Legend has it that Marie Antoinette’s hair turned gray overnight just before her beheading in 1791.

Though the legend is inaccurate—hair that has already grown out of the follicle does not change color—a new study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons is the first to offer quantitative evidence linking psychological stress to graying hair in people.
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And while it may seem intuitive that stress can accelerate graying, the researchers were surprised to discover that hair color can be restored when stress is eliminated, a finding that contrasts with a recent study in mice that suggested that stressed-induced gray hairs are permanent.

The study, published June 22 in eLife, has broader significance than confirming age-old speculation about the effects of stress on hair color, says the study’s senior author Martin Picard, PhD(link is external and opens in a new window), associate professor of behavioral medicine (in psychiatry and neurology) at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

“Understanding the mechanisms that allow ‘old’ gray hairs to return to their ‘young’ pigmented states could yield new clues about the malleability of human aging in general and how it is influenced by stress,” Picard says.

“Our data add to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that human aging is not a linear, fixed biological process but may, at least in part, be halted or even temporarily reversed.”

Studying hair as an avenue to investigate aging“

Just as the rings in a tree trunk hold information about past decades in the life of a tree, our hair contains information about our biological history,” Picard says. “When hairs are still under the skin as follicles, they are subject to the influence of stress hormones and other things happening in our mind and body. Once hairs grow out of the scalp, they harden and permanently crystallize these exposures into a stable form.”

Though people have long believed that psychological stress can accelerate gray hair, scientists have debated the connection due to the lack of sensitive methods that can precisely correlate times of stress with hair pigmentation at a single-follicle level.

Splitting hairs to document hair pigmentation

​Ayelet Rosenberg, first author on the study and a student in Picard’s laboratory, developed a new method for capturing highly detailed images of tiny slices of human hairs to quantify the extent of pigment loss (graying) in each of those slices. Each slice, about 1/20th of a millimeter wide, represents about an hour of hair growth.

“If you use your eyes to look at a hair, it will seem like it’s the same color throughout unless there is a major transition,” Picard says. “Under a high-resolution scanner, you see small, subtle variations in color, and that’s what we’re measuring.”

The researchers analyzed individual hairs from 14 volunteers. The results were compared with each volunteer’s stress diary, in which individuals were asked to review their calendars and rate each week’s level of stress.

The investigators immediately noticed that some gray hairs naturally regain their original color, which had never been quantitatively documented, Picard says.

When hairs were aligned with stress diaries by Shannon Rausser, second author on the paper and a student in Picard’s laboratory, striking associations between stress and hair graying were revealed and, in some cases, a reversal of graying with the lifting of stress.

“There was one individual who went on vacation, and five hairs on that person’s head reverted back to dark during the vacation, synchronized in time,” Picard says.

Blame the mind-mitochondria connection

To better understand how stress causes gray hair, the researchers also measured levels of thousands of proteins in the hairs and how protein levels changed over the length of each hair.

Changes in 300 proteins occurred when hair color changed, and the researchers developed a mathematical model that suggests stress-induced changes in mitochondria may explain how stress turns hair gray.

“We often hear that the mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, but that’s not the only role they play,” Picard says. “Mitochondria are actually like little antennas inside the cell that respond to a number of different signals, including psychological stress.”

The mitochondria connection between stress and hair color differs from that discovered in a recent study of mice, which found that stress-induced graying was caused by an irreversible loss of stem cells in the hair follicle.

“Our data show that graying is reversible in people, which implicates a different mechanism,”  says co-author Ralf Paus, PhD, professor of dermatology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “Mice have very different hair follicle biology, and this may be an instance where findings in mice don’t translate well to people.”

Hair re-pigmentation only possible for some

Reducing stress in your life is a good goal, but it won’t necessarily turn your hair to a normal color.

“Based on our mathematical modeling, we think hair needs to reach a threshold before it turns gray,” Picard says. “In middle age, when the hair is near that threshold because of biological age and other factors, stress will push it over the threshold and it transitions to gray.

“But we don’t think that reducing stress in a 70-year-old who’s been gray for years will darken their hair or increasing stress in a 10-year-old will be enough to tip their hair over the gray threshold.”

More information
The study is titled “Quantitative Mapping of Human Hair Greying and Reversal in Relation to Life Stress(link is external and opens in a new window).”
All contributors (all from Columbia unless noted): Ayelet Rosenberg, Shannon Rausser, Junting Ren, Eugene V. Mosharov, Gabriel Sturm, R. Todd Ogden, Purvi Patel, Rajesh Kumar Soni, Clay Lacefield (New York State Psychiatric Institute), Desmond J. Tobin (University College Dublin), Ralf Paus (University of Miami, University of Manchester, UK, and Monasterium Laboratory, Münster, Germany), and Martin Picard.
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The research was funded by grants from the Wharton Fund and the National Institutes of Health (grants GM119793, MH119336, and AG066828).
The authors declare no competing interests.

Humans (and their skin) are naturally balanced on the pH scale between 4.0 and 6.5. (HELPFUL HINT: Anything below a 7 on the pH scale is acidic, and anything above 7 is alkaline.) 

