Stress might be turning your hair gray by messing with your cells, and relaxing could help your hair get its color back.

Stress might turn your hair gray, but if you reduce that stress, your hair could actually regain its color again.

Stress can turn your hair gray by messing with nerve signals in your hair follicles, which damages the cells that give hair its color — and once they're gone, the graying is permanent.

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.

Going gray isn’t just about getting older — it’s because of damage from stress inside the hair roots, where too much hydrogen peroxide builds up and the body can’t fight it off anymore.

Going gray might happen because the stem cells that give rise to hair color cells get damaged over time, not because the color-making cells themselves stop working. Keeping these stem cells healthy could be key to keeping your hair colored as you age.