Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible • Hacker News Board

Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible

#131

Post by pgreenwood » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 3:12 AM UTC

jansan wrote: post #61

A japanese guy once told me that he worked in a lab and accidentially caused an explosion, not really injuring him but giving him quite a shock. He claimed that when he woke up the next day much of his hair / beard had turned grey. Although he appeared to be an honest guy, I never believed the story. Is there any way that this could actually have happened the way he told it?

Yes, it can happen due to alpoecia areata which can be stress related. I had a beard hair turn white almost overnight. I am normally clean shaven but a large section of my facial hair fell out at once and almost immediately grow back white. I think it took a few days but seemed to happen overnight. Also alopecia can tend to attack just coloured hair, so if you're salt and pepper and lose all the coloured you can appear to go white overnight.

Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible

#132

Post by brailsafe » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 3:34 AM UTC

twodave wrote: post #54

My hair started graying pretty much as soon as I graduated from college. It makes a lot of sense now. Around the same time, I: - bought a house (in 2007, yeesh) - got married - started my first job (which at the time felt like drinking out of a fire hose) Shortly after, my wife and I went through the stress of trying and failing to get pregnant. Then infertility treatments for several months. Then my wife had surgery…

You bought a house at the same time as getting your first job!? That's a hell of a lot riding on that first job working out. Obviously you figured things out, but in retrospect was that a good or bad idea?

Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible

#133

Post by junon » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 3:46 AM UTC

pasxizeis wrote: post #41

junon wrote: post #4

Maybe 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…

> Almost a year and a half later, after leaving that job, I took the pandemic to really focus on my stress levels and be happier (I am). Do you mind sharing any particular advice on how to do this?

Learning how to not work. I realized that sitting down on the couch caused me anxiety as if I wasn't getting shit done.

Once I forced myself to be okay with "I'm taking an hour off right now", I started to re-learn how to relax.

Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible

#134

Post by BatteryMountain » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 7:45 AM UTC

sowbug wrote: post #108

BatteryMountain wrote: post #60

My beard got a nice gray patch during 2018.. near the end of that year I ate 5g psilocybin and over the next 3 months all my gray bread hairs disappeared, and still until today I haven't had a single gray hair in my beard again. Can anyone explain that? Early thirties, no health issues, overall normal body.

It's more likely the five grams were dried psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, which typically contain less than 1% of psychoactive compounds, so your experience would have involved more like 50mg of psilocybin/psilocin/baeocystin/others. Not trying to diminish the experience in any way -- five grams of magic mushrooms are very likely to lead to an amazing trip. If this assumption is wrong and you in fact did take 5000mg o…

Yes, I meant 5 gram plant material, not the chemical, sorry about expressing that wrong.

The experience was super intense and will probably never do it again. I don't recommend anyone take 5 grams for their first time at all.

Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible

#135

Post by Tomminn » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 11:38 AM UTC

hermannj314 wrote: post #16

Has 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.

A lot of people will say exercise and nature, which is definitely a good prescription. If you've got a great job, then it's best to do those as a hobby, but if you don't have a great job and you don't have a tonne of responsibilities I'd recommend working in the bush or otherwise outdoors for a few months for low pay.

Having your actual job be outdoorsy can do wonders for mental health because you're pushed by work forces to do things that are good for you.

Obviously, if you're on HN, you probably won't be looking to do that kind of work long term because it won't be sufficiently mentally challenging or impactful, but it can be wonderful as a stress and mindset reset.

Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible

#136

Post by twodave » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 1:43 PM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #132

twodave wrote: post #54

My hair started graying pretty much as soon as I graduated from college. It makes a lot of sense now. Around the same time, I: - bought a house (in 2007, yeesh) - got married - started my first job (which at the time felt like drinking out of a fire hose) Shortly after, my wife and I went through the stress of trying and failing to get pregnant. Then infertility treatments for several months. Then my wife had surgery…

You bought a house at the same time as getting your first job!? That's a hell of a lot riding on that first job working out. Obviously you figured things out, but in retrospect was that a good or bad idea?

Bad idea, but only because of the market timing. My wife had been out of school 4 years already otherwise we probably would have rented for a bit first. The fertility treatments, surgery and adoptions were all more financially back-breaking than even buying a house in a bad market, though. We didn’t really have savings to speak of until 3 years ago (10 years later).

Re: Stress does turn hair gray, and it’s reversible

#137

Post by nocman619 » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 5:04 AM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #65

junon wrote: post #4

Maybe 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…

breakup grief gave me gray hairs everywhere head to toe (not 100% but any kind of location was affected) I don't know what to make about it, if that's only some epigenetic fuckup on hair cells .. no biggie it's just visual but if it's a sign of similar disorder on all cells then that's bad.

I’m 29, no gray hair before. I just got out of a 6 year very serious relationship about two months ago, I started noticing grey on my head that was not there before about two weeks/month ago.