I don't know many people who enjoy the season of life where those silvery, wiry sprigs of hair seem to pop up overnight in the most obvious face-framing places on one's head. Graying hair may not be so bad if it weren’t so often accompanied with a loss of flexibility (causing more breakage). Unfortunately, gray hair is also often accompanied by an increasingly frizzy texture which tends to make it stand out from the rest of your hair.

Rather than relying on dyes and tints that too often are toxic and damaging, many wonder if there is a natural way to turn gray hair darker – to somehow internally change our body chemistry to help keep that pigment around longer. So, is there a natural way to help keep your hair smoother and darker for a longer period of time before Father Time inevitably extracts the color and vibrance from your hair? Related : Why Does Hair Look More Gray When Conditioner Wears Off?

Supplements Purported to Help Prevent and Reverse Gray Hair

There are actually a few supplements out there now that some people have reported are helping them to delay or even reverse the graying of their hair. There are no in-depth or conclusive studies yet that these actually work, but that doesn’t mean the anecdotal evidence and individual success stories don’t have some validity. It may just mean there wasn’t enough interest or funding for studies – or not enough money to be made on something that’s fairly inexpensive to manufacture.

Fo-Ti Root (Also known as He Shou Wu)

This inexpensive Chinese medicinal herb is probably at the forefront of the anti-graying supplement buzz. There are numerous success stories out there of men and women who have experienced a reduction in their grays after taking this supplement regularly.

This herb has long been used to promote youth and vigor in traditional Chinese medicine, and has also gained a reputation as a natural remedy for graying hair. In fact, the Chinese name He Shou Wu translates into a statement about turning hair “black”. It also is purported to have a hand in overall longevity and vitality among many other beneficial traits. Related : Silica Supplements for Super Long, Strong Hair (and it's cheap!)

Fo-Ti also mimics estrogens in the body, hence its use by women to help replenish estrogen lost during and after menopause. However, men also use the herb as a youth-promoting tonic as well as an energy and endurance enhancer.

Wheatgrass

There are many stories about regular consumption of wheatgrass and a connection to fending off grays. Most of us know this as a super healthy habit for many other reasons due to its high nutrition content.

According to Chinese medicine, wheatgrass may help slow down the rate of graying or even help reverse graying hair due to its effect on our blood. Healthy blood is tied to the health and vibrance of your hair. Wheatgrass is very rich in chlorophyll, which closely mimics human hemoglobin. Hemoglobin carries oxygen to all your vital organs and tissues.

Regular consumption of wheatgrass really helps oxygenate your blood, which is a huge benefit for many reasons. Well, now you might add another to that list of benefits – gray hair prevention!

Gray hair supplement may be in the works from a major cosmetics company

There is also buzz about a huge cosmetics company that makes both makeup products and specializes in haircare products and hair coloring products, working on an anti-gray supplement. They were reportedly still working to patent the idea, and it was supposed to have been released by now, but no further updates were available.

In the meantime, it sounds like there are some other options that it wouldn’t hurt to try. Even if they don’t turn your gray hair back to its youthful tone, they certainly have a plethora of other health benefits that may make it worth it! 

Update: It's July 2021 now and the company (spoiler alert - it was L'Oreal) still has not come out with the aforementioned supplement. It's worth mentioning that the older literature available on the impending release of this product did bring up the question of whether the product would be effective once the hair has already turned gray, and it was hypothesized that no it would not. 

You would conceivably have to take the product to prevent gray hair from happening in the first place- however it could be useful to prevent MORE grays from popping up. Discussion on this may be pointless anyway, as the product still has not made it to market and may have been scrapped for reasons unknown. We'll keep checking though!