True Life: I Found A Gray Hair
In less than a month, I turn 27, and last week, I found my first gray hair.
I was pinning up my locs, and I was looking in the mirror to make sure I got the style right. I was placing a pin in my hair when I saw something that looked like a thin, white thread in front of my hairline. Ugh. I hate when lint gets in my hair. So I dusted it off. But it didn’t move. WHHAAA??? I got even closer to the mirror.
So I pulled it and it didn’t budge. Wait. Wayment. That isn’t… Nawl. But it is! It’s a gray hair!
*wall slides in the name of aging*
I have a gray hair. At 26.9? But why??? How did it get there? Have I been working too hard? Why’s it tryna ruin my youth? How is it that time already? I had questions, and I needed answers. So naturally, I consulted the Soothsayer of All Random Facts: Google.
I did a search for “What causes gray hair?” and the first link that showed up was from WebMD. I should have known better than to click it. WebMD is the worst thing to ever happen to anyone with remote hypochondriac tendencies. They once told me I might have the gout because I said I had elbow pain. Even with this knowledge, I clicked to see.
WebMD said gray hair is caused as hair stops producing pigment like it used to. Or I could have a vitamin B12 deficiency. OR it could also be vitiligo. *cries* SEE? They stay going for the worst thing. At least it wasn’t the gout this time.
But yeah, I ended up pulling out the gray strand of hair and stroking my hairline, whispering sweet nothings to it that I don’t find another one. I don’t think I have enough sense to get gray hair yet. I feel like people with gray hair are wise and regal. Meanwhile, I still look like a 12-year old and get carded really hard when I go buy liquor. I’M NOT READY YET!
Do you have gray hair? How old were you when you found your first one?
Get these blogposts directly in your inbox! Sign up for my weekly LuvvLetter below:
It is time to write that book. Come into The Book Academy and learn how to go from IDEA to INK.
Related Posts
56 Comments
I found my first grays when I was about 24 or 25…no, I was 24 because I was pregnant with my youngest. I asked my doctor if it was due to the pregnancy, and he laughed and said no. (-_-) Anyhoo, it turns out that going gray early runs on my mother’s side of the family, but, I’m 30 now and I have not been seeing anymore crop up, so maybe that’s a good sign. At any rate, I plan on embracing my grays once they really start coming in; I refuse to dye it.
As far as WebMD is concerned, that site is da debil. They had me thinking that a leg cramp was a blood clot that would travel up to my lungs and snuff me out like a candle! Smh.
Ain’t no pregnancy over here so NO MA’AM! But yah, WebMD is the devil indeed.
LMAO!
The first time I found a gray hair was a couple months ago…in my beard…and I’m a woman…28 years old. Count your blessings girl! Having PCOS ain’t no joke
Girl I feel you on the PCOS…not a joke
I found my first gray hair at age 19. I’m now almost 30. I didn’t care then and I still don’t now.
hee – right? i found my first one when i was 14 (yes, apparently high school was ROUGH) and have had a silver sprinkling on my crown ever since. i’m 25 now and still feel it lends me gravitas. and let me also point out that i haven’t been carded since i was 17…
You haven’t been carded since 17? Chile… I get carded like I faked my own ID card.
lol dont let me have on some jeans and a tshirt buying alcohol. I get carded all the time, then they stare real hard at my ID to make sure it isnt fake i guess lol! I mean I guess I should be flattered lol
wish i could say that i feel ya but i don’t. i’m 30 over here and nothing even close to a gray hair. matter of fact my hair may be getting darker.
DANG! Lucky self!
Although, men do look distinguished w/ a lil bit of gray
I found my first one about 6 months ago. I’ll be 25 in two months. I was doing my hair and thought the bathroom light was just shining especially bright over my brown hair until like you…I went to pull it and it didn’t budge. I bypassed google and went straight to my mom. Said she found her first one when she was 12. My soul slide into a corner and mourned.
LMAOOO @ your soul in the corner. Yeah they say it’s genetic. My mom didn’t get gray early #doe. What part of the game is this???
I hate to tell you this but when you pull one out five more join the party…
I am 38 and I have six gray hairs on my head…the minute I see a gray pube I will have to do an epic wall slide…hurray for waxing
I’ve been doing wall slides for a minute with greys finding themselves in places other than the hair on my head – those started cropping up before I turned 35. The sad thing is, the rest of me looks 12 🙁 SMH.
