Hair Color Change

[Ilvar]

Hi all,

After reading threads about iron, copper and hypothyroidism, I’m wondering if anyone has noticed their hair color and texture change.

When I was really young, my hair was fine and straight and a coppery blond/light brown color. Eventually it changed to virtually black and coarse/wavy from age 11/12 onwards, and this time of my life was marked by anxiety and stress, and less than stellar nutrition. After coming off of SSRIs I had a massive anxiety attack at 18, and a blood test came back showing excess iron.

Is high iron linked to darkening hair? If so, would increasing copper bring back that lighter hair color I had as a kid, as well as the fine texture?

I’ve been on off peating and a friend’s mother commented that my hair is looking straighter. Anybody here have similar experiences?

 

[AnnSimpson]

Hi all,

After reading threads about iron, copper and hypothyroidism, I’m wondering if anyone has noticed their hair color and texture change.

When I was really young, my hair was fine and straight and a coppery blond/light brown color. Eventually it changed to virtually black and coarse/wavy from age 11/12 onwards, and this time of my life was marked by anxiety and stress, and less than stellar nutrition. After coming off of SSRIs I had a massive anxiety attack at 18, and a blood test came back showing excess iron.

Is high iron linked to darkening hair? If so, would increasing copper bring back that lighter hair color I had as a kid, as well as the fine texture?

I’ve been on off peating and a friend’s mother commented that my hair is looking straighter. Anybody here have similar experiences?

Hey there. I think that color change depends both on your lifestyle and your nutrition. As far as I know, a high iron level can cause hair thinning as well as hair loss. As about copper, it is scientifically proven that low copper may lead to premature graying, so I think that taking copper supplements might help you. Also the styling tools you or your hairstylist is using may also affect your hair. I think you'll find this review useful, worked for me.

 

[CrystalClear]

Hi Ilvar, from my own experience and observations, young people can go from having snow white hair to having a lot darker hair later on. I think young people can bear quite a bit of stress. But if the stress is chronic it may show in the hair fairly early on.

I started greying around 21 years of age. I would say fully grey by 35. My youthful hair colour was mid brown. I dyed my hair for many years until starting to eat Peat's way ( which was close to how I ate as a kid until the mid 70's , 80's).

I let my hair grow back white. Now, with Peating though, my white hair looks blonde as there is slight pigment coming back. But some strands of hair are growing back black and you can see the blonde white on the other end. My new hair grows back very straight and very smooth, compared to older hair which is coarse and less smooth.

I remember Dr Peat saying about kids' hair that is blonde or near white that a lot of tryptophan was measured in it.

 

[Waynish]

I remember Dr Peat saying about kids' hair that is blonde or near white that a lot of tryptophan was measured in it.

Yes, he says it in this article:
Tryptophan, serotonin, and aging

He's talking about aged (turned white) hair. I doubt platinum blondes (basically white) have more tryptophan than any other hair color.
Here's the evidence for that: Sci-Hub | Tryptophan in human hair: correlation with pigmentation. Il Farmaco, 55(8), 521–525 | 10.1016/S0014-827X(00)00038-0
I would say this study is skewed towards light brown because it was done in Italy, and Italians more often have light brown - and living in your own culture is lower stress.

 

[ljihkugft7]

Yes! I’ve noticed my hair changes a lot depending on what I eat.

When I eat too little calories and too little liver and too much muscle meat I get more course dark hairs that look like wirey springs coming out of my head among my normal fine hairs, and when I eat lots of milk, liver ,Fruit, oysters And bone broth my hair gets lighter with more thin stands (thin strands but thicker volume or quantity of strand).
The thick wirey hairs also pull out very easily. Which tells me they’re quite unstable? And not rooted well.

Personally, I think retinol plays a big role.

Liver makes the most noticeable difference. For days after having raw liver my hair falls beautifully, looks smooth and thick as well as lighter in colour.
Which makes sense, because one of the symptoms of low thyroid function is course frizzy hair?

I’m not sure why or how liver does this to me.
I think it might be that it helps my thyroid/liver and just makes me overall healthier?
Is it the copper or retinol?
My hair gets noticeably unmanageable when I forget to have liver for over a week.

 

[lvysaur]

light pigmentation is a neotenous/feminine feature, and children of all races are lighter than adults.
the frizziness is the metabolic problem. If the hair just got darker as you aged into puberty, but the hair density and texture stays the same, then the darkening was natural.

When I eat too little calories and too little liver and too much muscle meat I get more course dark hairs that look like wirey springs coming out of my head among my normal fine hairs, and when I eat lots of milk, liver ,Fruit, oysters And bone broth my hair gets lighter with more thin stands (thin strands but thicker volume or quantity of strand).
The thick wirey hairs also pull out very easily. Which tells me they’re quite unstable? And not rooted well.

I get this same exact symptom, the fine abundant hairs seem to correlate with fruit/milk/beef fat consumption for me. My theory is that the follicle is shifting from oxidative metabolism to non-oxidative glycolytic. Hence the hair grows faster, but reaches telogen faster as well, resulting in a much reduced hair length potential.

 

[ljihkugft7]

light pigmentation is a neotenous/feminine feature, and children of all races are lighter than adults.
the frizziness is the metabolic problem. If the hair just got darker as you aged into puberty, but the hair density and texture stays the same, then the darkening was natural.

I get this same exact symptom, the fine abundant hairs seem to correlate with fruit/milk/beef fat consumption for me. My theory is that the follicle is shifting from oxidative metabolism to non-oxidative glycolytic. Hence the hair grows faster, but reaches telogen faster as well, resulting in a much reduced hair length potential.

Very interesting! Thanks for the bit about oxidative metabolism!

The thing that confuses me is that it’s not just my regrowth that changes with my diet, it’s the lower half that grew out years ago? Does that make sense?

So, when I eat liver, my already grown out hair gets lighter in colour, more smooth and is overall more beautiful...one would totally think that nutrition would only affect the hair at the root level? Like, the hair coming out right now.

how is this possible? How does diet affect hair that grew out years ago? Is it oils? Doesn’t feel like that though because I wash my hair every day. Could it be some sort of bio magnetic frequency changing the charge of the hair? I know nothing about physics haha but that’s how fast the changes happen, like it could only be some sort of electromagnetic smoothing affect and maybe electromagnetic frizzing affect when my metabolism is crappy