Pill developed that stops hair going grey

Woman brushing her hair

(Image credit: Rex Features)

Introducing the one-a-day pill that stops hair going grey

Not quite ready to embrace the silver siren looks of Helen Mirren? Well, according to new reports you may not have to, as L’Oreal reveals a solution to stop hair going grey.

The beauty giants have spent more than a decade in research labs trying to find a way to halt the oncoming of salt and pepper locks, and it appears that they've finally made a breakthrough.

They are currently working on a medication that, taken daily, could help you retain your natural hair for as long as possible.

Aiming to avoid a synthetically created drug, the scientists involved in the development process painstakingly screened a vast number of naturally occurring compounds, eventually discovering one in fruit.

But, they have been careful to not to reveal the secret fruit extract until the International Investigative Dermatology meeting in 18 months, when safety trials have been completed.

What we do know is the pill would be inexpensive and designed to be taken in the same way as a dietary supplement.

‘Ideally you would take it for your whole life, but realistically we’d encourage people to start using it before their hair goes grey,’ said Bruno Bernard, head of hair biology at L’Oreal.

Grey hairs tend to appear after the age of 30, when human cells start to succumb to a process called oxidative stress, making them less resistant to toxins. The hair pigment cells die with age due to lack of a protective enzyme. The pill, however, would help combat this process.

L’Oreal hope to be the first to create this anti-grey formula, and with sales of home hair colouring kits up by third in the past three years, it looks set to be a lucrative venture.

‘With people living longer and working longer, they are in the grey zone for longer and the demand for something like this is huge,’ said Des Tobin, professor of cell biology at University of Bradford’s Centre for Skin Science.

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Natalia is a health journalist with 14 years experience in the publishing industry. She has worked for a number of well known magazines and websites including Marie Claire, Woman&Home, Top Sante, Boots and The Telegraph. She likes to think she practices what she preaches when it comes to health and fitness. Her athletic prowess began early. A keen fencer for 13 years, she wielded an epée for Olympic Team GB during her teenage years. She likes to think she made sword-fighting cool before Game of Thrones came along! While working on her sporting performance with the team, she also participated in a lot of nutrition and psychology training, When it comes to time off, you’ll most likely find her up a mountain somewhere. It seems holidays have become a time for climbing several thousand feet, rather than chilling out. She’s now hiked eight of the major mountain ranges across four continents – including the Appalachians, the Smokies, the Sierra Nevadas (she spent her honeymoon hiking to the top of Half Dome), as well as hitting the summits of Snowdon, Pen-Y-Fan (Brecon Beacons), Table Mountain in South Africa, the Blue Mountains in Australia and the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. She’s also passionate about all things health, particularly vaccinations, and will happily jump on her soap box at any given opportunity to talk about their benefits to anyone who will listen!