If you are in shock or frightened, your hair can turn white.
FACT! The phenomenon of hair turning white from fright (or shock or grief or stress) persists in literature, poetry and even a handful of medical journals. But is there any truth to the rumor that we can actually scare our hair?
Yes and no, says dermatologist Dr. David Orentreich, associate director of the Orentreich Medical Group in New York and assistant clinical professor in the department of dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
“It’s appealing on a literary or poetic level that a person’s experience could be so severe or terrifying that they age overnight,” he says. “But you can’t lose pigment in your hair. Once it leaves your scalp, it’s non-living; it’s dead.”
But, Orentreich says, while fear can’t suddenly cause your hair to turn white, there is a medical condition that could make people think it has.
The hair of Nancy Thompson, played by Heather Langenkamp, suddenly starts to turn white after Freddie Kruger torments her in her dreams in 1984’s “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition that attacks hair follicles, causing pigmented hair such as black, brown, red, or blonde to fall out, leaving the gray and white nonpigmented hairs behind. (Eventually most people lose all their hair entirely.)
“If someone has salt-and-pepper hair – a mixture of gray and black – and they develop alopecia areata, the dark hairs can fall out quickly,” he says. “So it appears that they’ve gone gray overnight.”
Stress, as it turns out, may be a trigger for some autoimmune disorders.
“It’s conceivable for a person who has a tendency for alopecia areata to go through a stressful experience which makes it flair up and the first thing that happens is their dark hair falls out,” he says. “And that can happen quickly – in days or weeks – leaving just the gray hair.”
Although autoimmune diseases have been around forever, Orentreich says it’s only been in recent years that doctors have come to understand their impact.
“These phenomena would occur but they were completely mysterious,” he says. “No one had any inkling that the immune system could cause hair to fall out. There was only a primitive understanding – if any understanding – of the immune system.”
Fear, shock or grief, on the other hand, were something people could wrap their brains around, which probably explains why emotions play a huge part in most of the stories about hair turning white overnight.
According to a 2008 paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the first documented case of sudden hair whitening was in the Talmud in 83 A.D. The victim was a 17-year-old boy who was appointed chief of the main Israeli Talmudic academy. His sudden white hair was said to have been a “consequence of strenuous studying.”
In later years, the phenomenon was attributed to Marie Antoinette, whose auburn locks supposedly turned ghostly white the night before she lost her head to the guillotine and to Shah Jahan of India after his favorite wife died (he went on to build the Taj Mahal in her honor). Even sharpshooter Annie Oakley reportedly fell victim at age 41 after she was involved in a horrific train accident (an alternate story claims her white hair was the result of an overly hot bath).
In the ’80s “Nightmare on Elm Street” horror movie franchise, a shock of the heroine’s hair turns white after she is terrorized in her dreams.
There have been reports of sudden blanching as a result of bear attacks, ill-advised bets, shipwrecks, adultery and the death – or serious injury – of a loved one. A 1902 British Medical Journal even described the case of a 22-year-old woman who witnessed a woman’s throat being cut and got up the next morning to find half her pubic hair had turned white.
According to Orentreich, though, even white pubic hairs could be explained by the autoimmune disease.
“When it attacks hair, sometimes the hair will keep growing with no pigment,” he says.
Alopecia areata may not be the only explanation for this hair-razing condition, though. Researchers who have studied historical references to the phenomenon also believe a “sudden” change in hair color could also be traced to hair dye simply washing out.
“If you get your hair colored today and then stop getting it colored, it takes a number of weeks or months for the gray to grow out,” says Orentreich. “But years ago, the dyes weren’t permanent. It could be something like that.”
Do you want a reliable test to know if your hair is healthy? Try a glass of water! If your hair floats in water…it’s healthy. If your hair sinks, it is due to hair damage that allows water to filter into and weigh down your hair. If you notice your hair or your clients hair greedily sinking and getting weighed down by water at the bowl, offer up the SUDZZfx FXulites Signature Treatment to help restore their hair to a healthier state!.
