Getting enough sleep lowers stress chemicals in your body, which helps keep the cells that give your hair its color active. This process prevents those cells from going dormant and stops your hair from turning gray prematurely.

Long-term stress can put the pigment-producing cells in your hair follicles to sleep, making your hair turn gray faster than usual. However, if you manage or reduce your stress, this graying process can stop or even reverse.

Too much oxidative stress might lead to fewer pigment-producing cells in hair and cause hair to lose color, based on lab studies that simulate this stress in human hair follicles.

As we age, damage from oxidative stress can harm the cells that give hair its color, especially because the body’s natural antioxidants weaken over time — this leads to grey hair.

Your hair color comes from cells in your hair roots, and as you age, those cells slow down — that's why hair turns gray. But new research says things like stress might also play a role.

When your hair grows fast, it might stress the cells that give hair its color, causing them to wear out faster and turn hair gray sooner.