Familial premature greying
The commonest by far. It starts in the teens or twenties, follows the age a parent greyed, and comes with nothing else — no fatigue, no skin changes, no hair loss.
Premature greying of hair in Chennai
Hair goes grey when the pigment cells in the follicle stop making melanin. Greying before the mid-twenties in Indian skin is considered premature. Most of it is inherited — the age your parents greyed is the strongest predictor. A smaller share follows something correctable, such as low vitamin B12 or a thyroid problem, and that is worth checking.
Which type do you have?
Identifying the type matters, because each is treated differently.
Greying with a nutritional cause
Low vitamin B12 is the deficiency most consistently linked, and it is common on largely vegetarian diets. Low iron, copper and vitamin D turn up in some people too, often with tiredness alongside.
Greying with a medical association
Thyroid disease and some autoimmune conditions can be accompanied by early greying. Worth checking when it appears quickly or arrives with other symptoms.
White patches rather than scattered grey
A defined patch of white hair — sometimes over vitiligo, sometimes where alopecia areata has regrown. A different mechanism from general greying, and assessed differently.
What causes it
- Genetics — by a wide margin the strongest factor
- Vitamin B12 deficiency, the deficiency most consistently linked to early greying
- Iron, copper and vitamin D deficiency in some people
- Thyroid disease and other autoimmune conditions
- Smoking, which is consistently linked with greying earlier
- Not hair oil, shampoo or hard water — and pulling out one grey hair does not make more grow in its place
What actually helps
Check for the correctable causes
Vitamin B12, ferritin, vitamin D and thyroid function. If one of those is low, correcting it is worth doing for your general health regardless. It may slow further greying; it does not usually restore colour to hair that has already turned.
Be clear about what is not possible
No medicine, supplement, oil, serum or clinic procedure reliably turns grey hair dark again. Products sold on that promise are not supported by evidence, and we would rather tell you that than sell you one. This is the honest limit of what treatment can do here.
Look after the hair you have
Grey hair is coarser, drier and more prone to breakage, because the pigment it lost also gave it some protection from the sun. Conditioning, covering it in strong sun and easing off heat styling keep it in better condition — which is what most people actually notice day to day.
When it is worth being seen
If greying appeared quickly, if it comes with tiredness, weight change, palpitations or pale skin, if there are white patches of skin alongside it, or if a child is going grey. Those point to something checkable rather than to genetics.
Treatments we use for this
Common questions
Can grey hair turn black again?
Genetic greying does not reverse, and no treatment reliably re-pigments hair that has turned. The exception is greying driven by a correctable deficiency such as low vitamin B12, where some people see partial improvement once it is corrected. That is uncommon, and it is not something anyone should promise you.
Does stress cause grey hair?
There is some evidence that stress affects the pigment cells, but in most people genetics is doing the work. Stress is not the reason someone greys in their twenties when both parents did the same.
Does plucking a grey hair make more grow?
No. One follicle produces one hair, and plucking it does not recruit the neighbours. Repeated plucking does damage the follicle over time, so it is a habit worth dropping for other reasons.
Which deficiency causes premature greying?
Vitamin B12 is the one most consistently associated, with iron, copper and vitamin D reported in some people. A blood test settles it in a single visit, and correcting a real deficiency is worthwhile whether or not the hair colour responds.
This page is educational and does not replace an in-person consultation. Medical disclaimer · How we write our content
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