hair turning white due to trauma?

Guess I'm having one of those sleepless nights and out of the blue this memory popped up. Sometime in my 20s I was getting my hair done. The hairdresser noticed a pure white streak of hair somewhere in the back of my head. She asked if anything "traumatic" ever happen to me because she said sometimes a person's hair will turn pure white in areas due to trauma..

Anyone ever hear of such a thing happening? Like areas of a person's hair turning white from trauma? Just curious if there is any logic to what she said...

Yes I have heard that it does happen. Don't know the science behind it though.

the only time I know of that anyones hair turned gray from trauma is in cartoons like popeye and tweety and sylvester and power puff girls shows.

one time in school we had to decide if stress made hair turn gray by talking to people in our town and call some doctors. most of the class results was gray hair is caused by heridity the same as why some people had blue eyes and some had brown and some had gray or hazel. our looks are determined by our genes. if we have parents with gray hair at a young age we would end up with gray hair if we had a grandmother who was indian and had her black hair all her life we would have black hair most if not all our life. one doctor came in to the class and did this huge diagram on blue eyed mother with brown eyed dad and what kinds of eyes the kids will have from inheriting then did a diagram about black, brown, blond people and what kind of hair their kids will have and when they will go gray because of when their parents went gray.he said stress and trauma unlike the cartoons has nothing to do with turning gray so the kids who hit their heads on the playgrounds, or got a swat to the head or caused their parents to worry can relax. it made for a great class.

you can ask your doctor where gray hair comes from and they can explain the dynamics behind getting genes from your parents. maybe they will even draw you one of those fancy charts the doctor who came in to our class did. it was really cool.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09...dy_shock_hair/

Have you compared pictures of presidents Clinton and G. W. Bush before and after?

Better get some pictures of Obama now, too...

Yes,I believe huge responsibilities(major stresses) can result in faster aging..... with that said though-- I think stress is an entirley different creature than most traumas.

fins

My Uncle was in a severe car accident when he was 16 years old. I won't go into details, but he was in a coma for nearly a year. Before the accident his hair was black, after it was pure white...all of it...at 17 years old.

I think Byz's link answers the question. I think there's a misunderstanding here - yes stress/trauma can cause a person to prematurely age and turn gray faster. The hair on your head is dead and can't change color unless you chemically alter it or bake in the sun. So if a person goes through a sudden shock the hair already on their head won't turn gray/white, but the new growth might start growing gray. Genetics and stress does play a role in prematurely turning gray, but a stressful event won't do anything to the hair already on your head.

Thanks everyone...Lots of helpful information....So it looks like it just happened for no rhyme or reason...Never even thought about it until last night or was it "the wee hours in the morning". Boy the mind "thinks" when lack of sleep keeps one up..

Yes, that has happened to me - the hair right next to ear is all white and has been since I was twelve years old... about the same time my DID came about.

Gosh, I don't know what to say... Guess stress, trauma can affect people in different ways...So bottom line is, trauma which in many ways causes stress and therefore a person's hair could turn white. Being the whole head or just a strip of hair...Some things just can't be fully explained as to the whys.. It just is...

Am sorry you experienced any kind of trauma...

I've always wondered about this, as well.
My parents showed gray in their mid to late years.
Mom turned from auborn red to gray overnight (so it seemed), in her late 40's and dad, who's now 80, still has alot of his natural dark color remaining, although been pretty bald since his early 20's.

My siblings fall close to suit. There's 10 of us, with 5 brunettes and 5 reds, (I'm one of the reds). Seems that the brunettes have gone gray way early in their years, while the reds have lost hair (brother's, anyway...lol).
My younger sister of 3 years is also red, yet she is almost completely gray now. The other younger sister of 5 years is brunette, and has shown a gradual gray beginning years ago. She colors the gray out.

Out of all of us siblings, so far I'm the only one who hasn't shown any sign of gray whatsoever, (which I find odd, as out of all of us kids, I've had a rougher life by far than any of the others). So, I'm assuming that I'll be either like my mom was...go gray overnight, or like dad is....slight gray in late years. Either way, it's a "knock on wood" for mez...lmao.
I'm just in delay mode, I guess...lol, (though that's not surprising..I was always behind on everything I've done since the age of 3).

Shangrala

Thus can be due to a long-term copper deficiency in your diet. Medications can do this to you, as well. You may have corrected the problem yourself and "lost" the white streak.