Heh, my best friend started getting them in med school too, and she proceeded to name each one after the people she claimed were responsible for them!

I don't think the first white hair on my head traumatized me nearly as much as the first white hair I found elsewhere. Yes, like Scarlet, I have a white eyebrow hair I have to keep plucking out too!

Denise, I truly wish your theory were true, but I have no lack of wrinkles or gray hairs at my advanced age of 46. Sigh.

Oh; I assure you I know who this one would be named after. He's also the name I use for passwords on the computers at the hospital to remind myself how much I despise his guts. :p

Manidipa, my Dad used to get me to pluck his white hairs too! With tweezers! And I got paid 1 cent per hair! ^_^

Diana, my mum used to find the occasional "blond" hair on my head when I was little. Maybe they were actually white?

Lyn, I started noticing white hairs when I was 23 and working stressful hours. I plucked for years. You have to use tweezers and 2 mirrors. There is no evidence that plucking makes more come. I'm intrigued that nutrition could make the pigment come back though; try it and tell us if it works! At 36 (and with my kids stressing me out) I've finally got too many to pluck. I just started colouring with henna and indigo. Messy and time-consuming but good for those who want to avoid conventional methods.

I recently found a white hair elsewhere, and it wasn't my eyebrow. And yes, I am traumatised.

Aaaaiiieee! How can you ladies stand to pull them out? The idea of plucking a hair makes my spine crawl.

Lyn: there are worse things than white hair. Personally I'm a fan of graying temples, but if it's not your cuppa, then once the gray gets to be noticeable (which it won't, probably, until you're in your forties), colour it. No biggie.

Fruitful: you know the saying, right? If a woman has gray in her curtains, she probably has it in her carpet, too. hee hee

Anyway, I heard there's a salon in Los Angeles called "The Paint Box" for dealing with sub-equatorial gray hair. Only they dye the hair purple and hot pink and things like that. Apparently, it's very popular! Maybe it'll catch on across the globe. Secret punk hair colour.

I pull hair when I'm frustrated ... I have a huge bald spot actually. I'm growing out my hair to hide it. The hair is growing back, but slowly. I blame medicine.

I plan to dye my hair funky colours when I get more whites, but right now, I say they're signs of wisdom

Elisabeth, so you're saying lots of people share this condition? LOL. And that salon in LA - I don't know if that's funny or awesome! So you "heard" about it, right? ^_^

This whole conversation is cracking me up. Fruitful your first remark made me laugh out loud.
A few greys or whites show up long before the whole hair color shows a big change so Lyn I'd say it might be a something new but it doesn't mean you are going grey anytime soon. You are so young and cute and I think a few white hairs would look striking on you. Plus it seems that women with very dark hair get the best silver white hair when the time comes.

Fruitful: read about it is more accurate. I'm pretty sure the article I read on the topic was written by the woman who wrote "Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy". She'd be older now, and from how she describes it, it ALL goes gray down there. Eep.

I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, eh?

lyn: there's a name for that condition, isn't there? Trichotillomania, or something like that? My cousin used to pull out hairs while she wasn't paying attention, and ended up with huge bald patches. It grew back, but still. It's probably a bit like compulsive nail-biting. I can't stand the feeling of teeth on fingernails, either, but lots of people do it all the time and find it somehow satisfying, and chew their nails right down to the quick.

Yeah, elisabeth ... I pull when I'm stressed. And I'm stressed a lot. I usually have a huge pile on the desk at the end of the exam!

People have started placing me next to the trash can.

The carpet goes grey?? hu!! seriously?
Lyn* You may not see grey hair for several more years. I had a few in my 30's and then they stopped. I am 54 and still only have a few. You WILL grey like one of your parents...how are mom and dad doing in that department?
Also, try not to pull your hair...I have several clients who do this I had one client who while at MIT pulled all her eyelashes out! Stress

Unfortunately, I cannot judge greyness by my parents (as I am adopted); so we'll just have to see, I guess!!!

However, I have reason to believe it was an adoption within the family; so I may have the graces of the grey in my father's family - he didn't start to go grey until 60.

A good portion of my hair fell out because of medical issues--- when it grew back, there was a large portion that came in PURE WHITE. A couple of times a year I will be under stress, which in turn makes my medical stuff worse, my hair begins to fall out . . . and when it comes back a good portion of it comes in white. At 22, my white streak is noticeable enough to keep me from getting carded much so long as the place has good lighting. I have dark hair, so in the sun or bright lights the white is very noticeable, but I don't have enough yet that it is as noticeable in dim light or most pictures. I have no grey hair, only pure white. My hair is past my shoulders and the white has been there long enough to be white down the whole length. Oh, and I also have wrinkles . . . so Denise's theory is busted. In my case, I don't think it is genetic based on family members, either. Don't know how I got so lucky.

But yeah, the hair pulling can cause follicular trauma and speed it along too!

How and when you grey is totally genetic and you will inherit that just like hair color, eye color, height and every other physical aspect one has that has trickled down through the generations..:)

Lyn* since you are still young I wouldn't worry too much...you are adorable and fresh...add some fun colorful streaks if it bothers you:)