A woman looks in the mirror for grey hairs. dpa File Photo
Some women routinely pluck out stray grey hairs, but there’s a risk, explains Mathias Napp, art director at the German Hair Academy. Big culls may permanently damage the hair follicles and lead to bald spots.
Repeatedly pulling out many grey hairs over a course of years ultimately means each affected root may stop growing. And then, instead of a full head of rich-coloured hair, you will have thin hair. Even dye won’t make it look great any more.
Many people have this experience with their eyebrows. Plucking them intensively on a regular basis can mean they get too thin, and at a certain point your eyebrows will never grow back as bushy as they used to be.
The reason is that hairs repeatedly pulled out over a long period of time will eventually no longer grow back.
Regardless of whether the roots put out a new hair again or not: removing lots of hair in one place is generally not a good idea. This is especially true if the hair growth is not very thick in the first place.
In the worst case, small bald patches can appear. Napp’s advice is to conceal grey hairs hair dye instead.
If you have just a single lonely grey hair, Napp’s advice is different.
“If you have one teensy grey hair – then just pluck it out!” says the expert. The only thing that will happen is that it might hurt. Everyone can sacrifice one hair or two. However, if the scalp is dirty when plucking hairs, the open pores might can become infected.
Anyone who uses tweezers should also know: A plucked grey hair never comes back in the colour of your youth.
It will come back grey. As soon as the melanocytes in the hair roots have stopped producing melanin, the pigment that gives human hair its colour, they can never be reactivated, explains Napp. – dpa