As we age, we all notice changes to our skin and our hair over the years. We often talk about going grey on our heads, but nobody really talks, openly, when we can expect to start going grey for our other areas of body hair.
What Causes Armpit Hair To Turn Grey?
Although it can feel surprising when you first notice grey hairs in your underarm area, but it happens for the exact same reason it happens to the hair on our heads.
As we go through the aging process, the pigment-producing cells inside each hair follicle slow down, so our hair pigment fades from your usual natural hair color to a grey or white.
Your genetics can also impact how soon you’ll notice grey or white underarm hairs. If your parents or grandparents got grey hair early for their body hair, you too are more likely to see grey hairs around that time.
Hormones also play a role, like they do with many things, with shifts in thyroid function, sex hormones or cortisol all altering how our hair follicles produce pigment (color).
Your health will also play a part. If you’re dealing with chronic stress, you smoke, have nutritional deficiencies or autoimmune/endocrine conditions, these can all speed up the pigment loss.
What Age Grey Armpit Hair Usually Appears?
As your armpit hair usually follows the same timeline as the hair on your head, you’ll notice your first grey underarm arms between your mid 30s to your 50s.
Although, it is possible that you’d see them earlier, if, like I mentioned above, your parents went grey young.
Why Some People Notice Only A Few Grey Hairs At First
In the same way your overall greying timeline will vary person to person, the pattern of how the color fades can vary too, which is why we tend to notice just one or two grey armpit hairs at first.
Each individual hair follicle can age on its own schedule, so you won’t turn grey evenly and on time across your underarm area.
Your genetics will influence which of your hair follicles lose pigment first, and you could see a couple of grey underarm hairs, and it could be months or years until you see more.
Stress factors can quicken the greying process in vulnerable hair follicles, and if your nutrition’s slightly off, your most sensitive hair follicles will be more likely to turn grey first.
Can You Prevent Armpit Hair From Turning Grey?
There isn’t a magic fix we can do, to stop our armpit hair from going grey, as it’s all down to our genetics and the natural aging process of each hair follicle. We can, however, influence how quickly they show up, and how noticeable they look.
Start with a decent haircare routine, even for your underarms, with gentle cleansing, avoiding harsh chemicals and not over-waxing or irritating the hair follicles.
Pay attention to your nutrition levels, especially protein, B12, iron, zinc, copper and vitamin D, which all will help support the pigment production process. If you have thyroid issues, menopause or low testosterone, you can talk to a healthcare provider, as correcting those, may help to slow additional greying.
If you want to disguise your grey underarm hair, you can use temporary dye options, like a root touch-up powder or wand or a beard dye, as they usually work safely for armpit hair, when you do a patch test first. You can also use more natural remedies, like henna or a herbal rinse.
