Don't Pluck Out White Hairs, Experts Advise

Experts advise cutting, not pulling out, stray white hairs since plucking them out can lead to hair loss.

Some 25-35 follicles come out of a pore on the scalp in the owner's lifetime, and a follicle lives for two to three years. Thus if a hair is plucked out, it cuts what might be called the pore's productivity by up to three years, advancing the time of sparse follicle growth or baldness.

There is another reason not to pull out white hair. People think that once a white hair comes out of a pore, only white hair grows there. But, except for those in their 60s or older, that is not true.

Prof. Shim Woo-young of Kyunghee University's East-West Neo Medical Center said, "When people are under severe stress, suffer from a disease, or become weak, they can have white hair temporarily and then black hair again."