Sudden Gray

The purpose of this post is not to broach anyone's privacy but to talk about a phenomenon. 

A woman that I know, a very nice woman by the way, made an abrupt exit from town recently. 

I am not sure about the particular reason why.

She is a bit younger than I am and had black hair with a tinge of gray. 

My hair used to be like that but now it is very gray. Nothing lasts forever.

Anyway I saw her a week or so ago and I was amazed to see that she suddenly had major gray swaths running through her hair. 

I don't believe that she had ever been dying her hair but suddenly she was very gray overnight.

I asked a person who knew her better than I did about what was going on and she intimated that their were some family things that necessitated a sudden move as well as some medical issues that she was not at liberty to divulge.

No problem.

I mentioned this to my coffee klatch and one of them whose father was in Okinawa in World War II, Ed, said that his dad told him of people who had gone gray in a single battle over a period of days.

I had never heard of anything like this, have you? Can emotional trauma produce instant hair color loss?

I did a little research on this and read that Marie Antoinette's hair turned white the night that she was led to the guillotine at the age of 37 so if the story is indeed true, I guess it can occur that fast.

Other reasons for loss of hair pigmentation are vitiligo, an autoimmune condition that can result in the loss of hair pigment, vitamin D3 and B12 deficiencies, thyroid disorders, genetics and stressful "life events." I would guess that my friend's color loss falls into the latter category.

Thankfully scientists have found that hair color loss that is the result of stress is somewhat reversible when a person is freed from the underlying stress. I hope that my friend moves into a less stressful place.