# Can parts of a (young) person's hair really turn white from stress? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2001, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343 "2001-08-15T05:46:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nichie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/848f3c/32.png) [@nichie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nichie)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/1 "2001-08-15T05:46:08Z")
They claimed that in the little “making of” video in the Sixth Sense director’s cut, but who knows… ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/2 "2001-08-15T05:49:46Z")
[Can hair turn white overnight from fright?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_315b.html) ---
**Author:** ![nichie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/848f3c/32.png) [@nichie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nichie)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/3 "2001-08-15T05:52:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ruadh \* > \*\*[Can hair turn white overnight from fright?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_315b.html) \*\* I read that article, and that’s what made me remember this question. It didn’t answer it, though; that really wasn’t what I was asking. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/4 "2001-08-15T12:59:06Z")
Perhaps. I started going grey at the age of 21, while in submarines, which can be a d\*mned stressful life. When I left the boats, I stopped going grey. No other person in my family, for as many generations as I can identify, went grey early, nor has anyone else in my family developed just _some_ grey hair, then stopped. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/5 "2001-08-15T15:43:35Z")
I started getting grey hairs right after I accidentally burned down my neighbor’s shed, and barely stopped the blaze from getting their house. Some of them were singed white, but some of them actually started coming in grey. I don’t know if it was the particular type of stress, or whether a non-physical stress would do the same. ---
**Author:** ![MojoJojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@MojoJojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MojoJojo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/6 "2001-08-15T16:03:31Z")
When my cousin was in the hospital for a very difficult kidney operation (which he almost died from) my Aunt suffered a nervous breakdown from worry. One day we went to see my cousin and her hair was brown and the next day when we went to see him her hair was white, and falling out 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Heaving\_Mass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Heaving\_Mass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heaving_Mass)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/7 "2001-08-15T16:11:45Z")
I’m 22 and have tiny bits of grey at the front and sides. I’ve been working extremely hard at my job over the last year and have been quite stressed - I didn’t have them when I started. From the age of 15, this has regularly happened to me at stressful times of my life - exams through school and in college. It always disappears shortly after the stressful event is finished. I definitely think this is possible. ---
**Author:** ![wooba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@wooba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wooba)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/8 "2001-08-15T16:18:08Z")
I know of two cases where this happened. A friend of my mothers spent the night in hospital at the side of her daughter (the most important thing in her life) who was on the verge of death. One day her hair was dark, by morning it was white. Also, I saw a TV show on TLC a few weeks ago about jet fighters. They were talking to one pilot about the ejection process… he said that he’d done it once early in his career and said it was such a horrible experience that it created the streak of white hair he had at the front. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/9 "2001-08-15T17:08:56Z")
Stress can cause some of a person’s hair to fall out, and it might grow back white. Or, as Cecil’s column explains, a person who already has some grey hair may lose their darker colored hair, making the grey more visible. But already-grown hair isn’t going to suddenly change color for any reason, unless you dye or bleach it. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/10 "2001-08-15T18:27:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wooba \* > \*\* > Also, I saw a TV show on TLC a few weeks ago about jet fighters. They were talking to one pilot about the ejection process… he said that he’d done it once early in his career and said it was such a horrible experience that it created the streak of white hair he had at the front. \*\* I saw that too, but I thought they said something about the intense wind rush and low-pressure air that did something to make a chunk of his hair go white. Oh well. The white streak made him look really cool either way. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/11 "2001-08-15T23:34:56Z")
I THOUGHT we did this before [white overnight,part I](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=24409). **MojoJojo** How old were you when you went to the hospital? **woobie** While I am sure that you have been told this story, it probably lost some element of time frame in the telling. The one about your mothers friend. **Lamia** hits it right on the head(so to speak). It just doesn’t go from brown to white in 24 hours. Don’t make **David B** come in here. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Blown\_Injected](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@Blown\_Injected](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blown_Injected)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/12 "2001-08-16T01:38:25Z")
A friend that I see nearly every day had a patch of hair on the tip top of his head turn pure white over the course of a couple of weeks. The white hair then fellout - a patch about 1 1/4" round. The hair grew back rather quickly - normal color ??? ---
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/13 "2001-08-16T03:07:13Z")
Bill Clinton’s hair rapidly turned grey while he was running for President in '92. I always felt that he dyed it grey just to look older, but it could have been the stress. Anyone know for sure? It was quite a rapid color change as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/14 "2001-08-16T05:36:30Z")
Stress can make hair turn grey but not over night. A hair is dead and cannot change color once it has left the follicle. It can appear rather quickly depending one how long or short your hair is and how fast your hair grow. It’s entirely possible in see a significant “white” streak appear in three to six weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/15 "2001-08-16T05:43:28Z")
I get hairs in my eyebrows that grow extremely fast and are white except for the end (the portion that is colored normally is the length of a normal eyebrow hair). Their texture is also different. They don’t exactly come in overnight, but I’ve had some that have at least an inch of white show up over the course of a few days. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/16 "2001-08-16T11:46:56Z")
My mother’s hair turned grey when she was 16 after both her parents were killed in a car accident. ---
**Author:** ![Carina42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Carina42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carina42)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-parts-of-a-young-persons-hair-really-turn-white-from-stress/76343/17 "2001-08-16T11:58:03Z")
I realise anecdotes are not data. But when I was 27, I was asleep when at 4am the building I was in was torched by an arsonist.I had to jump out of a second story window (I wasn’t burned). I lost everything I owned including my dog & my truck in the fire. Needless to say a rather stressful & traumatic time. Within two months, a patch of my hair came in grey. It was another 10 years or so before the rest of my hair started going grey. YMMV, but it happened in my case too.