# Can hair turn white overnight from fright? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 23, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright/309479 "2005-06-23T02:29:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright/309479/1 "2005-06-23T02:29:00Z")
When I was younger, I went on a school sponsored trip to Washington DC. There at a hotdog stand outside the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, I met a Vietnamese reporter, who fought served in the Vietnamese army during the Vietnam war. He had the whitest hair I have ever seen. He explained that he survived a B-52 attack during the war, and as a result his hair became shock-white after the attack. Well, I was 16 at the time, and it seemed to make sense back then. ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright/309479/2 "2005-06-23T02:40:16Z")
BTW, here is the link to the original conversation: [Can Hair Turn White Overnight from Fright?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_315b.html) ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright/309479/3 "2005-06-23T02:41:01Z")
Sorry, I have no answer, but I’m adding the[link](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_315b.html) to Cecil’s column, so no one pulls yours out 😃 ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright/309479/4 "2005-06-23T02:42:07Z")
Hey! that wasn’ t there a m…never mind… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Judge\_Judy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Judge\_Judy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judge_Judy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2005, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright/309479/5 "2005-06-23T09:32:00Z")
THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE ! All those people, like Marie Antoinette, who’s hair turned white in prison simply lost access to their hair dye. End of story. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright/309479/6 "2005-06-24T03:38:58Z")
My father-in-law was going gray when he started chemotherapy, which for some reason caused his dark hair to fall out leaving mostly gray hair, much faster than could have happened by growing out that way. Unfortunately he never recovered so we never knew if it would have grown back in dark again. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-hair-turn-white-overnight-from-fright/309479/7 "2005-06-24T04:33:40Z")
> [@Judge Judy](#): > > THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE ! > > All those people, like Marie Antoinette, who’s hair turned white in prison simply lost access to their hair dye. End of story. And how does that mean it happened overnight, rather than over some days or weeks as the dye faded? Like most SIMPLE answers, yours is wrong, and unilluminating to boot. But, given that, I congratulate you on an apposite choice of user name.