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Ask HN: Anyone else not a greybeard but has grey hair?

7 points by graderjs ↗ HN
I started seeing grey hairs at 30, and I think there's a lot of grey on my temples 10 years later. But my beard is not grey at all. I thought you're supposed to become a greybeard first. Anyone else have this?

34 comments

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Alifatisk
Yea, I'm nearing 25 and my hair is slowly turning grey / white while my beard is pitch black.
graderjs
Cool! That sounds like me. I think I may have noticed a very few seldom greys at 25 in the hair, but I didn't even have much beard back then haha. Around 35 grey was much more noticable, but "blended in". Beard still not grey. Now at nearly 40 if I pull my hair up to show my temples you can see very white, but if I let it hang down, it looks only like a bit of grey blended through. Beard just a few hairs grey then rest dark. Most people seem to have the beard grey first. What you think of the hair grey first then beard?
cheapliquor
Haha yeah. Started seeing grays in my hair at 30, now they're starting to sprinkle into my beard just ever so slightly.

I'm too lazy to do anything about it. Wizard transformation has begun.

graderjs
I like this one. Wizard transformation! Haha I think we are quite similar--I also will not dye it (except as experiment--I have no desire to hide it), but I am a little "self-conscious" of it.
h2odragon
I got a white "Skunk stripe" in my hair at 18. Didn't really see grey elsewhere until mid 30s.
graderjs
That's cool! I always wondered where they come from. I saw some kids in school with similar. I guess my temple grey areas is sort of hyper-localized too but not as much as a "Skunk stripe". Sounds like you had a long period of "no-extra grey". That's good. Yeah mid-30s was where is started to multiply for me too--haha!
h2odragon
People asked "where'd you get yours done"... Genetics, I guess. I don't recall a specific injury or anything that was specific to the area. Just the one patch of hair stopped having color.
gravitynworking
I'm 20 and I have already grey hair.
graderjs
That's cool. Is it like all over? Or in some places? Just a few or a lot? Pretty interesting.
speedylight
Maybe it’s because of stress?
graderjs
Yeah, I gotta take a more chill life. Good idea! Probably, but I don't know...stress? I think it's more some sort of exertion. I really only started going grey when I started working full-time as a software engineer! Maybe I should stop that...hahah
cableshaft
Sounds like I'm about the same age as you, and it is my beard that's going gray first, but it thankfully still hasn't gone totally gray yet, only about 30%. The top of my head only has a handful of gray hairs so far.

Several people my age (like just looking at people in my high school) are mostly or gray haired already, so I'm not sure how I've lucked out there. I'm guessing I'll probably wake up one day and suddenly everything decided to turn gray on me.

graderjs
That's good with the cohort comparison. Yeah I think I'm lucky with age, but, I don't know, some people have no grey even older! I started noticing I'm "dye detecting" strangers--like, "Hmm, does that guy actually have no grey or is he dying it?" -- haha, I never used to think like that. Your 30% beard is quite gray--but i think it will be quite a shock if my beard goes grey that much.
cableshaft
The 30% is mixed in with the rest of the hair, so it looks more peppered in, still doesn't really look that gray yet unless you're close up. It's also a lot less obvious whenever I trim it back down.

Also the nice thing about the beard going first is if I want to look younger I can just remove the beard (although I've had the beard long enough I'd look pretty weird without it).

I looked up how hair turns gray yesterday and found this article on how to prevent or slow it down (for as long as possible). Looks like it's mostly avoid chronic stress (which isn't me, work often gets me stressed), eat lots of antioxidants (which... mostly not me either, but I do try to eat big salads and berries periodically...will try to eat more now, though), get enough vitamins and minerals, which also probably isn't me, although I did used to be good about taking vitamins (not lately though), don't expose your head to the sun too much, wear a hat outside and all, which I do mostly do, and then get regular checkups because thyroid and autoimmune problems can cause graying hair, which I've mostly been good about except this past couple of years.

So if you want to slow down your graying hair, you might want to give those a try:

https://www.eatingwell.com/article/7913510/how-to-prevent-gr...

graderjs
Thank you, man— good advice! And just generally healthy which is good.

Yeah not what i was imagining with your beard, but i get that it doesn’t look so grey as it’s blended in. And you’re right, you can just shave it to “look younger”! Which is cool.

If i put my hair down, it’s dark. If a put it up you can really see the white, tho either way you can see it’s getting greyer—haha!

I guess I’m lucky my hair naturally goes blond, so at least some of the white hairs, sort of look blond because they blend in with the highlights. Haha

My main thing right now is I’m practicing making it work for me, like, mentally: Like, I’m gonna like this :)

swah
Much better than being bald at 30, so cherish on that.
zhte415
Why's that a problem?
swah
Its a problem of the same class of being short ie not that big of a problem.

(Also if you have a good beard it looks cool, but I don't have one)

muzani
Yeah, I'd much rather have all white hair than be bald.
graderjs
Haha. If only we all got a choice, huh? :)
graderjs
Thank you! Yeah I guess you're right, there's always a silver lining--haha
mindcrime
No, just the opposite here. I started getting grey in my beard a decade or more ago, but still mostly not grey hair on my head. I'm a little surprised actually, given that I'll turn 50 very soon. That said, if my experience is anything like my dad's, I expect to go fully grey very quickly once it starts.
graderjs
That's very cool, like a head not grey at 50! It's weird things happen all at once. Are you preparing? Like different wardrobe color? haha :)
mindcrime
Nah. When I was younger, I always said that I'd fight grey hair tooth and nail... artificial color, shaving my head, whatever. But now I find that as 50 rapidly approaches, I just don't give a shit about that much anymore. I'm pretty content to just let it be what it will be, and my "wardrobe" will pretty much remain jeans and black heavy-metal band t-shirts. I'll still look like "metal dude", just the "old metal dude" version. \m/
BilalBudhani
Until last year I had no greybeard but this year it started greying. Thou, I have grey hairs for a very long time. It could because I changed countries.

btw, I'm 33.

graderjs
Yeah cool! That sounds like me. I also changed countries, that was when hair started going grey too. Grey hair first, now beard a few hair. A very long time?
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brudgers
I was.

Eventually it worked itself out naturally.

Around 56 or 57.

Good luck.

muzani
I had gray hair by 18 (side effect of learning to code at 12). Only started getting a greybeard around 35.
graderjs
Hahaha! Learning to code. That's awesome, grey at 18 is early. Interesting that we share the same: hair first, then beard. Many people have beard first. I also think my grey hair is to do with some sort of mental exertion...haha
jawmes8
Got some coming in at 26!
quickthrower2
Don’t worry you can still be a UNIX wizard without one.