I don’t know about “due to fright” but a streak in my hair turned white immediately when I had my tonsils removed.
I had a reaction to the anaesthetic I was given and awakened having a seizure. My father slapped me to stop the seizure (not the best way to go about doing that, but it worked) and a streak in my hair became white in a matter of minutes. The physician said it was due to shock.
While the above is an interesting story, I’m afraid it simply cannot be true. The only way hair turns white like that is due to bleach. As Cecil said in his column, hair is dead tissue and cannot just change color on its own in a flash.
Incidentally, the column in question is: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_315b.html
Hair that is already there cannot change color. But new hair coming in can be different than the old. I’ve seen this with friends who have had chemotherapy, lost their hair, and had the new hair come in with a completely different texture and look to it. Not sure why this is.
While I’m sorry that you feel my earlier post is a story, it is unfortunately true. Over a period of weeks the white in my hair spread to my right temple and down into my right eyebrow.
My physician had me go through a treatment where an ointment of some kind (at this time I do not remember what it was, at that age I didn’t bother to read the name and ingredients on the tube) was rubbed on the skin around the affected area and I had to sit in the sun daily to try to reverse the problem. The treatment didn’t work and I still have the streak in my hair, eyebrow and temple.
So, believe what you will but I’m the one that has had to live with it for the past two decades.
Jillgat said:
When my father finished chemo and his hair (what there is of it) returned, it looked darker to all of us. I suspect the reason is similar to something Cecil mentioned in that column, but in reverse – that perhaps the follicles producing gray hairs didn’t kick in right away, so his hair all seemed darker. Dunno for sure, though.
Wibi – I didn’t mean to imply you were lying, but look at the situation. You say something happened. That particular occurrence is simply impossible. If I weigh these things on the scale, I must come to the conclusion that you are mistaken. The fact that it “spread” slowly indicates to me that it did not, in fact, happen “in a matter of minutes,” but that you had a reaction that caused new hair to be white. You may remember it differently, but then we’ve had people on this message board who insist that they saw something on TV that never happened. We’ve had long discussions about the faulty nature of memory. Given what you’ve said here, it is my belief that this is another such case. I can’t prove it, but again, weighing the scales, that is the most likely conclusion.
I am not trying to be difficult and if it hadn’t happened to me I also wouldn’t be likely to believe it. But it did happen to me so I only know what I lived. Besides, a well known person once said, “Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.”
The streak in my hair turned from mousey brown to a yellowy white within a matter of minutes and that streak stayed that way. Any new hair that grew in that area also came in the same yellowy white. And for the past 5 or 6 years the white has spread even further. However, I blame that on my teenage son. :
: In this same time period the skin on my right temple has slowly become less white and more of a normal skin tone.
Anyway, if you want something that’s even more of a bizarre nature: Four years ago I had minor surgery. Within 72 hours of that surgery my hair went from stick straight and baby fine to having cow licks and frizzy. If you can explain that one please do because none of my doctors and none of the tests they put me through have been able to explain it. And I HATE MY HAIR NOW!
I think its bad form to say something is impossible because Cecil says so. Maybe this is a silly prank, maybe Cecil is wrong, maybe both.
Horselover: I’m not saying it’s impossible because Cecil says so (though, in reality, that would be enough reason to say it – I mean, it is Cecil, after all). I’m saying it’s impossible because, well, it’s impossible.
Wibi said:
And the person I mentioned before knows that he saw an episode of a TV show that never existed. In fact, I know of a number of people who “remember” seeing that show or another like it, when no such thing ever happened. I know I’m not going to change your mind about your own memory, but nor are you going to change my mind without something more than “It really happened.” Like I said, when I weigh the scales of something that is impossible vs. something you said happened to you, I’m not going to come down as believing you simply because you say so. I suspect most people around here are that way.
OK, Wibi2, put it this way: Supposing, for the sake of argument, that this did, in fact, happen, it’s no doubt a rare occurence. Presumably, the medical staff present would have noted it and remembered, and very likely had something published about it. Furthermore, these people would probably have some idea as to how it may have happened. I’m not sure what kind of relationship you have with your doctors, but if you can get one of them on here to tell us about it, or, better yet, point us to a journal artical documenting such a phenomenon, we’ll listen.
Wibi2, I’m curious as to how old you were when you had your tonsils out? I know that, when I tell my Mom childhood things as I remember them(with me at 56 now), she quite often tells me that I don’t quite remember them the same way she does. Of course, she is quite the Southern Lady and tells me I’m ‘disrembering’ things in such a delightful way.
I was four years old when I had my tonsilectomy but continued treatment for several years after that.
I can only tell you what has been told to me over and over and also what I’ve lived through. After my recent minor surgery I was complaining to my mother about how my hair had changed so much. She said that my body went into shock (her words, not mine) just like after my tonsilectomy, She told me the same thing I’ve heard many times over the years.
I apologize if you think I have “tweaked your world” a little bit, but I have the distinct feeling that I am being considered a little feeble brained for not remembering something correctly. If you could see a picture of my white streak and skin you would possibly understand the grief it has given me throughout the years. And I don’t need anymore of that type of thing. I was merely sharing my experience and then this board shot me down because the members can’t explain it themselves. You need to learn that some things defy explanation no matter how hard you look for an answer.
