Gray Hair REVERSAL ! WE`RE ALMOST THERE GUYS ! We Can Do It !

[PxD]

I don't think we are "programmed" to age, if by age you mean degenerate. Mature, sure. All animals mature. But this "genetic" idea of aging doesn't make any sense to me. Why would any animal be "programmed" to age? I think it comes down to more how you take care of yourself and environmental factors. If you brought a brand new car, never bothered to change the oil, and had the engine seize up around 20,000 miles, would you blame that on "poor design?" Nope. That is poor maintenance.

I would think we age, by design, as a normal process, on our way to eventually dying. I don't think nature would tolerate immortal species.

 

[boris]

I don't think nature would tolerate immortal species.

Sorry to burst your bubble :

Turritopsis dohrnii
Turritopsis dohrnii, also known as the immortal jellyfish, is a species of small, biologically immortal jellyfish.

 

[tankasnowgod]

I would think we age, by design, as a normal process, on our way to eventually dying. I don't think nature would tolerate immortal species.

Why would you think its "by design," though? Aging, as such, isn't required for a species to be "mortal," as humans and other animals can very clearly die of acute trauma. Also, even a dramatically longer lifespan of hundreds or thousands of years is still a far cry from infinity, or even 6 billion years.

 

[Jigend]

Alright bros, it`s been 2 years since my research started and I`m here to share what I know with you ! also we can do this together and help each other with what info we got and mix it together and hopefully to work this out ! and solve this issue !

Long story short : my first gray popped up when I was 24, I got shocked, I hate it so much ! I did my best to find out how can I reverse it, many people said that I am delusional ! guess what, I was not.

In 5 years I never stopped the research, I am 31 now and I have less gray hair than I had when I was 27.

Please do share your experiences too so we could see what is the key to reverse it completely, because it is possible.

So far what I've done and what I know :

1. Copper deficiency will cause the whatever gene was programmed (because aging is programmed by something , I am not sure what but I am sure we will find out soon if we do WORK together in this) to get gray hairs pretty fast at people, some get it early to 19 ! lol. I took copper, real copper, you know which one, I won't post here because I don't wanna do any advertising in my posts !

2. I tried my best to get iron out of my blood to almost anemia levels. I donated gallons of blood and I took tons of iron che lators, be them natural stuff or not, turmeric, etc.

3. I cut out coffee and cola forever, as for some reason I think caffeine does something that causes gray hair temporary (I did not find out how this process works yet, I will find out)

4. Paradoxically drank lots of green tea (even if they contain bit caffeine) the catechins in it work as powerful chelators

5. I took some T3 for thyroid , I am not sure if this worked or not but ... there is a study who says T3 can reverse gray hair

6. I don't smoke, never did

7. Got wheat and gluten down to almost 0 % levels, for some reason wheat or gluten can cause grey hair, I am not sure not even to this day which one and how and why, too much info and this subject I studied less, but if you can help me on this one, we help each other !

8. Wheatgrass powder and chlorella powder ! not sure how they work but got them daily, might it be the chlorophyll amount ? might it be the catalase ? I don`t know

Be aware that few years ago I had 20 % of my hair gray, now I`m somewhere around 5% . I plan total reversal of gray hair and I`m doing my best day by day reading tons of stuff, I look up to the cancer meds and the cases were people got hair totally reversed to normal color after some meds, it's interesting, there is always hope and there are always ways, but we need to find out how to do it

I posted here all the info I gained in many many years, please post your experience and opinion too, cheers and best of luck!

Alexander

In regards to point 2 – that of coffee "having something that causes white hair" – I think that OP is indeed pointing something out which is very pertinent, unlike what some other posters have commented.

Remember, coffee, like pretty much all other metabolic stimulants, uses up all sorts of vitamins, aminos and minerals. It's just a natural consequence of its normal action. Turns out that one of the things that coffee does is depleting folate. Depleted folate will lead to high homocysteine, which will result in increased hidrogen peroxide and thus, white hairs. It's not wonder that Haidut posted a study that implied how white hair could be a biomarker for cardiovascular diseases and even "biological age". Unlike what that study says, I don't think that is necessarily the case: White hair is just one of the consequences of high homocysteine.