Girl if I see a gray pube soon, I’ma just lay on the floor and mourn my youth for at least 10 mins
I found my first gray hair ON my 25th birthday. I’m going to 34 in 10 days, and let’s just say Me + Clairol = BFF.
Dang. I’m not ready for that Clairol life, Christi! *cries*
Your reaction is EXACTLY how I react…EVERYTIME I find a grey strand. hahahaha I got my first one at 28 and I’m up to 3, now. I was told when you pull out a grey strand, more appear. So I don’t mess with them.
AW NAWL!!!
Oh I found my first gray somewhere around my 30th bday. I have a few on my head which don’t really bother me, but there is one in each eyebrow, which, wtf…
You got em in your eyebrows?? That sounds kinda cool. No? Aight.
I found my first one the same way at the age of 34 – went to french braid my curls and did the usual center part & there it was: all shiny & just waiting to be found. I couldn’t believe the lenght of it. I had also stopped colouring my hair so it was two toned, lol, no telling how long I’ve been grey. Since then, I’ve found about 3. I don’t mind them now, but that first one, was total shock – i was too young, i surmised. At least let me have a kid or two first.
I’m Jealous…. 🙁 I found my first gray hair in my “ugh ugh” spot, about 3 years ago. I went to the Dr because I thought something was wrong “opps”. My Dr laughed at me HARD and told me to carry my crazy ass home and to STAY OFF WEBMD. So, yeah I look young up top and look like i’m about 63 down below.
**sitting with head down**I wont talk about when I had a sinus infection and I went to my Dr crying because WEBMD had be believing I had a tumor and had about 6 hours left to live (shhhhhh, PLEEAASSSEEE don’t tell nobody).
Aww, Luvvie, it gets better.
Sikenaw, it don’t. I had my first grays before I even went through puberty, but they had some damn since and we all in the back of my head. Now they’re all over the place, and are most unruly in the front. I just give up.
*sense
Yer Mostest (Greying) Awesomelynessis,
I’m a guy. I don’t care ’bout a lady’s grey hair, anywhere on her body. It happens. Ya’ll still beautiful.
You so sweet, LB!
I found a gray chin hair last week. You don’t have problems.
*hugs you tight* I’m here for you, Glamazini! lol
Chile, please.
I found my first gray hair when I was 19. !!!!
Since then, many, many more have come in.
I found out last year I do have a B12 deficiency and since I’ve been on ultra B12, some of the gray is growing back in its natural auburn color. Some, not all.
Oh, well. Its hair and you can always dye it.
I am 45 and have TONS of gray hair. More than any female in my family. I haven’t taken to coloring my hair because that seems like a lot of maintenance, but I do feel like I am beginning to look jacked. I found 1 or 2 in the “beard” which then became 30. Laser doesn’t get rid of gray either. Then the ultimate betrayal? Gray pube. Wtf?
Man I wish I had 1 that I was just now finding. I found my first gray hair at 23…..and now 3 years later, I have 5 of them bad boys and they all stand out bold as hell on my head lol.
I wish I could say it gets better…but then I’d be lying…..
I understand and feel your pain. I found my first one at 24. I expected it since my dad grayed earlier. But it’s very different on a man than a woman. Today at 45, I can find my best friend in hair coloring aisle at the drugstore. Feria, Ganier, Bigen, and Clairol understand my pain and always come to the rescue.
And to my friend “emti”, I’ve done the *epic wall slide*. Now, I prefer not to know.
My gray hair showed up in a group. She recruited three other strands. I was just shy of 31. I love them. So long as they stay a small group. 🙂
I’ll be 35 in 2 weeks.
True story: I JUST turned 50; finding my first gray hair around 30. Been dying, frying and laying it over to the side since then … until this year, when I decided to give my lovely coarse curls a break and get it cornrowed. WHY did I go to BevMo, with my 24 year old “special friend” and …. no one bothered even looking at him … while I got carded! All I could do was hand over the ID.
I’m pretty sure I found my first grey hair when I was 28–in fact it may have been two together right in front on my temple. I have a white cat so it took a while to register why they weren’t brushing off. It’s okay because I too, look young as hell and am still being accused of being a teenager. Also, I’m ever so grateful for the life cycle of hair that allows me to be grey hair free some of the time.