Human pH is slightly on the acidic side of the pH scale so personal care products such as shampoo, conditioner and other body and skin care will work best if they’re slightly acidic.

Humans all have a natural barrier called the acid mantle. The barrier helps reduce the risk of bacteria, dirt and other substances infiltrating the skin and potentially leading to irritation and breakouts. Products that don’t match the human acid mantle will disrupt the natural ability to keep skin and hair looking and feeling healthy. 
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“Don’t let the ingredient list on the package fool you,” cautions Doug Smith, brand manager for Eufora HERO for Men. “Yes, good ingredients are always important, but they can’t provide peak performance if the product formulation isn’t balanced to your natural pH level.”

Scientists say they may have discovered why stress makes hair turn white, and a potential way of stopping it happening without reaching for the dye.

In experiments on mice, stem cells that control skin and hair colour became damaged after intense stress.

In a chance finding, dark-furred mice turned completely white within weeks.
The US and Brazilian researchers said this avenue was worth exploring further to develop a drug that prevents hair colour loss from ageing.

Men and women can go grey any time from their mid-30s, with the timing of parental hair colour change giving most of the clues on when.

Although it's mostly down to the natural ageing process and genes, stress can also play a role.

But scientists were not clear exactly how stress affected the hairs on our heads.

• 'My mum found my first grey hair at seven'
• Why do China's leaders dye their hair?
• ‘My hair is a symbol of pride’

Researchers behind the study, published in Nature, from the Universities of Sao Paulo and Harvard, believed the effects were linked to melanocyte stem cells, which produce melanin and are responsible for hair and skin colour.

And while carrying out experiments on mice, they stumbled across evidence this was the case.

"We now know for sure that stress is responsible for this specific change to your skin and hair, and how it works," says Prof Ya-Cieh Hsu, research author from Harvard University.

'Damage is permanent'

Pain in mice triggered the release of adrenaline and cortisol, making their hearts beat faster and blood pressure rise, affecting the nervous system and causing acute stress.

This process then sped up the depletion of stem cells that produced melanin in hair follicles.

"I expected stress was bad for the body," said Prof Hsu.

"But the detrimental impact of stress that we discovered was beyond what I imagined.

"After just a few days, all of the pigment-regenerating stem cells were lost.
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"Once they're gone, you can't regenerate pigment any more - the damage is permanent."

In another experiment, the researchers found they could block the changes by giving the mice an anti-hypertensive, which treats high blood pressure.

And by comparing the genes of mice in pain with other mice, they could identify the protein involved in causing damage to stem cells from stress.

When this protein - cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) - was suppressed, the treatment also prevented a change in the colour of their fur.

This leaves the door open for scientists to help delay the onset of grey hair by targeting CDK with a drug.

"These findings are not a cure or treatment for grey hair," Prof Hsu told the BBC.

"Our discovery, made in mice, is only the beginning of a long journey to finding an intervention for people.

"It also gives us an idea of how stress might affect many other parts of the body," she said.

From BBC News

Scientists Think They Know How Stress Causes Gray Hair

• Researchers say they now think they know how stress causes gray hair.
• The hair color change may be linked to nerves in the “fight or flight” response system.
• Experts say stress is only one factor that can cause gray hair. Genetics also plays a major role.

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Read More Here >>>

The topic of Haircolor and Cancer is still in the headlines. I shared a Medium article in December and the information below is from the recent American Board of Certified Haircolorists newsletter I just received.

I hope this help with any questions or concerns you might have.

IS HAIRCOLOR CAUSING CANCER?

Over the last month we have had several colorists reach out regarding some news reports claiming haircolor was causing cancer. Our good friend Gary Call at KIN had some helpful insight and talking points to share for the stylist and the client.

Have you seen the headlines? "Hair Dyes And Straighteners Linked To Higher Cancer Risk". Once again our salon services are under attack and there will be LOTS of discussion in your chair over the next little while. It is important to arm yourself with some facts to help temper the discussion. Here are some talking points that are direct quotes from a couple of articles:

"Researchers don't know which ingredients in the products might be of concern. The study did not look at the specific ingredients in the products women were using, only at whether they had used the product and whether they developed breast cancer." - If they don't know what ingredients are causing the problem there is no way for the public or professional to begin to manage the issue.

"All women in the Sister Study were already at high risk for breast cancer since they had a sister who had breast cancer." - The study group was composed of women who were already at risk, and in many cases are already carefully watching their health and concerned about possible genetic connections.

"The study findings should be understood in context, says Dr. Otis Brawley, a medical oncologist with Johns Hopkins University. The actual risk found for use of these hair treatments is quite low, he adds, especially compared with other known carcinogens like tobacco or radiation. "This is a very weak signal that these things might be causing cancer in the population," he says." - Note the important part is always left out of the headline - "This is a very weak signal that these things might be causing cancer!"

"Sometimes science just cannot give us the answers that we want it to give us," - yes we need to be aware, but everything in life is done at some sort of risk. Should we just stay home on the couch and hide? But of course there is risk to that too - inactivity, lack of human contact, lack of sunshine, and snacking as a result of being a couch potato are also risky behaviours!

