How age, stress and genetics turn hair gray

Why does hair turn gray? Is it stress? Age? Genetics?

As a kid, host Aaron Scott would dress up for Halloween as an older version of himself — complete with a cane, a set of polyester britches and painted gray hair. These days, that costume is becoming a bit more of a day-to-day reality. At least, the gray hair is.

So today, in honor of all you out there flirting with gray hair, whether for a witch costume or just that exciting and terrifying thing called aging, we're digging into why hair turns gray. And we turn to dermatologist Dr. Jenna Lester for answers.

Have an idea for an episode, or questions for the team? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

This episode was fact-checked by Rasha Aridi, and edited by Gisele Grayson and Viet Le. Dennis Nielson was the audio engineer.