Post by the Scribe on Oct 24, 2023 16:09:33 GMT
How age, stress and genetics turn hair gray
www.npr.org/2023/10/23/1198908342/short-wave-draft-10-23-2023?ft=nprml&f=1128
October 23, 20233:00 AM ET
By Brit Hanson, Rhitu Chatterjee, Aaron Scott
10-Minute Listen play.podtrac.com/npr-510351/traffic.megaphone.fm/NPR4041334600.mp3?d=638&size=10221654&e=1198908342&t=podcast&p=510351&sc=siteplayer&aw_0_1st.playerid=siteplayer
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Why a person's hair turns gray has to do with melanocytes, or pigment-producing cells that are concentrated around the hair follicle that give it color. One stops producing pigment, that strand of hair turns gray.
Christopher Robbins/Getty Images
Why does hair turn gray? Is it stress? Age? Genetics?
As a kid, host Aaron Scott would dress up for Halloween as an older version of himself — complete with a cane, a set of polyester britches and painted gray hair. These days, that costume is becoming a bit more of a day-to-day reality. At least, the gray hair is.
So today, in honor of all you out there flirting with gray hair, whether for a witch costume or just that exciting and terrifying thing called aging, we're digging into why hair turns gray. And we turn to dermatologist Dr. Jenna Lester for answers.
www.ucsfhealth.org/providers/dr-jenna-lester
Have an idea for an episode, or questions for the team? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
shortwave@npr.org
This episode was fact-checked by Rasha Aridi, and edited by Gisele Grayson and Viet Le. Dennis Nielson was the audio engineer.
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