"I would also point out that the combination of obesity, consuming too many calories and lack of physical activity has a much higher relative risk for breast cancer in both black and white women," said Brawley, a former Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of the American Cancer Society." - there are numereous lifestyle choices that affect our health. Look at the entire picture when making personal decisions.

Michael Jones, Senior Staff Scientist in Epidemiology at The Institute of Cancer Research, said: "It is too early to make a firm recommendation on the basis of one study, and further research is needed. The whole literature needs to be evaluated by expert groups, bringing together the evidence to make recommendations" he told Newsweek. He adds there are limitations to the study.

"The Sisters Study is a good prospective cohort study—but women were recruited to the study because they had a sister with breast cancer, so the conclusions wouldn't necessarily hold true for women in the wider population, hence the need for further confirmation."

In the end, keep an open mind, look beyond the headlines and be informed. This will cause LOTS of salon discussion. The purpose of our professional licensing, and the real desire of everyone I know in the Beauty Industry is to protect and preserve the health and well being of every client. The positive benefits of cosmetic beauty enhancement on the improved life experiences and self image of our clients will always be weighed against any possible health risks and each person should make the decisions the feel are best for them.
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Once again, this is NOT a reason to stop receiving any service in the salon, but it is a reason to do some homework and become aware of the myriad of sources of information bombarding us and our clients daily. Technology and instant awareness can be a gift and a curse!

The limits of growing human hair

Although the possibility of artificially growing hairs in the lab has been established for a number of years, it has been limited to the growth of mouse and rat hairs. Scientists would generate the hair by culturing cells taken from the base of the rodent’s follicles, however, human cells did not behave in the same manner: “Cells from rats and mice grow beautiful hairs,” Dr. Christiano explains, a specialist in regenerative therapies for skin and hair disorders and author on the paper. “But for reasons we don’t totally understand, human cells are resistant.”

In order to counter the resistance of human hair cells, Dr. Christiano has been attempting to replicate the 3D environment normally inhabited by them. The first attempt in developing these conditions involved the creation of ‘cell spheres’ inside hanging drops of liquid. However, when the scientists implanted these spheres of human cells inside the mice, the results were not concrete, as some people’s cells created new hair whereas others didn’t. 

Using 3D printing to prevent hair loss

The new study demonstrates a method that utilized the intricate capabilities of 3D printing to help create a more natural microenvironment for human hair follicle growth, allowing it to be grown in a dish. Specifically, the team of CUMC researchers used 3D printing to create plastic molds with long, thin extensions only half a millimeter wide: “We exploit the unique capability of 3D-printing technology to create structures with high aspect ratios (length to width ratio: ~100 for human HFs13),” as described in the paper. These ratios were previously not possible with other fabrication methods, like soft lithography. 

The team engineered human skin to grow around the mold, after which human hair follicle cells were implanted within the wells, and topped by keratin-producing cells (the main structural constituent of hair). Furthermore, the cells were injected with ingredients to help stimulate hair growth, and after a period of three weeks, human hair follicles appeared, and began to create hair. 
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Further optimization and refinement is required for the method, however, the researchers claim that, by using 3D printing, it could lead to an unlimited source of new hair follicles for patients undergoing robotic hair restoration surgery. “What we’ve shown is that we can basically create a hair farm: a grid of hairs that are patterned correctly and engineered so they can be transplanted back into that same patient’s scalp,” Dr. Christiano explains.

Hair restoration surgery often requires relocating transferring 2,000 hair follicles from the back of the head to the front and top. This is mostly reserved for male patients with stabilized hair loss on the back and sides, with enough hair to donate. Most women have the ‘diffuse’ type of hair loss, which represents an overall thinning in all areas of the head, including the sides and back where hair is required for donation. However, the study provides a route to overcome the limited availability of hair restoration surgery for women: “That expands the availability of hair restoration to all patients–including the 30 million women in the United States who experience hair thinning and young men whose hairlines are still receding. Hair restoration surgery would no longer be limited by the number of donor hairs,” added Dr. Christiano.

Other potential uses for the engineered hair follicle using 3D printing includes the screening for new hair growth drugs, which is hampered by inability to grow human hair follicles in a lab dish. In the pharmaceutical industry, no drugs have been found so far through screening, however the team hopes that its cultured hair farms will enable high throughput drug screens to identify new pathways that influence hair growth.

Continuous research into the capabilities of 3D printing at Columbia University
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With this new study, scientists from Columbia University have demonstrated a continuous drive towards pushing the capabilities of 3D printing through a variety of research and experiments. Most recently in April 2019, Columbia University scientists developed a new method to 3D print cooked food, with the intention of overcoming the limitations of current 3D food printers (3DFPs). 

Furthermore, researchers from the university have also shown a method to replicate the external and internal structure of wood using a 3D printer. With the help of imaging, color and voxel mapping techniques, Columbia University engineers were able to mimic the unique texture of olive wood. Finally, in 2017, a team from the university also developed a liquid-based mechanical system made from a 3D printed hydrogel that can be implanted in the body and controlled to release medication at will. 

This news brought to you from 3DPrintingIndustry

I also found this news here at DocWireNews.