First gray hair gene found, plucked out of research

Just like those first silvery strands that stubbornly start cropping up in an otherwise pleasantly pigmented head of hair, the genes responsible for gray hair have been evading science’s grasp.

Brunettes, redheads, towheads – they all have snippets in the DNA they can thank, or curse. But for those robbed of their hair color, the genetic suspect was at large.

READ: The psychology of male haircuts

Now researchers may have tracked down the first gene linked to gray hair, a search involving the hair types and genomes of more than 6,000 people living in five Latin American countries. They looked in these populations because they represent a good mix of backgrounds: Europeans and their sometimes fair or curly hair, Native Americans and African-Americans and their characteristic dark and straight or kinky hair.

Many people already know they face increased risk of going gray at an early age, if they’ve seen older relatives do so. The current study adds more support to the notion that graying is genetic, said Kaustubh Adhikari, a research associate in cell and developmental biology at University College London. Adhikari is the lead author of the study, which was published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The silver lining

The name of the hair color thief is IRF4, a gene that probably acts like a cog in the machine in a cellular process that churns out melanin pigment in the hair follicle. Graying happens as follicles gradually stop producing the pigment that gives hair its color, a process that happens at different rates for different people.

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Kerry Washington took to Instagram to criticize the April 4 AdWeek magazine cover, on which she appears. "It felt strange to look at a picture of myself that is so different from what I look like when I look in the mirror. It's an unfortunate feeling," she wrote.

PHOTO: adweek

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Lena Dunham posted this photo of the cover of Tentaciones magazine on Monday, February 29, claiming that the publication had heavily edited it. But El País, the Spanish newspaper that publishes the magazine, says it made no changes to the shot.

PHOTO: from instagram

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Vogue's February 2014 issue featuring Dunham came under fire from critics who said it was severely edited. Not long after the issue was released, website Jezebel put up a $10,000 reward for anyone who would submit pictures of Dunham before they were retouched. Dunham tweeted, "10K? Give it to charity then just order HBO."

PHOTO: courtesy vogue

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Lady Gaga was featured on Glamour's December 2013 cover. Gaga received an award from the magazine at the annual Woman of the Year Awards and took the stage opportunity to speak about body issues and Photoshopping celebrities, using her cover photo as an example: "I felt my skin looked too perfect," she said, according to the Huffington Post. "I felt my hair looked too soft. ... I do not look like this when I wake up in the morning. What I want to see is the change on your covers. When the covers change, that's when culture changes."

PHOTO: courtesy glamour magazine

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

"Pretty Little Liars" actress Ashley Benson posted to Instagram in regards to a poster promoting the show in 2013, "Saw this floating around . . . hope it's not the post. Our faces in this were from 4 years ago... and we all look ridiculous. Way too much Photoshop. We all have flaws. No one looks like this. It's not attractive." She also wrote, "Remember, you are ALL beautiful. Please don't ever try and look like the people you see in magazines or posters because it's fake."

PHOTO: ABC Family

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Gisele Bundchen urged more advertising campaigns to embrace imperfections and steer away from over retouching, and embraced her ideals as seen here in the BLK DNM fall 2012 campaign. "I loved his approach because I feel like women should be really real and raw and it doesn't really happen anymore" in fashion photographs, she told Fashionista. "I love that feeling of, you know, we are women -- we are so different. Our imperfections are what makes us unique and beautiful. He gets that. He's not trying to retouch you or put a pretty light on you."

PHOTO: courtesy blk dnm

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

H&M's summer 2013 campaign featuring Beyoncé created some heat when the brand attempted to retouch some of her curves. The Sun reported that "when Beyoncé found out they had edited the way her body really looked, she hit the roof. She's a true diva and was furious that she had been given such a snubbing. Her people refused to give the pictures the green light, so H&M were forced to use the originals."

PHOTO: courtesy H&M

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Jennifer Lawrence was featured in Dior's spring 2013 ad campaign. After it came out, the actress told "Access Hollywood," "That doesn't look like me at all," referring to the retouched photos. Lawrence also spoke with Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, saying, "The world has this idea that if you don't look like an airbrushed perfect model. You have to see past it. You look how you look. You have to be comfortable. What are you going to do? Be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That's just dumb."

PHOTO: courtesy dior

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

When Coco Rocha was featured on Elle Brasil's May 2012 issue, she took to her Tumblr and had this to say: "As a high fashion model I have long had a policy of no nudity or partial nudity in my photo shoots. For my recent Elle Brazil cover shoot I wore a body suit under a sheer dress which I now find was photoshopped out to give the impression of me showing much more skin than I was, or am comfortable with. This was specifically against my expressed verbal and written direction to the entire team that they not do so. I'm extremely disappointed that my wishes and contract was ignored. I strongly believe every model has a right to set rules for how she is portrayed and for me these rules were clearly circumvented."

