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Comment by Zenbit_UX | Hacker News Reader

There’s plenty, though please evaluate the veracity of their claims for yourself, I’m not a scientist nor do I excel at parsing scientific articles. Here’s one I’ve come across after a few minutes which references many others https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10111...

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After a quick skim, that article seems to be talking about something other than typical age-related greying. More photobleaching.

From the conclusions:

> Sun radiation affects hair properties as color, luster, mechanical resistance, the content of proteins and others.

TLDR Yes it impacts color. Further reading can be found in the 75 studies that can be found in the references section.

When most people think of age-related hair greying (which you referenced in your original post), they think of the phenomenon whereby hair follicles stop producing pigments that colour hair.

This is distinct from UV bleaching of the pigments in the hair.

Which grows out. So if it was substantial, you can just stay inside a while and eventually your hair will grow out and replace the faded hair.

If hair greying was mostly caused by UV damage, I would expect that the pattern of greying would be even, and begin on the top of the head.

In contrast (based on my own unscientific observations!) greying typically begins in small areas, and often on the temples - not what I'd expect if caused by UV damage.

Now I'm curious why it starts on the temples (it's where mine started too, then my fringe)

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