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I am curious about white hair: A friend told me that drinking coffee and tea would increase the number of white hair.

There is a similar claim on the English Pravda site:

Among other reasons of hair graying are excessive intake of tea, coffee and alcohol, of fried and oily foods, spices and sour and acidic foods.

Can you tell me if this true or not?

Sklivvz
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Sabapathy
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1 Answers1

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There is some evidence that caffeine may stimulate hair growth in general, which could mean that white hair would also grow faster.

Androgen-dependent growth inhibition of ex vivo hair follicles from patients suffering from AGA was present in the human hair organ culture model, a constellation which may serve for future studies to screen new substances against androgen-dependent hair loss. Caffeine was identified as a stimulator of human hair growth in vitro; a fact which may have important clinical impact in the management of AGA.

As for coffee specifically causing white hair to grow, there appears to be only anecdotal evidence.

Sklivvz
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SourDoh
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  • Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, [it would be preferable](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the reference here, and provide the link for further information. – Sklivvz Jan 11 '14 at 20:22
  • @Sklivvz The link you provide refers to link-only answers, which this is not. The essential part of the reference would be "may stimulate hair growth in general", which I include. – SourDoh Jan 11 '14 at 20:36
  • Take a look around to understand the standards of the site a bit better: people normally include an excerpt and explain why a particular study is good evidence. Strictly speaking, you don't *have* to, but please take it under consideration. – Sklivvz Jan 11 '14 at 20:38