3 Things About Boise That Are Giving You Gray Hair

It's true that stress can give us gray hair, and there are three big things in Boise causing it right now.  The good news is, if we can get a grip, the gray can be reversed.

A few stray grays can happen at any age.  Jennifer Anniston has one of the most famous heads of hair in the world and said she flipped out when she discovered her first gray hair just before she turned 40.  Now she's in her 50s and she still looks amazing, and besides, there are highlights to handle these things.  I think I found my first gray around age 32, and it was actually a gray eyebrow strand.  Gray happens.

I'm sure you can think of fifteen things off the top of your slowly graying head that are causing stress in your corner of Boise right now, so feel free to add to this list.  I would offer my cats clawing the leather furniture, but that doesn't have a wide enough impact.

3 Things About Boise That Are Giving You Gray Hair

1.  The heat.  Triple digits for a day or two are tolerable because we know there's a light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel this time is LONG.  It feels like the steak of scorching afternoons may never end, and it has us wondering if this is the new norm because we've done something to attract the effects of global warming.  There's more to the stress than the heat itself.

2.  Traffic.  There are so many things to get perturbed about on the road.  Drivers don't use turn signals and tailgate.  One-way streets pop up in places you don't expect.  And the roundabouts -- well, it takes a minute for everyone to get on the same page with those.  One blogger points out too, that Boise's public transportation system isn't perfect, and the lack of bus options around the clock has a negative effect on mobility.

3.  COVID.  The pandemic seems to be winding down but virus cases are not gone completely, and the effects are still rippling.  Some restaurants that had to close last year are gone completely.  Workers aren't coming back in full force and that leaves businesses with open positions and hiring problems.  And the decision to vax or not to vax may be stressing you out.  So far, 666,000 people in Idaho have become fully vaccinated.

As if the dating apps and piles of laundry weren't stressful enough, there's all this other stuff too.  But here's some good news.  A new study shows gray hair can be reversed because it's not the existing hair that's being drained of color and turning gray, but instead it's new hair that's growing in that way.  So if we can stop the root of the stress, we can stop that gray at the root too. It's hard to stop triple-digit temperatures, but refusing to stress over Datingapp Darren might be a good start.

Columbia University researchers also found that dealing with stress can only do so much because the aging process does have a say in the matter.  Eventually, the gray is going to take over regardless of our stress level because it's impossible to hit 80 can still be naturally blond or brunette.  Until we hit that level, reducing stress will keep new hair from coming in, well, cold.

Now, about those roundabouts...