Hair and skin play an essential role in human communication. Hair length, colour, and style have a huge impact on how people look and feel about themselves. Humans are the only primates with exceptionally thick, long, and coloured scalp hair. Given the importance of hair in social communication, premature greying of hair or canities has a substantial negative impact on the affected individual’s appearance, self-esteem, and socio-cultural acceptance. Sometimes, it is regarded as a sign of advancing age, as well as a lack of health and vitality. Affected people are subjected frequently to societal stigma, prejudice, and marital troubles.
Canities, or hair greying, is a chronological ageing process that affects people of all races and genders. Greying occurs at different ages depending on race and ethnicity. Hair is said to grey prematurely if it happens before the age of 20 years in Whites, 25 years in Asians, and 30 years in Africans. Greying in men commonly starts at the temples and sideburns. Later, it spreads to the vertex and the rest of the scalp, with the occiput being the last to be affected. The hairline of most women begins to grey at the edge. The rate at which a person becomes grey depends on heredity. Kinships with noticeable early greying are not rare.
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