Sporting a Mature Look
We often greet our first grey hair with dismay, feeling it’s a sign we’re aging too fast. Just when or if our hair turns grey is determined more by our genetic makeup than our age. And remember that our rate of aging doesn't really increase later in life.
Our hair colour is caused by a pigment called melanin. The cells that produce melanin are called melanocytes. Their efficiency to make pigment in our hair follicle is determined by the concentration of hormones they receive. As we age, the efficiency of our pigment producing cells gradually decreases as hormone levels fall.
Grey hair is neither diseased nor prematurely dying. The cells that make your hair, remain alive no matter how little melanin pigment they contain. Up to now no one has found a way to make our cells produce more melanin, even though it would mean big profits.
But since every hair follicle produces one hair, there’s no truth to the rumour that pulling out a grey hair causes two more to grow in its place. There is not much you can do about greying hair, unless you resort to the old dodge of covering your white hair by dyeing it.
“Use it or lose it” may apply to some ageing functions like mental and muscle deterioration, but exercising our melanocytes to keep them colouring our hair is unfortunately not possible.
So next time you notice some greying, think about it as making you look more mature.
Greying hair is just one of a host of physical changes that reminds us that we are caught in a process which has just one inevitable end. In the grand scheme of things, greying hair is probably one of the most innocuous signs that we are on the ultimate slippery slope.
Individuals respond to the realization of this reality in a wide variety of ways – from giving up entirely to rushing into a frenzied search for meaning and significance. Numerous social scientists have set out stage theories of human development which acknowledge a crisis point which coincides with the age where most of us begin to experience the ravages of time on our bodies.
Through nutrition and exercise, we may be able to slow the aging process some, but we can never stop it completely, much less turn it around. We all come to the point where we recognize that we are not immortal and somehow come to terms with that fact. Making peace with our mortality is one of the most important steps in the maturation process.
Having a spiritual focus as we grow older can help us deal with the issues which might otherwise overwhelm us. Those who have spiritual awareness tend to be less concerned with the physical aspects of life. They are less disturbed by the encroachments of old age.
A spiritual component in our life brings balance to the way we live. A knowledge of the divine introduces us to the eternal realm beyond the constraints of time and matter.
The God of the Bible invites us to enter into abundant life - life with a spiritual emphasis and an eternal nature. As the signs of age come along, we would be better off turning to God and coming to grips with the spiritual aspect of life, than investing more energy into that part of our life which will eventually be reduced to its chemical components.
Each human spirit has the potential to engage the divine Spirit without being assimilated into it. We can reach far beyond the confines of the material universe to know the God who created it all – and created us to have relationship with Him.
David Humphreys and Ron Hughes
© August 2004
