Something STRANGE just happened

Casslr

So I know I've mentioned before and seen others lament over finding loose hairs that have color on the bottom and fade to grey at some point up the shaft and to the root. I hate when that happens-I always feel like it was "a good one gone bad".

BUT

I just pulled out a loose hair caught in my curls. Saw the same thing. Then I found the root. I almost did not believe it. The strange was grey at bottom near the END and turned brunette 3/4 of the way up and was brown that last quarter to the root. I almost wish I had paid more attention to my two-toned strands instead of assuming they were grey at the root.

Of course my first reaction was to come on here and share rather than google. But has anyone had this happen to them?

Geek_Chic

I've had shed hairs that exhibited both color patterns, dark toward the ends fading to gray at the root and a few that were dark at the root and lightened to gray toward the ends. Wish I knew the how and why behind it. While I don't mind my grays (they mostly look like subtle silver highlights in the canopy right now), I'd love to know what causes those strands to reverse the graying process.

I did a quick Google and found the following pages discussing it:

A thread about it on the long hair forum: Grey hair at tips and black roots - Long Hair Care Forum

A page about it here (on a biology /science-y related site): human biology - What could cause hairs to gray at the tips but not the roots? - Biology Stack Exchange

This: Why do I sometimes find hair that is black at root but white at the tip? - color whitehair pubichair | Ask MetaFilter

^Linked by "Fishbike" on that page is this newsgroup posting as well. Fishbike mentions that this "Steven Harris" is a doctor, although he does not specify what sort. Hair graying (Steven B. Harris, M.D.)

chupie

My best guess is that the pigment is kind of stop and starty for a while.