PHOTO: courtesy elle brazil

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Jessica Simpson appeared with air-dried hair and wearing no makeup for the May 2010 cover of Marie Claire. Simpson told the magazine, "I don't have anything to prove anymore. What other people think of me is not my business."

PHOTO: courtesy marie claire

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

OK! Magazine's February 1, 2010, issue featured new mom Kourtney Kardashian and was shot just seven days after her newborn's birth, WWD reports. Kardashian told WWD, "They doctored and Photoshopped my body to make it look like I have already lost all the weight, which I have not." She also tweeted, "One of those weeklies got it wrong again...they didn't have an exclusive with me. And I gained 40 pounds while pregs, not 26...But thanks!"

PHOTO: courtesy OK! weekly

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

In March 2009, Complex magazine accidentally featured a non-retouched image of Kim Kardashian for several hours before replacing with the retouched image. "So what: I have a little cellulite," Kardashian wrote in a blog entry entitled "Yes, I am complex!" "What curvy girl doesn't?!"

PHOTO: courtesy complex magazine

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Brad Pitt was featured unretouched on the cover of W Magazine's February 2009 issue. Pitt personally requested to be photographed by Chuck Close, who is famous for his extremely detailed portraits, and opted for no retouching. "You can't be the fair-haired young boy forever," Close said. "Maybe a photograph of him with his crow's-feet and furrowed brow is good for him."

PHOTO: courtesy w magazine

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

A 2004 promotional poster for "King Arthur" revealed a more well-endowed Keira Knightley than her typical boyish figure. Knightly has complained about her breasts being digitally altered for promotional movie shots and in reference to the "King Arthur" poster told a magazine, "those things certainly weren't mine."

PHOTO: touchstone pictures

Photos: Celebs take a stand against retouching

Kate Winslet has famously rejected retouching since her cover shoot for the February 2003 issue of GQ. Regarding the issue, she stated, "The retouching is excessive. I do not look like that, and more importantly, I don't desire to look like that." She also mentioned, "I actually have a Polaroid that the photographer gave me on the day of the shoot. ... I can tell you they've reduced the size of my legs by about a third. For my money, it looks pretty good the way it was taken."

PHOTO: courtesy gq

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The researchers made the connection between the gray hair trait and a specific variation in IRF4 seen exclusively among Europeans, who are known to have a higher chance of premature graying than people of other descent, he added.

The silver lining (pun intended) is that the finding “gives researchers further leads in what they can investigate if they want to develop a drug to prevent or delay hair graying,” Adhikari said. If more studies can confirm the role of this cellular pathway in graying, researchers could look for proteins or enzymes that might be lacking in the pathway among those salt-and-pepper cases and perhaps find a way to regulate them with a pill or cream, he added. “But, of course, it will take quite a bit of research,” Adhikari said.

Why do gray hairs make us cringe?

“It is because it makes you confront your mortality … even though we are long from the time when gray is associated with the end of life,” said Vivian Diller, a research psychologist in private practice in New York City.

When CNN’s own Anderson Cooper started going gray in his 20s, he wrote that it was “a total shock.” It took him years to learn to “give in to the gray.”

READ: Lock of John Lennon’s hair sells at auction

Paradoxically, the identification of a gene that could be linked to graying could come as welcome news to the many folks out there who, like Cooper, had trouble seeing the positive, gravitas-affirming power of gray.

“I think (people) will feel less like they are out of control,” Diller said. “If we know that it is in your genes you will get gray hair at a certain age, no matter what you do, you will say, ‘OK, I’ll just color it. I’m not going to pluck them out, and I know it doesn’t mean I’m old and dying,’” she said.

50 shades of cool

Even before these genetic reassurances, there seemed to be a burgeoning trend of women fully embracing the gray. Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Pink have all stepped out with white or gray locks that they appear to have intentionally dyed.

“There’s a beautiful snowy white, silky white, white with blond. Making white hair a fashion statement is growing, in part because women are rebelling against the tradition that you must avoid white and gray at all cost,” Diller said.

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

The human body is photographed in fascinating, microscopic detail in the book "Science is Beautiful," by Colin Salter. Here are some of the most spectacular images, with text from the book. Pictured, Serotonin is released by blood platelets during clot formation, where it causes the constriction of blood vessels. It is an important neurotransmitter (a messenger of the nervous system) in the brain, and a lack of it has been shown to cause depression. It is this function which has led to the development of SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants, such as Prozac (fluoxetine).

