Can We Shampoo Away Aging?
June 25, 2009 by Aly Walansky
Filed under Hair Care
Imagine if all it took to avoid going gray was a good shampoo?
Sound like an impossible delusion? I may have agreed with you once upon a time, but science – and beauty researchers – apparently can make the impossible dream a reality.
Image: Sxc.hu
According to an article in the Times of India,
Dr. Bruno Bernard, head of the hair biology research team at L’Oreal Paris, points out that hair goes grey when the pigment-producing cells, known as melanocytes, die or no longer work properly. He, however, also highlights the fact that such cells often survive long after people go gray.
He and his colleagues have also found that the cells lack a certain enzyme, known as TRP-2, which is found in the skin and protects it from losing its pigment.
If researchers can learn to copy and recreate the enzyme’s action on hair follicles, re-awaken the cells, allow people to maintain their hair color for longer, or even reverse the process.
One can only imagine how much a shampoo that erases gray would cost…and the lines to get it once it was available!
We all know people who are in their later years, and swear they’ve never once dyed their hair. And then there are those people who start going gray in their late teens. At the very least, something like this could sort of even the playing field, and maybe even avoid playing with chemicals and hair dye quite as often!
But it is a little Brave New World-esque…and anti-nature, in a way. (Though I suppose hair dye is, as well.) I’m curious, if something like this existed, and was available at a palatable price point – would you try it?
I think I would! Then again, nature has so far saved me from my gray fate!
Now if only they can find an anti-cellulite soap. I am so there.
I have been gray since I was thirty. But, dying my hair red (I am naturally a dark chesnut, a little dull)from age 25, it never was an issue. I died it because I liked the color, not to cover the gray. And last year, I got tired of it. At 43 I have now a full head of silver. I think it looks fantastic. I don’t feel any older, and I don’t think that I am perceived that way. I think it surprises people because my face looks younger than my hair would let you expect. When I was dying it red, people would give me 35, easily. Now, they go for 40, but it is probably the gray. I get a lot of compliments and people tell me that I look more rested. I’d encourage people to make silver popular again. Blurring the lines around the concept of aging is good. We live too long to start worrying about this at 35!
Gray is a great color, I can finally wear bright colors without worrying about the clash of colors, and I get as much attention as I did before. No worries there:-) Besides, no more itchy scalp and painstacking color sessions!
You have to have a perfect haircut, but what else is new?
And on the scientific solution. Great. If we can do it let’s go. But let’s not forget to test those actives properly. The more active a product is, the more toxic is will tend to be. For something as futile as hair color, I would want to make sure the stuff is safe, for my hair, my scalp, and for the water it will ultimately end up in, and that I will ultimately end up drinking….