With the above said, it would be worth nothing that consuming a lot of coffee needs to be accompanied by adequate supporting nutrition. And in the context of hair and hair pigmentation, folate has an important role to play, since it keeps homocysteine at bay AND is one of the vitamins caffeine directly depletes. What's more, if you're having energy drinks frequently, I'd advise you to pay attention to not only their caffeine content, but to vitamin B1 as well, seeing as it antagonizes folate directly.


There's a some very instructive posts about white hair on RPF. I've been trying to solve the puzzle as well, as I have an unaesthetic white square-ish patch of hair on my beard. Posts like this one are very elucidative of that various things one may need for lush, colored hair:
- Copper
- Magnesium
- Folate
- Lower iron

There's also many other posts that mention how lowering tryptophan and serotonin is also beneficial, as those are involved in the "white pathway" somehow. Adrenaline also plays a role, and as such, increasing sodium a bit may prove itself to be beneficial.

The TL;DR of this would be that even beneficial things like coffee need to be contextualized, and understood in a holistic manner. Otherwise we may end up like redditors in distress.

 

[BearWithMe]

In regards to point 2 – that of coffee "having something that causes white hair" – I think that OP is indeed pointing something out which is very pertinent, unlike what some other posters have commented.

Remember, coffee, like pretty much all other metabolic stimulants, uses up all sorts of vitamins, aminos and minerals. It's just a natural consequence of its normal action. Turns out that one of the things that coffee does is depleting folate. Depleted folate will lead to high homocysteine, which will result in increased hidrogen peroxide and thus, white hairs. It's not wonder that Haidut posted a study that implied how white hair could be a biomarker for cardiovascular diseases and even "biological age". Unlike what that study says, I don't think that is necessarily the case: White hair is just one of the consequences of high homocysteine.


With the above said, it would be worth nothing that consuming a lot of coffee needs to be accompanied by adequate supporting nutrition. And in the context of hair and hair pigmentation, folate has an important role to play, since it keeps homocysteine at bay AND is one of the vitamins caffeine directly depletes. What's more, if you're having energy drinks frequently, I'd advise you to pay attention to not only their caffeine content, but to vitamin B1 as well, seeing as it antagonizes folate directly.


There's a some very instructive posts about white hair on RPF. I've been trying to solve the puzzle as well, as I have an unaesthetic white square-ish patch of hair on my beard. Posts like this one are very elucidative of that various things one may need for lush, colored hair:
- Copper
- Magnesium
- Folate
- Lower iron

There's also many other posts that mention how lowering tryptophan and serotonin is also beneficial, as those are involved in the "white pathway" somehow. Adrenaline also plays a role, and as such, increasing sodium a bit may prove itself to be beneficial.

The TL;DR of this would be that even beneficial things like coffee need to be contextualized, and understood in a holistic manner. Otherwise we may end up like redditors in distress.

This post is much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[DeadCatBounce]

In regards to point 2 – that of coffee "having something that causes white hair" – I think that OP is indeed pointing something out which is very pertinent, unlike what some other posters have commented.

Remember, coffee, like pretty much all other metabolic stimulants, uses up all sorts of vitamins, aminos and minerals. It's just a natural consequence of its normal action. Turns out that one of the things that coffee does is depleting folate. Depleted folate will lead to high homocysteine, which will result in increased hidrogen peroxide and thus, white hairs. It's not wonder that Haidut posted a study that implied how white hair could be a biomarker for cardiovascular diseases and even "biological age". Unlike what that study says, I don't think that is necessarily the case: White hair is just one of the consequences of high homocysteine.


With the above said, it would be worth nothing that consuming a lot of coffee needs to be accompanied by adequate supporting nutrition. And in the context of hair and hair pigmentation, folate has an important role to play, since it keeps homocysteine at bay AND is one of the vitamins caffeine directly depletes. What's more, if you're having energy drinks frequently, I'd advise you to pay attention to not only their caffeine content, but to vitamin B1 as well, seeing as it antagonizes folate directly.