Unfortunately I do not personally have any documentation on my hair turning white. My mother kept my medical records from my childhood. I will contact her to see if she has anything on it. If not, then I am stuck since the situation was so long ago I do not even know if my pediatrician at the time has anything on it any longer. I was never told if anything was written publicly about it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t done.
This is the last I will write on this subject unless I find some “proof” other than my hair and skin.
Um, you were four years old?
Ok, well, I’m sorry Wibi, but this goes to further support what I’ve been saying. Barring specific medical records that indicate your body did something impossible, I have personally concluded that you are misremembering this incident. This does not make you feeble-minded, as I have tried to explain. Lots of people misremember things. But when the scientific or other evidence points one way and your memory points another, it’s time to reconsider your memories.
Wibi, no one is doubting your streak… only the time frame. You yourself say, << Over a period of weeks the white in my hair spread to my right temple and down into my right eyebrow. >> Is it not possible that the initial change was over a period of weeks, which your parents have misremembered as “very quickly”? Presumably, since this happened when you were four, you do not have actual memory, but are relying on what your parents have told you over the years… and several factors can contribute to their honest mis-remembering. One is that a period of several weeks can seem “almost instantaneous” so that the memory can compress time. The other is that the story is still dramatic, and a dramatic retelling over time leads to a telling by rote (I would guess that after a few years, it was family story, told almost word-for-word the same time after time.) Again, over time, as the story gets refined and fine-tuned, the wording “a few weeks” changes to “very quickly” changes to “over night.” Not hard to envision that kind of thing happening (I can give you examples of my family’s stories where that’s what happened.)
Alternative explanations, of course, include someone using some sort of dye or colouring on your hair…which could cause an overnight change.
Why did the streak cause you grief? Did kids tease you about it? It sounds gorgeous to me—I have friends with white streaks in their hair, and it’s a wonderful look!
Of course, kids can be evil, which may have made you hate the white streak—but I hope you see it now as a lovely gift from Mother Nature!
Heck, every time that my Grampa tells anyone how big he was at birth, he gains a few ounces. Am I saying that he’s deliberately pulling our legs? No. Am I saying that he’s an idiot, because he can’t remember? No. Am I saying that I really believe that he weighed 24 pounds at birth? No. Sure, big babies run in our family, and I wouldn’t doubt 11 or 12 pounds, but these things get exaggerated. None of us are saying that we doubt that the tonsilectomy caused a sudden white streak in your hair (which I think looks cool, too, btw), we’re just doubting how sudden it was.
Jillgat said:
David B said:
Chemo and radiation treatments that make the hair fall out can alter the folicles, thus changing hair characteristics. They can make a blond go brunette or a brunette go blond. They can make straight hair wavy and wavy hair straight, course hair fine and fine hair coarse. It’s alteration to the genes in the folicles.
As far as gray hairs not kicking in right away, that’s possible. The changes to the folicles may have been reactivated pigmentation.
Eve, I can sympathize with Wibi2’s pigmentation problems. Notice he said it didn’t just affect the hair, but his skin as well. I have spots of skin with no pigmentation as well - they look kinda odd. White or pale blue spots in the middle of normal colored skin. In fact, the skin around my eyes has this trait. It usually does not stand out since I’m fairly pale anyway, but if I get a lot of sun it does stand out and look odd. I’ve been accused of wearing eye-shadow. Nope, that’s my skin. Then there’s the time I got a black eye, and had a dark ring around one eye and a pale one around the other. Now that’s an attractive look.
I haven’t read a lot of these boards, but I’m fascinated by the subject of memory and how unreliable it is. One of my favorite books is The Execution’s Song by Norman Mailer. (The only book of his I have been able to stand BTW.) He devotes a some pages (if memory serves) to disecting the memories of all the people and family members involved in the Gary Gilmore case, and the reliability factors of each one.
So, say Jane usually increases the length of time since an event. Incident A happened 2 weeks ago, says Jane. John, on the other hand, tends to minimize. He thinks Incident A occurred last week. So Mailer uses this to determine Incident A happened about a week and a half ago.
I’ve applied this rule of thumb (!) to people IRL and found the principle to be essentially true! I myself tend to be like Jane and say, "Oh that happened weeks> ago, while my husband thinks like John.
And, on topic, I just re-read the expanded edition of The Stand. Remember the character who eventually “marries” the Walkin’ Dude? Her hair turns whiter with every encounter she has with him. But of course that’s fiction …
In almost every biography I have read of Marie Antoinette—we’re talking historical, factual biography!—it’s stated that her hair turned white “overnight” when she and the Royal Family were recaptured during an escape attempt during the Revolution. I always think to myself, yeah, she musta brought the Royal Hairdresser with her . . .
Personally speaking I beleive that people out there aren’t trusting enough.
I think you should beleive him. Just based on the fact that he IS living it and you couldn’t possibly understand.
There’s evidence in the news every week that, on the average, people are far too trusting. Here. people are far less trusting than average; but IMHO the average in this board does not go too far in the other direction.
It’s wrong, based on the information that you and we have, to say “he IS living it”. He wrote that he remembers the incident in a particular way. Human memory is notoriously inaccurate. Humans do lie (although I am not accusing wibi2 of lying, it is possible).
And on what basis do you claim we couldn’t possibly understand?