It's true that stress can give us gray hair, and there are three big things in Tyler causing it.  The good news is, if we can get a grip, it 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 East Texas 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 Tyler That Are Giving You Gray Hair

1.  The weather.  Triple digits are supposed to be getting a grip right about now, and the fact that they are not attacking us yet, makes Texas feel a little less like Texas.  And then we look at the 105-degree heat in the Pacific Northwest where it's supposed to be cool and rainy, and we start thinking maybe things are flipping and the norm is not the norm.  With more rain in the forecast this week, working in construction, landscaping, or any other weather-dependent job has to be stressful too.

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 Loop and South Broadway in Tyler -- well, all of those great restaurants and shops sure do create some congestion. And don't even get us started on I-20.  Casinos in Bossier City may be calling, but it's not without a little stress getting there.

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, 11 million people in Texas 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 one-way streets...

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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