--- title: Hair Dye No More? Researchers Find Gene for Grey Hair description: That means that it might be possible to stop grey hairs from sprouting in the first place, instead of covering them up with dyes canonical: https://time.com/4242120/gray-hair-causes/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-01T16:00:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:36.187Z article:section: Health og:title: There's a Gene for Grey Hair og:description: That means that it might be possible to stop grey hairs from sprouting in the first place, instead of covering them up with dyes og:url: https://time.com/4242120/gray-hair-causes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt121ea83a9b3ee176/69887fa88e060163a5464d74/gettyimages-460698231.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3744 og:image:height: 2106 og:image:alt: 460698231 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's a Gene for Grey Hair twitter:description: That means that it might be possible to stop grey hairs from sprouting in the first place, instead of covering them up with dyes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt121ea83a9b3ee176/69887fa88e060163a5464d74/gettyimages-460698231.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is Why You Have Gray Hair > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=315dda48-c9aa-46df-be4c-5efe903c366d&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life [Watch (HLS stream): The Island That Holds the Secret to Long Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/orlnwhNb.m3u8) (7:08)  _Published 2014-05-23. Here's how the people of Ikaria, Greece reach old age_  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 1, 2016 4:00 PM UTC  Close up of wavy, long, silver gray hair. Close up of wavy, long, silver gray hair. Andreas Kuehn—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 1, 2016 4:00 PM UTC Everyone gets them, and many people spend hundreds or even thousands to cover them up. Grey hair is one of the inevitable parts of getting older, but not everyone is happy to see them. Scientists have long known that greying is the result of a gradual disappearance of melanin in hair follicles — melanin is the protein responsible for giving hair its color. But until now, they didn’t know exactly what caused that color drain to take place. Now, in a paper published in _Nature Communications_, an international team of researchers describe the first gene linked to greying hair. The finding came from a larger study on genes related to a number of hair traits, including balding, monobrow, curliness and beard growth (for more on these other findings [see here](http://time.com/4237203/unibrow-monobrow-bald-spot-genetics/)). Led by Kaustubh Adhikari, a post doctoral researchers at University College London, the group sequenced the genomes of more than 6000 people from Latin America and compared their genes against various hair features, including how much grey hair they had. Adhikari says that for grey hair, only one gene stood out. It’s a gene that’s been connected to blonde hair in Europeans, which makes sense since it also affects how much melanin the hair follicle receives. But this is the first study to link the gene to greying. **MORE:** [Can Stress Make You Go Grey? (Even If You Are Not Barack Obama)](http://time.com/3154529/obama-grey-hair/) In the study, this gene accounted for about 30% of hair greying, with the remaining 70% due to other factors such as age, (probably the biggest contributor), stress and other environmental exposures. Having the gene will now help scientists to figure out the genetic pathway responsible for turning hair grey, and that could lead to new products that help people avoid getting grey hair in the first place, if these products can replace the melanin and keep a hair follicle’s original color. “We might have drugs that boost or stop the protein from acting and change the amount of melanin in hair follicles and change the hair internally,” says Adhikari. “So once the hair comes out like the way you want, you don’t have go out and buy dyes.” That may be a while away yet, but now that there’s a gene that researchers can target, eventually you may not have to visit the hair colorist any more. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ]. Ikaria is a very unique island. The people are not what you would find in other places, they have a different lifestyle, a different way of looking at life. We might seem like we're not getting things done, or we might be moving slowly, but we just move at our own pace and things do get done in the end. Being Ikaria is an identity unto itself. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ] People wanna live long, it's natural. Life is a gift, and people want to enjoy it. [ MUSIC ] Unfortunately, you know, Athens is not a carrier. Athens is a big city, people are crowded, crowding alone is a major stress. It's difficult to live there, connected life. There is a lot of obesity, there is a lot of anxiety. We've started already to be seeing the results of stress. In Ikaria they're not crowded, they have the water right next to them. Just the environment where they live, it's better. [ FOREIGN ] [ INAUDIBLE ]. [ FOREIGN ]. It's the people of Ikaria that make the difference, the people are really for Ikaria. In Ikaria, it's cultural, it's an epicurean culture, they avoid stress, or cope well with it. When they cannot avoid it, they seek small pleasures. They live the day as it comes. So, somehow naturally, they're doing things that we should all be doing. [ FOREIGN ]. I got money from my uncle Giannis. He said to me, come with me for work, for one week and I will give you money, I said, okay. I went first three days, and then I said, I, I quit, I cannot do it anymore. I was waking up at 6 o'clock and working until, four, five and he was saying, come on, let's go, let's go until night. [ FOREIGN ]. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ]. In the documentaries they show only old people, they don't show nothing else, old people and the nature. They don't show the young people, what are they doing in their lives, you know? [ NOISE ]. I don't think that I would live so many years as them because, with the live that we are doing now it's, it's bad because we drink alcohol so much. We don't sleep good. [ NOISE ] [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. I'm looking forward to the people of Ikaria being able to come together, and work for the good of their island. And I'm also looking forward to the next generation, to see how they turn out and where they're going to be in 20 years time. I think it's gonna be a very interesting journey. We like the tradition of Ikaria, the history, the music, the culture, everything. We like it, and we trying, I think, my generation is trying to keep it, you know, not lose it. What I learn a lot from the older people is their sense of continuity, their strong sense of family, their strong sense of, my children have grown. I've seen my grandchildren, my life is complete, I'm fulfilled. They're not looking for new things. They're enjoying the things that they have in the moments they have. They're not looking for the next one, and the next one before they've actually enjoyed the present one. 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