First gray hair gene found, plucked out of research

Story highlights

  • A new study links changes in a gene involved in melanin production with going gray
  • Environmental factors, including stress and smoking, could also have a big effect on whether you'll go gray

(CNN)Just like those first silvery strands that stubbornly start cropping up in an otherwise pleasantly pigmented head of hair, the genes responsible for gray hair have been evading science's grasp.

Brunettes, redheads, towheads -- they all have snippets in the DNA they can thank, or curse. But for those robbed of their hair color, the genetic suspect was at large.
    Many people already know they face increased risk of going gray at an early age, if they've seen older relatives do so. The current study adds more support to the notion that graying is genetic, said Kaustubh Adhikari, a research associate in cell and developmental biology at University College London. Adhikari is the lead author of the study, which was published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

    The silver lining

    The name of the hair color thief is IRF4, a gene that probably acts like a cog in the machine in a cellular process that churns out melanin pigment in the hair follicle. Graying happens as follicles gradually stop producing the pigment that gives hair its color, a process that happens at different rates for different people.
    The researchers made the connection between the gray hair trait and a specific variation in IRF4 seen exclusively among Europeans, who are known to have a higher chance of premature graying than people of other descent, he added.
    The silver lining (pun intended) is that the finding "gives researchers further leads in what they can investigate if they want to develop a drug to prevent or delay hair graying," Adhikari said. If more studies can confirm the role of this cellular pathway in graying, researchers could look for proteins or enzymes that might be lacking in the pathway among those salt-and-pepper cases and perhaps find a way to regulate them with a pill or cream, he added. "But, of course, it will take quite a bit of research," Adhikari said.

    Why do gray hairs make us cringe?

    "It is because it makes you confront your mortality ... even though we are long from the time when gray is associated with the end of life," said Vivian Diller, a research psychologist in private practice in New York City.
    When CNN's own Anderson Cooper started going gray in his 20s, he wrote that it was "a total shock." It took him years to learn to "give in to the gray."
    "I think (people) will feel less like they are out of control," Diller said. "If we know that it is in your genes you will get gray hair at a certain age, no matter what you do, you will say, 'OK, I'll just color it. I'm not going to pluck them out, and I know it doesn't mean I'm old and dying,'" she said.

    50 shades of cool

    That is not to say that silver foxes were the object of desire in the cave world. It's probably more likely that blond hair, which the study found was also linked to the same version of the IRF4 gene, was enriched in the population because it stood out among all those darker complexions, Adhikari said.

    Genes versus gray-inducing environment

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    "The study confirms that (going gray) is at least a mix of genes and environment," said Dr. Paradi Mirmirani, a dermatologist at Kaiser Permanente in California.