“Pull out one grey hair and 10 will grow back”, is it true?

White hair always lurks on our heads silently. If we suddenly find it one day and want to pull it out, someone will tell us earnestly, "Don't pull out white hair. If you pull out one, ten will grow back!" Is there any truth in this? Are these white hairs "pulled out"?

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In fact, gray hair has a lot to do with our age. Each hair grows from a hair follicle. There is a kind of melanocyte in the hair follicle, which continuously produces melanin to "dye" our hair black. If the melanocyte in a hair follicle dies, its ability to produce melanin will decrease, and the hair that grows will turn white .

Generally speaking, white hair will begin to appear on both sides of the temples between the ages of 30 and 40, and then slowly spread to the top of the head and the back of the head. By the age of 50, more than half of the black hair of many people will turn white.

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Although hair can continue to grow in the hair follicle, the melanocytes in the hair follicle cannot be "revived", so once the hair follicle starts to grow white hair, it cannot turn black again . Although pulling out the white hair can make it "disappear" temporarily, the hair follicle will continue to grow new hair. When the new hair grows out, another white hair will be found in the same position.

Therefore, the saying "If you pull out one white hair, ten will grow back" has no scientific basis. The reason why there are more and more white hair is that as we age, more and more hair follicles lose the ability to produce melanin, which is why we have a head full of silver hair.

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Although the rumor is false, frequent "hair pulling" may affect the health of hair follicles and lead to hair loss . Moreover, growing white hair is a normal physiological phenomenon. Isn't it cool to have white hair without dyeing it?

Review | Cheng Fang, deputy chief physician of the Dermatology Department of Xingtai People's Hospital