There's a some very instructive posts about white hair on RPF. I've been trying to solve the puzzle as well, as I have an unaesthetic white square-ish patch of hair on my beard. Posts like this one are very elucidative of that various things one may need for lush, colored hair:
- Copper
- Magnesium
- Folate
- Lower iron

There's also many other posts that mention how lowering tryptophan and serotonin is also beneficial, as those are involved in the "white pathway" somehow. Adrenaline also plays a role, and as such, increasing sodium a bit may prove itself to be beneficial.

The TL;DR of this would be that even beneficial things like coffee need to be contextualized, and understood in a holistic manner. Otherwise we may end up like redditors in distress.

Its not just folate though. I did experiment with folate supplementation while drinking coffee. Seems like coffee is an irritant to the whole body. Stress hormones go higher chronically if one drinks everyday. Its cocaine light.

 

[DiabloQueso]

Dehydration and unchecked DHT are major factors often overlooked. Antioxidants like Astaxanthin and Fisetin should also help. Many items that help skin aging and sun damage also reduce graying of hair.

On a supplement front, Fo-Ti has been known to fend off gray hairs into your late 40s. However when it fails you usually skip gray and go straight to white. I suspect it ramps up melanin production until it just straight up fails.

 

[yerrag]

I agree with OP that copper is important for hair to maintain its color and not become Greg or white.

Ray Peat recommends eating shrimp for its copper, but most shrimp is farm-raised and loaded with antibiotics and the feed shrimp grow on is suspect. So I would buy wild-caught sea shrimp but it's now getting harder to find and getting more costly, and the fish mongers would now mix sea shrimp with farm-raised shrimp and then pass off to unsuspecting buyers as sea shrimp.

I have just recently found a solution to this. And it's been under my nose and only recently realized this.

I have already been eating well-cooked greens for years, following Peat's recommendation for calcium and magnesium from leaves. There's a green leaf veggie common in Asia called convolvus, which grows in shallow water canals. Filipinos eat this cooked with a fermented and salted small crustaceans that are like mini-shrimp. The dish is called binagoongang kangkong.

I plan on eating this dish more often, enough to give me enough copper for my greying hair. This fermented paste is also commonly used in many Southeast Asian dishes, and the paste is found in Asian groceries.

It has a pungent smell and taste though, that takes some getting used to for Westerners. But hey, if people can acquire the taste for cheese that smell like toe fungus, they can learn to like bagoong.

For keeping hair black. Without having to deal with yet another supplement in a long list of supplements to take.

 

[Jigend]

In regards to point 2 – that of coffee "having something that causes white hair" – I think that OP is indeed pointing something out which is very pertinent, unlike what some other posters have commented.

Remember, coffee, like pretty much all other metabolic stimulants, uses up all sorts of vitamins, aminos and minerals. It's just a natural consequence of its normal action. Turns out that one of the things that coffee does is depleting folate. Depleted folate will lead to high homocysteine, which will result in increased hidrogen peroxide and thus, white hairs. It's not wonder that Haidut posted a study that implied how white hair could be a biomarker for cardiovascular diseases and even "biological age". Unlike what that study says, I don't think that is necessarily the case: White hair is just one of the consequences of high homocysteine.


With the above said, it would be worth nothing that consuming a lot of coffee needs to be accompanied by adequate supporting nutrition. And in the context of hair and hair pigmentation, folate has an important role to play, since it keeps homocysteine at bay AND is one of the vitamins caffeine directly depletes. What's more, if you're having energy drinks frequently, I'd advise you to pay attention to not only their caffeine content, but to vitamin B1 as well, seeing as it antagonizes folate directly.


There's a some very instructive posts about white hair on RPF. I've been trying to solve the puzzle as well, as I have an unaesthetic white square-ish patch of hair on my beard. Posts like this one are very elucidative of that various things one may need for lush, colored hair:
- Copper
- Magnesium
- Folate
- Lower iron

There's also many other posts that mention how lowering tryptophan and serotonin is also beneficial, as those are involved in the "white pathway" somehow. Adrenaline also plays a role, and as such, increasing sodium a bit may prove itself to be beneficial.

The TL;DR of this would be that even beneficial things like coffee need to be contextualized, and understood in a holistic manner. Otherwise we may end up like redditors in distress.