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Empty fat cells —  

Fat cells are amongst the largest cells in the human body. They form a thick insulating layer under the skin which serves to cushion us as well as store energy. In this image the normal lipid (fat) deposits of the cells (their major component) have been removed, revealing the honeycomb structure of the cell membranes. When we put on weight, the cells swell with additional fat, and eventually extra cells are added too.

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Human skin —  

The outer layer of the skin, the epidermis (top half of this image) consists of dead cells that are constantly sloughed off and replaced from below. These tightly packed cells contain high levels of a protein called keratin (yellow) which makes the skin waterproof and strong, to protect the organs inside. In this cross-section, you can also see hair follicles (black).

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Influenza A H1N1 virus particles —  

Influenza A viruses can infect humans,pigs, birds and horses. The H1N1 strain caused the Swine flu outbreak of 2009. At the center of each virus is its genetic fingerprint (the ribonucleic acid, pink), surrounded by a protective protein shell (the nucleocapsid, yellow). The enclosing fatty envelope (green) contains two types of protein, haemagglutinin and neuraminidase (the 'H' and 'N' in the strain's codename), the levels of which determine the strain of virus.

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Gallstone crystals —  

Gallstones mostly consist of cholesterol, but can also contain calcium and bilirubin (a product of old red blood cells). They form in the gallbladder (from which bile is released into the small intestine) when there is an imbalance in the chemical composition of the bile. Gallstones are usually symptomless, unless one obstructs the bile duct. In that case they cause acute pain, jaundice and infection.

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Balancing stone from inner ear —  

Our sense of balance is derived from a tiny stone in each ear, called an otolith (from Greek, literally "ear-stone"). The stones are built up in the inner ear from deposits of calcium carbonate crystals, seen here on the surface of an otolith.

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Blood clot —  

Red blood cells have been trapped by a web of thin yellow-white strands of fibrin. Fibrin is an insoluble protein produced by platelets (fragments of white blood cells) from a soluble protein called fibrinogen normally present in blood. Blood clots may occur on the surface of skin in case of injuries or inside blood vessels. These internal clots, known as thrombi, may be caused by having too many platelets. They can lead to heart attacks.

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Adrenaline crystals —  

Adrenaline, also called epinephrine, is normally present in blood in small quantities. It is a hormone produced in the adrenal glands above the kidneys. The glands are controlled by the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for instinct and emotion. In times of stress more adrenaline is secreted into the bloodstream. It widens the airways of the lungs and constricts small blood vessels. This makes the muscles work harder and produces a "fight or flight" response.

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Insulin crystals —  

These hexagonal crystals are of the hormone insulin. Insulin is produced in the pancreas, and its function is to regulate blood sugar levels. Insufficient production of insulin leads to an accumulation of glucose in the blood, and can cause Type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes can occur when there is plenty of insulin, but the body's cells do not respond properly to it. A third type, gestational diabetes, occurs in pregnant women who produce high levels of blood glucose.

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

Photos: This is your body -- up very, very, close and personal

Brain cells in culture —  

This image shows two important support cells (glial cells) of the human brain. The green splash is a microglial cell, which responds to immune reactions in the central nervous system. Microglial cells recognize areas of damage and inflammation and swallow cellular debris. The larger orange shape is an oligodendrocyte. The ragged extensions of an oligodendrocyte can supply many neurons (nerve cells) with myelin, an insulating material which allows each neuron's communicating axon to transmit electrical impulses efficiently.

PHOTO: Science is Beautiful by Colin Salter, published by Batsford. Image copyright SSPL

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Believe it or not, Adhikari found evidence that the IRF4 gene variation linked to gray hair may have actually been selected tens of thousands of years ago in human evolution. Although there was probably pressure for our ancestors to possess hair of a certain density and shape (curly or straight) in different climates, there might have been sexual selection for genes linked to hair color which also end up affecting gray hair.

That is not to say that silver foxes were the object of desire in the cave world. It’s probably more likely that blond hair, which the study found was also linked to the same version of the IRF4 gene, was enriched in the population because it stood out among all those darker complexions, Adhikari said.

Genes versus gray-inducing environment

Although the current study only uncovered one gray hair gene, there are probably at least several other genes that play a role in stripping us of our hair color, Adhikari said.

But we are not entirely at the mercy of the genes. The current study found that environmental factors controlled about 70% of cases of hair graying. Genes were only responsible for about 30%, at least in the Latin American cohort.

“The study confirms that (going gray) is at least a mix of genes and environment,” said Dr. Paradi Mirmirani, a dermatologist at Kaiser Permanente in California.

READ: Heads up! The billion dollar hair care industry

There is evidence that stress and smoking can increase your risk of going gray. Just look at President Obama, Mirmirani said. Pollution and spending too much time in the sun can also increase the odds that those silver strands will start showing up.