# Could minoxidil change the proportion of grey in one's hair?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-minoxidil-change-the-proportion-of-grey-in-ones-hair/854631>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 28, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-minoxidil-change-the-proportion-of-grey-in-ones-hair/854631 "2020-05-28T21:59:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-minoxidil-change-the-proportion-of-grey-in-ones-hair/854631/1 "2020-05-28T21:59:01Z")

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A few years ago I started coloring my hair - it had gone from a salt-and-pepper look I really liked to so much “salt” that it looked mousy.

Shortly thereafter I started using minoxidil. Turns out I’m one of the lucky folks for whom it works really well.

Now like so many of us Covid-19 stay-at-homers, I’ve stopped using hair color. And whaddaya know, my natural hair color seems to have returned to the salt-and-pepper mix I actually like.

Two theories: first, a larger proportion of my hair follicles that had dropped out and were reactivated by the minoxidil were dark ones. Second, I’m imagining things.

I’m curious what knowledge/experience others can share on this.

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**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-minoxidil-change-the-proportion-of-grey-in-ones-hair/854631/2 "2020-05-28T22:25:29Z")

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I have no direct knowledge of Minoxidil, but I do know that in both my parents’ cases, when they were on chemo, their dark hairs fell out, and they grey ones stayed. My father had VERY thick hair, and a lot of grey, so while he was on chemo, he lost only his remaining dark hair, and still had a lot of hair (but it was pure white). He died without ever coming off chemo, so I don’t know what would have happened, but when my mother went on chemo, she had a lot of dark hair, and a little grey. She lost all the dark hair. It grew back eventually, but not quite as thickly.

I also met a woman once who had idiopathic alopecia, who had lost her hair as a teen, and oddly, had some hair (not a lot) grow back when she hit middle age. It was all grey.

So this is all anecdotal, but it would appear that grey follicles are somehow more resilient than pigmented ones. I have no idea why.

It seems therefore fair to speculate that whatever caused your hair loss, disproportionately affected pigmented follicles, and that this is a typical phenomenon.