When you pull out a grey hair, will it grow back to be grey?

When you pull out a grey hair, will it grow back to be grey?

Embrace the silver fox look as plucking out grey hair will just remove hair and not stop the hair being grey.

Luis Villazon

Asked by: Alice Wang, Epping

Yes. Hair colour comes from pigment cells in the follicle, which add pigment to the hair shaft as it emerges. As we grow older, the follicles gradually produce less pigment and, eventually, stop colouring the hair at all.

Plucking a grey hair doesn’t revitalise the pigment cells, so the next hair to emerge from that follicle will also be grey.

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Luis Villazon

Q&A expert

Luis trained as a zoologist, but now works as a science and technology educator. In his spare time he builds 3D-printed robots, in the hope that he will be spared when the revolution inevitably comes.
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