4 Tips You Need To Know When You Discover Your First Gray Hair

Gray hair is a fun and hot trend that has been worn on purpose by many women for a fresh new look and even by many celebrities like Rihanna, Dascha Polanco, and Amandla Stenberg. More and more older women continue to embrace their gray hair as a badge of dignity and experience.

But can we talk about me for a minute? Oh, Em Gee! It finally happened…I discovered my first natural gray hair. I don’t mean a highlighted strand of hair from coloring nor a lightened strand of hair by the reflection of the sun.

This gray strand of hair is staring right at me! Y’all my life literally just flashed before my eyes. One minute, I’m a fun and care-free youngen in my 20s and the next minute…BAM, instant Grandma! Okay ,so maybe it’s not that bad, but finding my first gray hair was a straight shock to me.

The main cause of gray hair showing is when the “pigment cells” or color-producing cells in the hair follicle no longer contains melanin and stop producing pigment. The hair strands will become more of a transparent color like white, gray, or silver.

As people continue to get older, the hair follicles will produce fewer pigment cells causing your hair to appear gray in color.

The thing is when you see your hair gray for the first time you may not even think about your hair follicles loosing pigment.

You just see a gray hair in your 20s and this discovery can be quite nerve-racking because you start to wonder how much time you have before you are sporting a head full of gray hair.

If you are in my position, here are 4 tips to help ease the anxiety when you discover your first gray hair:

Do Not Panic!

Seriously, do not panic! Although hair follicles loosing their pigment is the main cause of gray hair (and even more so: genetics), there could be a connection between gray hair and stress.

Stress can cause hair loss and excessive shedding; however, stress can result in premature graying as well. So don’t be like me: taking 50 pictures of that “out of place” hair strand and sending them to every contact in my phone asking, “Is this a gray hair???”

I was stressing about my gray hair for weeks and so it’s possible that a few more could have shown up because I was sweating that one gray hair.

Do Not Pluck Your Gray Hair

“If you pluck a gray hair, then seven more strands will come to its funeral” is nothing more than an old wives’ tale with no kind of scientific backing.

However, if you do pluck our your gray hairs, you are ripping that hair strand out of the root. This will damage your growth follicle and that specific hair strand on your head will never grow back. For example, if you tweeze your eyebrows enough, you will never see thick eyebrows again.

Plucking your gray hairs will only result in very thin and extremely low dense hair, with the continual growth of gray hairs. There is absolutely no benefit to plucking nor tweezing your gray hairs.

Do Not Do Wild Color Experiments On Your Own

As soon as you see your first gray hair, you may get the twitch to color your entire head of hair immediately. Instead of going for the most vibrant color you can find, test your gray hair first to see what kind of color would be best.

Not every gray hair is the same and neither is every coloring treatment. Lowlights or highlights are a great step for coloring your hair, as they will allow the gray hairs to blend and you don’t need to commit one hair color to consistently touch-up.

You should also consider natural coloring like henna*. Try henna* to have fiery red highlights or do a henna treatment then an indigo* treatment for a black/blue-black color to blend with your natural hair color. Don’t be afraid of coloring your hair, but do not hesitate to see a professional to ensure the health of your hair is preserved.

Do Not Slack On Your Healthy Hair Regimen

One thing that I have found about my gray hair is that it does not feel nor look the same as my soft and coily hair.

That pesky piece of hair is very coarse and very fine. My gray hair literally sticks up no matter how much edge control I use to lay it down.

Gray hair can be a bit rough and wiry, so it’s in your best interest for your hair to not slack on your hair regimen. Continue with the protein treatments and the deep conditioning* treatments.

Be sure to moisturize your hair often and efficiently, for example using the L.O.C. method. The more gray hairs you obtain, the more you should reevaluate your hair care regimen to suite the needs of your hair in the present time.

When was the first time you saw your first gray hair?