Can Hair Turn White Overnight

Youve heard tales of extreme fright or stress turning a persons hair suddenly gray or white overnight, but can it really happen? The answer is not completely clear, as medical records are sketchy on the subject. Certainly, it is possible for hair to turn white or gray rapidly (over the course of months) rather than slowly (over years). Hair Bleaching in History Marie Antoinette of France was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. According to history books, her hair turned white as a result of the hardships she endured. American science writer Anne Jolis wrote, In June 1791, when a 35-year-old Marie Antoinette returned to Paris following the royal family’s failed escape to Varennes, she removed her cap to show her lady-in-waiting the effect which grief had produced upon her hair, according to the memoirs of her lady-in-waiting, Henriette Campan. In another version of the story, her hair turned white the night before her execution. Still, others have suggested that the Queens hair turned white simply because she no longer had access to hair dye. Whatever the truth of the story, the sudden whitening of hair was given the name Marie Antoinette syndrome. More famous examples of super-fast hair whitening include: Stories told of hair bleaching in the Talmud (thousands of years ago)Sir Thomas More, as he awaited his execution in the Tower of London in 1535Survivors of bomb attacks during World War IIA man who, in 1957, had his hair and beard turn white over a period of weeks after a serious fall Can Fear or Stress Change Your Hair Color? Any extraordinary emotion can change the color of your hair, but not instantly. Your psychological state has a significant impact on the hormones that can affect the amount of melanin deposited in each strand of hair, but the effect of emotion takes a long time to see. The hair you see on your head emerged from its follicle a long time ago. So, graying or any other color change is a gradual process, occurring over the course of several months or years. Some researchers have described situations in which individuals hair has turned from blond to brown, or from brown to white, as a result of a traumatic experience. In some cases, the color returned to normal after a period of weeks or months; in other cases, it remained white or gray. Medical Conditions That May Explain Hair Bleaching Your emotions cant instantly change the color of your hair, but it is possible you could turn gray overnight. How? A medical condition termed diffuse alopecia areata can result in sudden hair loss. The biochemistry of alopecia isnt well understood, but in people who have a mix of dark and gray or white hair, the uncolored hair is less likely to fall out. The result? A person can appear to go gray overnight.   Another medical condition called canities subita is closely related to alopecia but may not involve the loss of as much hair. According to American biologist Michael Nahm and colleagues, Today, the syndrome is interpreted as an acute episode of diffuse alopecia areata in which the very sudden overnight graying is caused by the preferential loss of pigmented hair in this supposedly immune-mediated disorder. This observation has led some experts to hypothesize that the autoimmune target in alopecia areata may be related to the melanin pigment system. Sources Jolis, Anne. The Medical Mystery of Hair That Whitens Overnight. The Atlantic, September 20, 2016.  Nahm, Michael, Alexander A. Navarini, and Emily Williams Kelly. Canities Subita: A Reappraisal of Evidence Based on 196 Case Reports Published in the Medical Literature. International Journal of Trichology 5.2 (2013): 63–68.