Following through with the above post, and after having read this very instructive one I was looking for ways to decrease one of the factors that contributes to white hair - hydrogen peroxide - while protecting other factors that reduce the oxidation leading to hydrogen peroxide - like superoxide dismutase.

Turns out increasing CO2 does both, as this study reveals:

"CO2 protects superoxide dismutase against oxidative damage induced by hydrogen peroxide."

So, increasing CO2 will be helpful against one of the factors leading to white hair. Of course, there are other factors like low copper or high homocysteine (from low folate). But this thing about CO2 is another good thing to know.

Now, in order to increase CO2, the most obvious thing is to increase sugar, reduce hyperventilation (snoring, adrenaline). Other things would include having CO2 enriched beverages like sparkling water. One other thing would be Baking Soda.

Now, I'm thinking if there are ways to apply this CO2 more directly and topically, to increase superoxide dismutase. As far as I know, baking soda only releases CO2 when in contact with stomach acid, so applying it to the areas with white hair would not do much.... or would it?

 

[BearWithMe]

Now, I'm thinking if there are ways to apply this CO2 more directly and topically, to increase superoxide dismutase. As far as I know, baking soda only releases CO2 when in contact with stomach acid, so applying it to the areas with white hair would not do much.... or would it?

Dilute Apple Cider Vinegar hairwash is very popular in no-poo / natural bodycare circles. ACV alone is supposed to stimulate hair growth. What would happen if we would add a little bit of baking soda into ACV hairwash?

Also, somewhere on the forum, someone suggested tight cap / bandana to increase scalp CO2

 

[Ynot]

I agree with OP that copper is important for hair to maintain its color and not become Greg or white.

Ray Peat recommends eating shrimp for its copper, but most shrimp is farm-raised and loaded with antibiotics and the feed shrimp grow on is suspect. So I would buy wild-caught sea shrimp but it's now getting harder to find and getting more costly, and the fish mongers would now mix sea shrimp with farm-raised shrimp and then pass off to unsuspecting buyers as sea shrimp.

I have just recently found a solution to this. And it's been under my nose and only recently realized this.

I have already been eating well-cooked greens for years, following Peat's recommendation for calcium and magnesium from leaves. There's a green leaf veggie common in Asia called convolvus, which grows in shallow water canals. Filipinos eat this cooked with a fermented and salted small crustaceans that are like mini-shrimp. The dish is called binagoongang kangkong.

I plan on eating this dish more often, enough to give me enough copper for my greying hair. This fermented paste is also commonly used in many Southeast Asian dishes, and the paste is found in Asian groceries.

It has a pungent smell and taste though, that takes some getting used to for Westerners. But hey, if people can acquire the taste for cheese that smell like toe fungus, they can learn to like bagoong.

For keeping hair black. Without having to deal with yet another supplement in a long list of supplements to take.

I have a whole garden bed of kangkong! And I have been cooking it with tallow + garlic and chilli -- are you saying if I cook it with the shrimp paste it may help reverse my grey hair!? I will give it a go as the ONLY green veges I've been eating recently is the kangkong as it took over my garden bed!

The only times I've noticed hair reversing from grey-ness is
1. when I went carnivore (after being keto for years)
2. when taking spirulina / green tablets

Needless to say my greys are advancing and I even tried taking Stinging Nettle (as per the thread "The Root of Gray Hair") but it hasn't done what I was hoping.

So I'll give the shrimp paste a go (since i have a jar at home) but may have to cook outside

 

[yerrag]

I have a whole garden bed of kangkong! And I have been cooking it with tallow + garlic and chilli -- are you saying if I cook it with the shrimp paste it may help reverse my grey hair!? I will give it a go as the ONLY green veges I've been eating recently is the kangkong as it took over my garden bed!

The only times I've noticed hair reversing from grey-ness is
1. when I went carnivore (after being keto for years)
2. when taking spirulina / green tablets

Needless to say my greys are advancing and I even tried taking Stinging Nettle (as per the thread "The Root of Gray Hair") but it hasn't done what I was hoping.

