Researchers at Columbia University have released the first published study to find evidence of “natural re-pigmentation.”

The researchers set out to create a computer model that shows how people get gray hair as they age and in response to stressful life events. They cut colored and gray hair from 14 people who rated how stressful their life had been over the past year.

A surprising result of the study was that some hairs that had already turned gray regained their color when stress in the life of the people was low.

Ayelet Rosenberg, the lead author of the study, said,

“I was not surprised by any of the stressors that correspond with graying; I was surprised to see how strong of an impact a vacation had on the reversal of graying.

One participant went on just a 2-week trip, and amazingly enough, five of their hairs regained color afterward.”

There is still a lot of work to do on this subject and researchers still don’t know if this phenomenon can take place in people over 40, but at least that’s a start…

Maybe there is some hope out there for those of us who went gray a little bit early!

Time will tell…