Keeping energy levels healthy in hair cells helps protect the cells that give hair its color, so they don’t die off too soon.

When the energy factories in our cells don't work right, they leak harmful particles that can damage hair color cells and cause gray hair to show up too early.

When the energy factories inside hair follicles don't work right, they make too many harmful molecules that damage the color-producing cells, making hair turn gray faster.

Your hair needs energy from tiny power plants in cells (called mitochondria) to keep making pigment — without healthy mitochondria, your hair can't stay colored over time.

When a certain gene is turned off in hair color cells in mice, their fur starts to gray early because the cells die off — but the ones that survive can still make pigment just fine.