For centuries, it has been claimed that human hair can turn white 'over night.' Yet, this astonishing claim has so far not been investigated systematically. Still, several authors of the medical setting wrote articles that are commonly thought to have shown that human hair cannot turn white within one or a few days. Typically, authors of such articles devaluate existing reports of sudden whitening, and stress that inanimate organic matter without metabolism cannot change its colour.
Consequently,
because no authoritative source summarizing the state of the art
regarding the sudden whitening of body hair was available, I performed a
survey of the German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch
medical literature, roughly covering the last 200 years.
In sum, I found 207 case reports of which 46 were first-hand accounts of
physicians who witnessed the rapid graying process of their patient's
hair. In addition, 87 cases were reported by physicians who saw or treated the patients only after the
alleged sudden color change, sometimes on the next day after its
supposed occurrence. The case collection contains 24 cases in
which persons aged 4 to 18 were reported to have undergone a rapid
graying of hair. The graying was mainly related to the contexts of emotional trauma or stress, psychiatric disorders, and somatic diseases. Numerous cases involved not only scalp hair, but also beards, eyelashes, and other body hair. Several authors stressed that the loss of hair was not involved in the process of graying. Since I began to study the subject of sudden whitening of hair, I received 11 accounts in which people related to me how hair turned gray or white within one or a few days. In
the non-medical literature, I even came across two reports that described how
animals have allegedly turned white from fright. One of them concerns a
horse that was found three days after it had suffered a tremendous shock
and escaped. During these three days, his former black tail and mane
had ostensibly turned gray and white, respectively (see the picture on
the right). Taking these case reports together, especially some detailled first-hand accounts related by physicians, I think it is very likely that sudden
whitening or graying of developed hair shafts does indeed occur - just
like many other astonishing changes of living body tissues that may
occur in emotionally charged circumstances or in near-death states, and
for which there is, at present, likewise no satisfying physiological
explanation. Perhaps, these phenomena are already linked to so-called Psi-phenomena such as psychokinesis. In science, the presence or the absence of a given phenomenon determines if it is real, not the presence or the absence of a theory to explain this phenomenon. Hence, when a theory is lacking, it is the task of science to start investigations into the as yet unexplained. I hope my research will stimulate such activities, and I am thankful to Emily Kelly and Alexander Navarini who helped me to publicise this study. |  white hair within one day after he was injured by a mine. (Lebar 1915)  A 6-year old horse that was supposedly found with a white mane three days after it suffered a tremendous shock. (McAlpine 1932) |