DESIGN ARTIST TALENT COMPETITION: 5 DAYS LEFT! With just 5 days left to go, here’s another Designful Hair Creation submission we have been received! Check out this incredible look created by Design Artist Olivia Walters. Olivia created this updo for Jay Nicolas Sario’s runway show for Gainesville Fashion Week, sponsored by SUDZZfx. She began with three ponytails, and simply sprinkled a generous amount of Design Powder on small sections of each ponytail.
In 1966, Panasonic (of all people) produced the first electrically-heated hair rollers in Japan and revolutionized the traditional of achieving celebrity curls and waves. Flash forward a few decades later and a generational gap has now dated even this technology and even today debates still wage over the power of curling irons over hot rollers. If you want to avoid the debate all together and offer a more modernized (and perhaps greener solution), you can achieve the same effect with merely a quality European or Marilyn Brush Set and Zephyr® Volumizing Gel! Because Zephyr® contains hold properties and a unique nano emulsion formula, you can use it to lock the curl in place, mimicking the look of a good hot roll and it’ll never flake.
The evening usually starts like this: you style, blow out, straighten and tame your frizzy, wavy hair into a stunning, sleek ‘do. Then after finding the right outfit, it’s time for a “girls night out”. Unfortunately by about 11pm you sleek, sexy hair looks great on one side, but wavy and lopsided on the other.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Traditionally, the formula in a straightening cream, lotion or potion creates a cosmetic coating on the hair that is prone to breakage. The result is that after a few hours of friction caused by hair movement and playing with your hair the coating breaks and flakes. Your hair then springs back to its natural state.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
SUDZZfx Level Strait™ Straightening Potion actually penetrates for longer lasting results and you can even apply other styling products on top of it. No more 11pm walk of shame!
WHAT’S IN IT?
>> Certified organic homeopathically balanced botanicals of asparagus, parsley, cucumber and sandalwood: Naturally exfoliates, soothes and balances the scalp and skin.
>> Nano Emulsion: Improves wet and dry combability.
>> Hydrolyzed Soy Protein: Penetrating properties that help to strengthen the hair.
Picture it…temperatures are warming up…you spend time at your favorite salon, get a flawless look you love…step out on the sidewalk…and then BANG it happens. A few hours later humidity does a drive-by on your hair and the style collapses.
NOW FOR A LITTLE SCIENCE
In its dry state, hair is always desperately hungry for moisture, however hair is also like a sponge…it absorbs moisture (and practically anything else) CONSTANTLY. The more moisture hair absorbs, the heavier it becomes and a style collapses…this is especially true when humidity starts to rise as we stroll into summer and there is more moisture in the environment.
WHAT WE DID ABOUT IT
SUDZZfx’s formulators in the development of our Level Strait™ Straightening Potion wrapped our moisturizing ingredients with an anti-humectant shield, so as opposed to merely coating the hair with temporary hydration, we penetrate deep into the hair, delivering hair the moisture it wants PLUS the anti-humectant shied reflects back extra moisture from a humid environment. The result? A style you can rock all day or all night, in any environment, on any type of hair, anywhere on the planet.
The SUDZZfx Design Artist Talent Search ends on the 30th of this month and we’ve had some AMAZING submissions. Remember, the look doesn’t have to be a formal photo shoot…just show us what you can do! It’s by YOUR popular vote…so the photo with the most votes wins. Snap a photo of your client in the chair…or upload something you’ve already done!
Getting super shiny hair with a mirror like luster at home after a great salon experience can be challenging. It’s fairly easy to do however if you have this powerful trio of tools at home: a good blow dryer, a boar bristle brush and SUDZZfx Liquid Luxe™ Luxury Mist. Simply spray Liquid Luxe™ into the hair and tousle-dry with your fingers.
Simply spray Liquid Luxe™ into the hair and tousle-dry with your fingers. Next, go through sections with the brush. Boar bristle brushes are slightly textured and will smooth the cuticle delicately. Dry the hair downward, in the direction of the cuticle and BOOM! Lustrous locks await.