The health effects of stress are pretty insane, I actually had to stop hacker ranking the other day because I noticed my blood pressure would shoot up by about 10 points.
No faang offer is worth dropping dead
Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
11–20 of 137 posts
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#12Yeah. It can happen to kids as young as high school age. I have seen so many Chinese students preparing for their college entrance exams had their hairs turned grey. I'm actually surprised it's reversible, because none of them I knew ever recovered from the grey hair years later.
That probably tells something about the general stress level they later had.
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#13Do never, ever let a job or manager affect your stress levels. If you can, seek greener pastures, but more importantly, do not let it affect you. Same for relationship issues.
The hair is only one of the affected areas. God knows how bad this is some internal body parts if it leads to binge eating or coping solutions like drinking etc. Not to mention the mind.
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#14[deleted]
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#15Maybe it was a coincidence but at my last job I was so insanely stressed and burnt out. My manager was terrible, treated me like an idiot, and my ideas were stifled day in and day out. I woke up one day and seemingly overnight my beard had a grey patch - almost white, in fact. It fell out in the week after. Almost a year and a half later, after leaving that job, I took the pandemic to really focus on my stress levels…
Same here. I started getting gray hairs in the beginning of last year. Then the company switched to fully remote and I no longer have them.
I am still stressed from time to time, but nothing like I was when I had to commute, worry about how I look, whether I make it on time, what I am going to eat, where, will I get space at the cafe, will I get the seat at hot desking space, how do I up my small talk game, oh no another awkward silence in the lift, then trying to focus on code while hearing sudden laughs piercing my ears as the lads from marketing are discussing how their evening went and who they "scored". It's was a nightmare.
At home, I can even put noise cancelling headphones, for that extra pure silent bliss.
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#16Has anyone found good, long-term methods for stress management?
I know I am stressed and I see the evidence - restless sleep, elevated WBC, worsening anxiety.
I, unfortunately, haven't found a good routine way to manage stress.
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#17I'd love to know more about how they were able to sample individual hairs over a period of time even with things like the subject going on holiday between samplings. Do they mark the individual hairs somehow?
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#18Do never, ever let a job or manager affect your stress levels. If you can, seek greener pastures, but more importantly, do not let it affect you. Same for relationship issues. The hair is only one of the affected areas. God knows how bad this is some internal body parts if it leads to binge eating or coping solutions like drinking etc. Not to mention the mind.
Chronic stress might be bad. A little stress from time to time in life is not that strange. Aspiring to a stress free existence seems unwise unless you’re some particular kind of royalty.
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#19Has anyone found good, long-term methods for stress management? I know I am stressed and I see the evidence - restless sleep, elevated WBC, worsening anxiety. I, unfortunately, haven't found a good routine way to manage stress.
Embrace the void.
Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible
#20Indeed. One of my friends had quite a few patches of gray hair (he was only about 28 at the time), but found that the patches turned their natural color again in a few years after moving to a smaller company and becoming more health-conscious, diet-wise.