Oh no! You just noticed another grey hair pop its way out of your head. While your immediate response is to pluck it (unless you’ve already embraced your gorgeous head of grey hair), you might want to hold off on doing so.
It isn’t because of that old wives’ tale that many more grey hairs will grow into its place, but rather, plucking your hair can do some major damage to your follicle.
When a grey strand of hair forms on the head, that means the pigment cells in the hair follicle have already died. This means a new grey hair will just continue to grow in its place anyway. Plus, plucking any hair out of your head can traumatize the follicle, damaging it to the point where it doesn’t even grow back.
Hairstylist Trey Gillen told Real Simple, “If you’re a serial plucker, repeated ‘plucking trauma’ can even cause infection, scar formation, and bald patches.”
Forget about crying over grey hair; plucking can make you not have any hair at all!
The best thing you can do when you notice grey hair? Ignore it—either that or schedule an appointment with your hairstylist or grab a box of hair dye to get it back to its original color.
Everybody’s hair turns grey eventually, so don’t be ashamed of your grey. But if you wished it wasn’t there, it’s totally fine to do something about it as well.