I saw my first gray at 26. I,ll.be 43 on the 19th and I am starting to see more of them suckers popping up. I use a black rinse and plan to till I am mostly gray.
Luvvie, I can’t believe you and I are the same age! Your online presence had me thinking you were a few years older than me!
I got my first gray hair when I was 19, during my sophomore year of college. I yanked it out immediately and haven’t had any since. Maybe I scared the others off? LOL
My first gray hair came in when I was 12 (it’s a family thing. Every person in my family got one gray hair at 12, and no more until around 30.). I’m almost 33 now, and I have 5 total. I never plucked that first one because I was always told 2 would grow for every 1 plucked.
~sucks teeth~ just wait till you find one “down below”…you can’t dye THAT~
~cries into my tea~
*Sigh* I started going gray in my 20’s and I’m 43 now. I really don’t care that they are there as long as they stay hidden but the one’s that make me crazy are the one’s in my eyebrows and eyelashes. Really why you wanna do me like that? The kicker about these mofos in my eyebrows is that they don’t grow in like the others O_o. These ratched invaders grow straight out and don’t lay down. I used to pluck until I realized I was starting to look always surprised. I just trim now.
I found one when I was 16… I’m only 22 🙁 But, I’ve never been carded- and I started buying ‘stuff’ when I was 18 (don’t tell my mama lol)
Luvvie i’m in the same situation.. got locs and was pinning one up and saw that silver devil… I politely got a pair of tweezers and plucked her out.. shes stubborn unfortunately and grows back..same spot.. !!! drives me crazy..lol
I have a total of 3 only 1 I can see though.. i’m 28
I found my very first grey when I was 20 and every year of my twenties I found a couple more. Once I hit 30 it got ugly and at 35 I had to bite the bullet and start colouring my hair.
And it hasn’t stopped there – the ish has spread to my nose, my eyebrows, and yes, my ladyparts. And I’m only 36! What will I look like at 50?!?
Iont eem ‘member when I found my first one, but it was likely in my late 20s (I’m 36 now). However, since my mother, aunt, AND grandmother were gray b4 30, Imma be happy with my sprinkling I have through my head & beard.
Now when I just found my first gray pube?! I about did a shower slide & cried…
I will be 27 in March and I’ve been greying since I was 20. I have long strands on each side of my head and a bunch of mixed sized strands going towards the back. I let my bang grow all the way out (something I don’t normally do) b/c I had a grey strand in it.
I love my grey hair, I embrace it actually
I found my first grey hair ON my 27th birthday. I was doing my hair, just as you were, and found that liar of a hair coming out of the front of my hairline. I plucked it, the same one will grow back, but it doesn’t bring friends. I’d like to think we have a gentleman’s agreement that I’m too young for this shit.
WebMD is THE DEVIL. *grin*
11 was my first grey hair Lmao gurl life was stressfulll! I kid.. docs said it was premature graying, my pops was around that age as well, now he’s 48 more white than brown hair. I ain’t graying down below tho Lmao have mercy.. luvvie you’ll be fine, but grey dreds yikes lol might not be a good look gurl.
Girl, you are not supposed to pull them out. It makes 2 grow back in its place. LOL 😉
First gray hair in my teens (actually my gf found an entire patch on the back of my head.) 35 years later, instead of pulling the other stray grays, i brush mt y hair in a different direction and that hides them all.
Unfortunately i found my first gray pube two weeks ago. Depressing.
Just keep in mind – you’re not old until you’re sprouting grey hair down there. And when you do, make sure you wax it off! ’cause while a woman might play with some old d*ck, a man don’t want to play with an old p***y…
Just found my first one a couple months ago. I’m 37 but I wasn’t ready. Found it while picking out my fro and it was just hanging out in the middle of my hairline. I thought it was dried up conditioner or hair lotion but nope. I am very dismayed by its presence although I should be happy because my mom was almost completely grey by 25. On the plus side, I also look pretty young and am usually carded. The more troubling issue is I’m starting to get coarse little chin hairs. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Sigh.
When you have found the first gray hair, it means you are going to enter a new life. I have got my first gray hair at the age of 15 and now I’m 26 and have almost 20-30 gray hair and day by day the amount is increasing 🙁