So I'll give the shrimp paste a go (since i have a jar at home) but may have to cook outside

I've been eating it regularly but alternating with two other cooked greens, carrot tops and alugbati (malabar spinach). so I don't get tired of it. But these cooked greens are the only cooked veggies I eat regularly. I'm not holding my breath though as I find that it's like daily checking on your weight makes one impatient. Besides, I don't think my liver is optimal and I'm also working on it, so if my gray hair is not going away it may just mean something else is holding it back. I enjoy the taste of bagoong and I find that I get to share my convolvus (bagoong) dish with my cats that way. They get some greens this way as well. The shrimp paste makes the greens tasty for them.

 

[Andy316]

Bumping this forum to see if anyone was successful in reversing their gray hairs. I tried Nettle tea, copper rich foods, folate but no success. I think my white hair started after a period of stress where I was drinking regular coke almost everyday for a few months.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Bumping this forum to see if anyone was successful in reversing their gray hairs. I tried Nettle tea, copper rich foods, folate but no success. I think my white hair started after a period of stress where I was drinking regular coke almost everyday for a few months.

Coke is high in phosphorus, and phosphorus, like in breads and grains and meats deplete calcium and gray hair. I am sure the anti-nutrients in grains is another factor. I keep my tryptophan low too to reverse my grays…

THE ROOT OF GRAY HAIR

I have created this thread because I get asked a lot about nettle, and how it restored my natural hair color. I have told of my good results, here and there on this forum, but now I want to talk about other factors that may have played a part in my results. My first hearing about nettle having...

raypeatforum.com

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Coke is high in phosphorus, and phosphorus, like in breads and grains and meats deplete calcium and gray hair. I am sure the anti-nutrients in grains is another factor. I keep my tryptophan low too to reverse my grays…

THE ROOT OF GRAY HAIR

I have created this thread because I get asked a lot about nettle, and how it restored my natural hair color. I have told of my good results, here and there on this forum, but now I want to talk about other factors that may have played a part in my results. My first hearing about nettle having...

raypeatforum.com

“Recent publications are showing that excess phosphate can increase inflammation, tissue atrophy, calcification of blood vessels, cancer, dementia, and, in general, the processes of aging. This is especially important, because of the increasing use of phosphates as food additives.”

“For example, increased phosphate increases the inflammatory cytokine, osteopontin (Fatherazi, et al., 2009), which in bone is known to activate the process of decalcification, and in arteries is involved in calcification processes (Tousoulis, et al., 2012). In the kidneys, phosphate promotes calcification (Bois and Selye, 1956), and osteopontin, by its activation of inflammatory T-cells, is involved in the development of glomerulonephritis, as well as in inflammatory skin reactions (Yu, et al., 1998). High dietary phosphate increases serum osteopontin, as well as serum phosphate and parathyroid hormone, and increases the formation of tumors in skin (Camalier, et al., 2010). -Ray Peat

Phosphate, activation, and aging​

 

[zorba990]

Of course there is this old study:
Darkening of gray hair during para-amino-benzoic acid therapy
And you can make your own PABA topicals, even water soluble if you provide a salt to the acid, of course.

Manganese and Copper Super Oxide Dismutase levels levels fall with age and stress:
Protective effect of superoxide dismutase against hair graying in a mouse model


So supplementing copper or manganese in a deficiency will certainly help, and zinc may work against since it competes with the others. It may help to give SOD a boost with mimetics:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277323811_Mimicking_Superoxide_Dismutase_Activity_Using_Manganese_Copper_Salicylates_In_Vitro
Abstract​

Antioxidants are chemicals that neutralize free-radicals oxidants in physiological systems. They can be classified as organic i.e. natural or synthetic antioxidants e.g. Manganese and Copper salicylates which have thus by this study demonstrated promise for their potential for antioxidants activity as useful superoxide free-radical scavenging elements in vitro. In this study the naturally occurring superoxide dismutase enzyme activity was mimicked using manganese and copper salicylates on pyrogallol (an organic oxidative agent). Human erythrocytes were lysed and the haemoglobin removed before centrifugation to obtain the blood serum that contained the antioxidant enzyme i.e. superoxide dismutase (SOD). The serum was treated with pyrogallol at varying concentration to determine the superoxide dismutase activity as the reference assay, manganese salicylate and copper salicylate were used to simulate the SOD activity experienced in the reference assay.