Hair turning grey within a few days

[LadyBird1973]

Hi all,

Was wondering whether anyone has experienced their hair becoming grey very suddenly - like over a few days/a week or so.

I've had a few grey hairs before now - easily dyed, but I last coloured my hair a month ago and there are now loads of quite noticeable grey patches on my hairline and parting which seem to have sprung up over the past week. More than I've ever seen before.

Now this may be entirely natural since I'm 49, but is it possible there is something else that may be going on? I take a vitamin B complex, vitamin C and vitamin D3. And magnesium for sleep.

Diet is the best it's been in a long time - I'm eating low carb, so much less sugar, more vegetables, meat and eggs.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Just age I think and genetics.

What's been going on lately?

Stress has been know for centuries to cause hair to lose colour. Marie Antionette famously went white overnight while she waiting to be called to the scaffold.

I had sepsis recently and have noticed FAR more grey hairs since. I’ve assumed that the two are linked. Perhaps something like that?

I'm not as stressed as Marie Antoinette would have been! I think everything is normal in that regard - I mean, I do have some things on my mind but I've had bigger worries in the past without this happening.

Haven't had sepsis. Weirdly I feel more healthy than I have in a long time - I've finally stopped my sugar craving and eating quite well.

I worked with a guy whose mum died when he was 18 and he went grey overnight.

I was starting to get quite a few grey hairs at 43. It was getting noticeable so I did some research, and found that copper is supposed to help. It worked. I've stopped taking it now, and only have the odd one

Thank you all for the replies. I will look into getting a copper supplement @LoveMySituation.

I read that stress can't actually turn hair grey, but it can make other hair fall out, so that more of the grey then shows - not sure if it selectively makes the coloured hair fall out, or if it's older and more ready to fall out, or what. Or how true any of that is. But it was listed in an article as an old wives tale that had a basis in a common observation, but the wrong explanation.

We had a teacher who was involved in a bad crash where her husband died. She was completely white when she returned to school.

Taking zinc can make you copper deficient, take both if you need zinc.

Grey hairs where you say in your parting and hairline are perfectly normal. To be fair you are very lucky if you are only getting patches at 49. I had my first grey at 20 and now at 32 also have loads including two patches in my fringe area which have suddenly sprung up! Grey hair is very rarely linked to vitamin deficiency or stress and more genetics and ageing unfortunately.

It could well be ageing. It's not that I'm worried about going grey it was just the suddenness and the size of the patches - like my hair just faded within a week! It makes me think something else is going on and I don't want to just address the grey and ignore a potential underlying reason.

I can't decide whether to box dye (cheaper and immediate) or whether to go for caramel highlights to blend it in (more expensive but might last longer than the box dye).

Age and genetics!

I love a box die, they do fade quicker but they allow you to change your mind about the colour frequently. I have mousey hair so I've always used them for warmer red tones or a deeper chocolate brown depending on what I feel like.

I think you're right to think about underlying causes rather than just masking something, not everything is just age just because you're over 40, I had a phase of forgetting words when I was talking for no reason, it frightened me a bit as it was so sudden, I started taking B vits and omega oils and it hasn't happened since.

I'm going to get a good multivitamin to cover off the copper and zinc as suggested. I already take a vit b complex/D3/C and magnesium. But am probably lacking copper and zinc unless they are in the food I eat, so it can't hurt to make sure with a supplement.

The last box dye I did only lasted a few weeks before fading. I am a very messy dyer and have long hair, so it feels like a lot of faff for a small return. But it is a lot cheaper than the hairdresser.