Premature White Hair

Tom Cruise looked good in Collateral.

I've had a few since I was 16-17, it's progressed very slowly since then. It seems like it has picked up a bit in the last year or so. I really don't mind. I'll be glad to have grey hair as long as I keep most of it.

I was in the same boat until it became noticable enough for me to be bothered. I now dye my hair once a month. Makes ME feel better. Anyone I have ever dated thought I look better with my gaying hair.

Started noticing mine going grey when I was a senior in high school, slowly been getting a little grayer every year since...was frustrating at first then I just got used to it.

Haha. Funny typo.

As an aside, if a guy is over 40 and is trying to dye over the grey, it always looks weird and obvious. The youthful color doesn't match the wrinkly face. In fact, it looks...

I've been salt and pepper since I was 20. I got used to it.

The next stop is "no hair" anyway guys so you better cherish the white you got.

I think it's caused by stress. When I was really stressed out at work I started getting gray hairs and I was only 23.

For those of you that color, how natural-looking is it? How much of a hassle? Does it rub off on the collars of your shirts?

I colour my GF's hair. It looks fairly natural if spread evenly and done in the pre-greying natural hair colour. It doesn't stain. And she looks good. If it was me though, I wouldn't. I think a man with greying hair can look distinguished (as they say).

The root of every strand of hair is surrounded by a tube of tissue under the skin that is called the hair follicle. Each hair follicle contains a certain number of pigment cells. These pigment cells continuously produce a chemical called melanin that gives the growing shaft of hair its color of brown, blonde, red, and anything in between.

Melanin is the same stuff that makes our skin's color fair or darker. It also helps determine whether a person will burn or tan in the sun. The dark or light color of someone's hair depends on how much melanin each hair contains.

As we get older, the pigment cells in our hair follicles gradually die. When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, that strand of hair will no longer contain as much melanin and will become a more transparent color - like gray, silver, or white - as it grows. As people continue to get older, fewer pigment cells will be around to produce melanin. Eventually, the hair will look completely gray.

People can get gray hair at any age. Some people go gray at a young age - as early as when they are in high school or college - whereas others may be in their 30s or 40s before they see that first gray hair. How early we get gray hair is determined by our genes. This means that most of us will start having gray hairs around the same age that our parents or grandparents first did.

Not true for me. I started graying about 10 years earlier than my sisters and parents did. So I can only assume the stress of NYC life caused it. They're all shocked that I have so much gray in my 20s. I die mine sometimes, right now it's not though. I feel like if it was MORE gray, it'd be distinct, if it was less, it'd be insignificant. It's at a weird in between stage, and sometimes I hate it since I have jet black hair. It looks like I have glitter or dirt in my hair or something.

I have one grey hair. Sometimes I can't find it, sometimes I catch it glittering among the dark hairs.

I had a lot of grey hair when I was 14. It got a little better over the years, but it's begun to return (18 now).

If it happens early in life, it might not be for the normal reason. Smoking, for example, can speed up graying. Various causes are listed here. Also, men generally gray sooner than women, due probably in part to androgens.