Gray hair can inspire reverence or ridicule, according to one’s perspective.

For some, gray hair is a sign of experience, of wisdom, a status inviting respect. Others view gray (at least on their own heads) as a symbol of a losing battle with youth.

Many people may cringe at the first gray hairs, but see it as an inevitable sign of getting older. They make the decision to let the process continue, or to start coloring their hair, something that requires a long-term commitment.

Recent scientific publications speak to the cause of graying, and perhaps of its benefits.

According to the June issue of New Science magazine, the processes that produce gray hair could actually protect people from cancer.

The magazine reports that melanocyte cells produce the pigments coloring hair. They are assisted by stem cells in hair, which goes gray when the number of stem cells declines.

Researchers reported the reduced number of stem cells in mice that went gray resulted in fewer step cells with damaged DNA, that could lead to cancer-causing mutations.

How stressed were those lab mice? People frequently attribute their graying hair to stress, be it brought on by an impossible boss or problems with the kids.

An article in Scientific American reported that there may be some basis to these beliefs. According to the article, men first see their first gray hairs around age 30, and women at about age 35. But touches of silver can show up as soon as high school, or as late as the 50s.

David Fisher, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, said in the article that the gradual depletion of the melanocyte cells leads to the loss of pigment. While this may result from many factors, stress hormones may impact the survival of these cells. However, no conclusive link has been found between stress and gray hair.

Friends frequently tell Anna Elliott she has lovely gray hair.

“My mother grayed young, I grayed young,” she said. “I never colored it up. I just let it go gray. Just the beauty operator put a little rinse on it. I really do get a lot of complements about it.”

Gray hair runs in her family.

“That’s the way with my son, too. Of course, my daughter gets color on hers. As soon as she sees a little gray she goes to the beauty shop,” Elliott said.

Anita Hammond, sitting across the table from Elliott as they awaited lunch at the Tahlequah Senior Citizens Center, also has a lush head of gray hair.

“I guess that’s the way God blessed me, and I’ll just keep it that way. I tell my three daughters they are responsible for the gray, so I’ll just keep it,” she said.

Carl Wiseley, another diner at the center, said he got his gray hair when he was “pretty young — just about 65.”

“It’s just one of those things. It didn’t bother me,” he said. “I used to have wavy hair too, but taking all this medicine just straightened it out.”

Wiseley said he’s never considered using Grecian Formula 16 or the other male hair colorings he sees advertised on TV.

Virginia Henry, whose hair is a darker shade of gray, said she began seeing gray hair when she was in her 40s.

“I had surgery and my doctor started telling me I would turn gray because of the medications I used,” she said.

“It started turning around my face. I’d get a few gray hairs here and there. I still haven’t turned completely gray. The back of my hair is pretty dark.”

How did she feel when she saw those first gray hairs?

“I was kind of regretful,” she said. “But I’ve never done anything to it. I’ve never had any perms or anything. It’s just natural. I just let it turn.”

While the people quoted above are senior citizens, Chris Cisternino is in his 40s and began graying far earlier. He started noticing the gray when he was 16 years old. It didn’t come as a total surprise because his mother was prematurely gray.

He colored his hair once, when he went to Greece, because his sister-in-law teased him about it.

“She had said, ‘Gee, Chris, you sure are gray,’ and I said to her, ‘Gee, you sure look old.’ So I had it colored for that trip, and she commented that my hair was no longer gray, but I told her she still looked old,” he said.

He doesn’t remember when the gray actually took over, but he has plenty of curly white hair now.

“People always comment on it, which surprises me. I’ll hear them say, ‘Look at that beautiful curly white hair.’ I stand out in a crowd,” he said.

As a partner in the Smiles and Styles Salon at Wisdom Keepers apartments, Patricia Magner takes care of the hair of seniors living in the complex as well as customers from all over the Tahlequah area. Many of her clients prefer to color her hair – at least, the ladies do.

When she worked in California, about half the men colored their hair as they aged. Around here, none of the guys do. They just come in and get it cut.

“Gray hair sometimes is hard to get to take a color because it’s lost all its pigment. I’d say 75 percent of people don’t want to be gray, because it’s hard to manage, it’s ward to work with. When you color it, you can get it to do a lot you can’t get it to do if it’s gray,” she said. “That’s why I color mine, because it’s contrary to work with.”

She said the top selling brand of hair color is Clairol, while the second is So Color by Matrix.

‘The Matrix holds really good on gray hair, wraps real well, stays real well. But the Clairol is more reasonably priced, and that’s what makes it sell so well,” Magner said.

Some women use just one color on their hair, while others opt for a more sophisticated look.

“They’re getting more adventurous now. They do tri-color,” she said. “It takes longer to notice the gray hair. They can go longer with a foil than just with the color.”

Magner believes many of the 25 percent who don’t color their hair do so because it costs too much or takes too much time.

She advises her clients not to use bright shades of hair color.

“We always try to talk them into a little bit of a darker color rather than black or dark brown, because it doesn’t show the gray quite as soon,” she said.

“And darker hair shows the lines in your face faster than lighter hair color. That may be why God gave us gray hair.”