Turn on your television and within the first fifteen minutes, you will probably see someone trying to sell you toxic hair dye to cover up your greys. Sure, it makes sense – many people want to maintain the hair color from their youth. Lucky for you, we have come across a natural recipe that is believed to turn white hair dark again, from the roots. Keep reading to see how it works!
So, What Causes Gray Hair?
Let’s take a step back for a moment and ask the reverse question: What gives your hair its color in the first place? Like the color of your skin, hair receives its colors from a pigment you are likely familiar with – melanin.
Fun Facts About Melanin and Hair
- Melanin formation happens before we’re even born
- All of our hair is white until grows
Understanding the Different Types of Melanin
If it weren’t for the two types of melanin that combine before birth, we would not have the broad spectrum of beautiful hair color we do today.
- Eumelanin (dark, brown or black pigments)
- Pheomelanin (light, yellow or reddish pigments)
Melanocytes are a type of cell located on the skin’s surface that creates both eumelanin and pheomelanin. As hair grows out of its follicles, melanocytes actually inject melanin into cells that contain keratin, which is the protein that makes up the hair.
As we get older, it’s generally understood that melanin production lessens which leads to our hair turning white and eventually gray. Scientists, however, do not exactly know what causes gray hair. But below, we’ve found various studies that offer a different reason why.
In some families, members start graying as early as their late teenage years. But typically, Caucasian people really start going gray once they’ve hit 30-years-old, while African-Americans don’t start until their mid-40s. By the age of fifty, half of all people are walking around with heads at least half full of gray hair.
According to Scientists, This Is What Causes Gray Hair
One professor at the University of Bradford in England called Dr. Desmond Tobin suggests that each hair follicle has a “melanogenic clock” that slows down melanin production causing hair to lose its pigment.
In a 2005 study published in the journal Science, Harvard scientists suggested that the graying of hair might be caused by a failure of melanocyte stem cells to keep producing melanocytes.
Another study published in 2009 proposed that, since hair follicles produce small amounts of hydrogen peroxide, this chemical build-up could lead to hair color loss over time.
There was also a 2012 study published in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology that explored the effects of antioxidants in human hair. Surprisingly, “natural antioxidants obtained from artichoke and rice applied to pretreated hair improved mechanical properties and preserved color and shine of fibers, coating them and protecting them against UV.”
Vitamin E and Aloe Vera Hair Serum to Slow Down or Stop the Graying Process
Whereas living skin is constantly renewing itself, hair is technically dead so it’s up to you to help preserve it. With such promising effects for preserving hair color, the natural formula we’re sharing today also uses antioxidant-rich ingredients. They can get to the ‘root’ of the problem and help protect hair from the intrinsic (e.g., genes, hormones, body distribution, age) and extrinsic (e.g., climate, pollutants, toxins, chemical exposure) forces it faces every day.
Benefits of Aloe Vera for Hair
Because this succulent plant is so rich in antioxidant vitamins C and E, it can soothe an itchy scalp. More often than not, a healthy scalp means healthy hair. In the Journal of Dermatological Treatment, a double-blind, placebo-controlled study proved that aloe vera helped resolve scalp inflammation caused by dandruff. In addition to vitamins, aloe vera’s fatty acids possess anti-inflammatory properties which also help soothe the scalp.
The vitamin-rich aloe plant also cleans oily hair very effectively by removing residue from hair products and extra sebum (oil). What’s more is that even while it deep-cleans each follicle, it does not damage the individual strands of hair. So, your hair will not only be healthy but look shiny and feel soft, too.
Aloe’s vitamin E content especially helps fight free radicals, cell turnover, and promotes healthy cell growth. This can also help the maintenance of melanocytes and melanin production, which contributes to maintaining your natural hair color.
Benefits of Vitamin E for Hair
Experimental evidence continues to support researchers’ hypotheses that oxidative stress can spur on the aging process. As we mentioned above, this vitamin does a lot to help protect your body from free radicals that can damage organs, tissues, and cells – the same cells needed to keep your hair from graying prematurely.
While the human body has its own defense mechanisms including non-enzymatic antioxidative molecules such as vitamin E, it doesn’t hurt to supplement it to help keep cells and cell production healthy (from your head to your toes).
The potent antioxidants in vitamin E are actually called tocotrienols and tocopherols. Together, they can protect against UV light and ozone-induced oxidative stress, i.e. some of those extrinsic factors that promote gray hair growth.
Combined with deep-cleaning and hair-strengthening aloe vera gel, vitamin E can be the very thing you need to help protect melanocytes from oxidative stress and restore your damaged roots.
Now that you know what causes gray hair and what can prevent it, here’s the 2-ingredient serum!
Ingredients:
- Aloe vera gel
- Vitamin E capsule
Follow These Steps:
- Scoop 2 tablespoons of aloe vera gel into a bowl
- Add in 1 capsule-worth of vitamin E extract oil into the bowl
- Mix/blend the ingredients together until smooth
- Massage the mixture into your scalp and leave it in overnight
- Wash the hair serum out in the morning
Remember, applying this aloe vera and vitamin E serum just once has its benefits, but won’t do anything for gray hair. You can apply it to your hair up to twice a day, but it will have to be a daily ritual if you want to start restoring your gray hair. Let us know how it works for you!