turning on the other side too. With your young, fresh face even if you have white hairs it won't age you. I wouldn't dye my hair over a couple. Lots of people get a few in there 20s, or even more than a few.

  • rachylou replied 12 years ago

    I think I got my first one at 13 and then had another one about 7 years ago? Something like that. I want snow white hair, like the Girl with White Hair ballet - but with my genes, I'll get grey mixed with black. :p

  • Isabel replied 12 years ago

    DON'T PANIC !!!!! My sister got her first white hair in her early 20s. Then...she waited..and she waited....and she waited. You get the picture. She is in her late 40s with almost no white hair.

    I say do nothing. If you start to go a bit grayer than you want, you could always just use root touch up around the temples and forsake doing your whole head.

  • ironkurtin replied 12 years ago

    I saved my first one until it became clear it wasn't a rare, random fluke BUT MY FUTURE.

    You can always hilite like AG did!

  • rute replied 12 years ago

    congrats! A have a few already!

  • rae replied 12 years ago

    Heh, heh, I always said I'd go all white, too. You'd look good with a shockingly white Storm 'do!

  • Jonesy replied 12 years ago

    Congrats and welcome to the club! Nobody but you will notice a few here and there, I'm guessing.

  • Sylvie replied 12 years ago

    One white hair isn't so bad. I found my first one about 2 years ago and I currently have two deficient follicles. I just pluck them out. I'll probably keep plucking them until I have so many that it becomes a burden.

  • Janet replied 12 years ago

    Heh, my best friend started getting them in med school too, and she proceeded to name each one after the people she claimed were responsible for them!

    I don't think the first white hair on my head traumatized me nearly as much as the first white hair I found elsewhere. Yes, like Scarlet, I have a white eyebrow hair I have to keep plucking out too!

    Denise, I truly wish your theory were true, but I have no lack of wrinkles or gray hairs at my advanced age of 46. Sigh.

  • lyn* replied 12 years ago

    Oh; I assure you I know who this one would be named after. He's also the name I use for passwords on the computers at the hospital to remind myself how much I despise his guts. :p

  • Fruitful replied 12 years ago

    Manidipa, my Dad used to get me to pluck his white hairs too! With tweezers! And I got paid 1 cent per hair! ^_^

    Diana, my mum used to find the occasional "blond" hair on my head when I was little. Maybe they were actually white?

    Lyn, I started noticing white hairs when I was 23 and working stressful hours. I plucked for years. You have to use tweezers and 2 mirrors. There is no evidence that plucking makes more come. I'm intrigued that nutrition could make the pigment come back though; try it and tell us if it works! At 36 (and with my kids stressing me out) I've finally got too many to pluck. I just started colouring with henna and indigo. Messy and time-consuming but good for those who want to avoid conventional methods.

    I recently found a white hair elsewhere, and it wasn't my eyebrow. And yes, I am traumatised.

  • Aziraphale replied 12 years ago

    Aaaaiiieee! How can you ladies stand to pull them out? The idea of plucking a hair makes my spine crawl. :-)

    Lyn: there are worse things than white hair. Personally I'm a fan of graying temples, but if it's not your cuppa, then once the gray gets to be noticeable (which it won't, probably, until you're in your forties), colour it. No biggie.

    Fruitful: you know the saying, right? If a woman has gray in her curtains, she probably has it in her carpet, too. hee hee

    Anyway, I heard there's a salon in Los Angeles called "The Paint Box" for dealing with sub-equatorial gray hair. Only they dye the hair purple and hot pink and things like that. Apparently, it's very popular! Maybe it'll catch on across the globe. Secret punk hair colour. :-)

  • lyn* replied 12 years ago

    I pull hair when I'm frustrated ... I have a huge bald spot actually. I'm growing out my hair to hide it. The hair is growing back, but slowly. :( I blame medicine.

    I plan to dye my hair funky colours when I get more whites, but right now, I say they're signs of wisdom ;)

  • Fruitful replied 12 years ago

    Elisabeth, so you're saying lots of people share this condition? LOL. And that salon in LA - I don't know if that's funny or awesome! So you "heard" about it, right? ^_^

  • san replied 12 years ago

    This whole conversation is cracking me up. Fruitful your first remark made me laugh out loud.
    A few greys or whites show up long before the whole hair color shows a big change so Lyn I'd say it might be a something new but it doesn't mean you are going grey anytime soon. You are so young and cute and I think a few white hairs would look striking on you. Plus it seems that women with very dark hair get the best silver white hair when the time comes.

  • Aziraphale replied 12 years ago

    Fruitful: read about it is more accurate. I'm pretty sure the article I read on the topic was written by the woman who wrote "Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy". She'd be older now, and from how she describes it, it ALL goes gray down there. Eep.

    I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, eh?

    lyn: there's a name for that condition, isn't there? Trichotillomania, or something like that? My cousin used to pull out hairs while she wasn't paying attention, and ended up with huge bald patches. It grew back, but still. It's probably a bit like compulsive nail-biting. I can't stand the feeling of teeth on fingernails, either, but lots of people do it all the time and find it somehow satisfying, and chew their nails right down to the quick.

  • lyn* replied 12 years ago

    Yeah, elisabeth ... I pull when I'm stressed. And I'm stressed a lot. I usually have a huge pile on the desk at the end of the exam!

    People have started placing me next to the trash can.

  • taylor replied 12 years ago

    The carpet goes grey?? hu!! seriously?
    Lyn* You may not see grey hair for several more years. I had a few in my 30's and then they stopped. I am 54 and still only have a few. You WILL grey like one of your parents...how are mom and dad doing in that department?
    Also, try not to pull your hair...I have several clients who do this :( I had one client who while at MIT pulled all her eyelashes out! Stress :(

  • lyn* replied 12 years ago

    Unfortunately, I cannot judge greyness by my parents (as I am adopted); so we'll just have to see, I guess!!!

    However, I have reason to believe it was an adoption within the family; so I may have the graces of the grey in my father's family - he didn't start to go grey until 60.

  • Elly replied 12 years ago

    A good portion of my hair fell out because of medical issues--- when it grew back, there was a large portion that came in PURE WHITE. A couple of times a year I will be under stress, which in turn makes my medical stuff worse, my hair begins to fall out . . . and when it comes back a good portion of it comes in white. At 22, my white streak is noticeable enough to keep me from getting carded much so long as the place has good lighting. I have dark hair, so in the sun or bright lights the white is very noticeable, but I don't have enough yet that it is as noticeable in dim light or most pictures. I have no grey hair, only pure white. My hair is past my shoulders and the white has been there long enough to be white down the whole length. Oh, and I also have wrinkles . . . so Denise's theory is busted. In my case, I don't think it is genetic based on family members, either. Don't know how I got so lucky.

    But yeah, the hair pulling can cause follicular trauma and speed it along too!

  • taylor replied 12 years ago

    How and when you grey is totally genetic and you will inherit that just like hair color, eye color, height and every other physical aspect one has that has trickled down through the generations..:)

    Lyn* since you are still young I wouldn't worry too much...you are adorable and fresh...add some fun colorful streaks if it bothers you:)

You need to be logged in to comment