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

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.

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.

If you reduce your stress, your gray hairs might actually grow back some of their color — meaning the cells that give hair its pigment aren't permanently dead once hair turns gray.

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.