hair color news stories on Newser

Scientists Find Key to Ending Gray Hair

Matt Cantor — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:24:05 CDT

Scientists may have discovered the key to keeping your locks colorful. Gray hair results from a missing "signaling" protein, called Wnt, in the melanocyte stem cells that help create one's hair color, a new study suggests. Genetically manipulating Wnt may prevent the graying process—and researchers have already restored coloration...

New DNA Test Reveals Suspects' Hair Color

Nick McMaster — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:57:23 CST

DNA evidence may soon be able to give detectives one more clue about a suspect: hair color. Dutch researchers say they've figured out the markers to determine red or black hair with 90% accuracy, and brown or blond hair with 80% accuracy, reports LiveScience . It's "a major breakthrough because, so...

Cancer Didn't Take Me, but It Did Take My Red Hair

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:12:01 CST

When Mary Elizabeth Williams found out that the cancer on her scalp had been successfully removed, her first feeling was relief … followed quickly by, “What do you mean I can't color my hair?” Williams, who has been chronicling her cancer experience on Salon , had a circle of skin removed...

Need a Real Change? Dye Your Hair

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:06:00 CST

New Year’s resolutions pretty much never stick, and if they miraculously do, they take time—with one exception: hair dye. “Resolutions to eat more fruit and meditate every day and read Virgil are fine for the long-range self-improvement plans,” writes Mary Elizabeth Williams for Salon , but “any time I want...

Blonds Have More Skin Cancer

Jess Kilby — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:56:51 CDT

Blonds and redheads are three times more likely to develop skin cancer, as are those who worked jobs outside through their teenage years, the Age reports. A new study has identified six factors that increase the likelihood of developing a melanoma, which also includes a significantly freckled upper back. For...

Office Quickly Graying Obama

Rob Quinn — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:53:01 CST

The toll of doing America's top job is showing on Barack Obama's head just 44 days into his presidency, reports the New York Times . Like George Bush and Bill Clinton before him, Obama is rapidly going gray. Obama-watchers say the graying started at the close of the campaign, and they...

Amid Outcry, Doc Backs Off Designer Babies

Katherine Thompson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:40:00 CST

After backlash from doctors, ethicists, and the public, a fertility clinic that had promised parents the option to choose certain traits for their new babies has changed its claim slightly. “We’re going to limit it to people with genetic diseases because we just cannot keep up with what’s going on,...

When Economy Gets Tough, the Tough Go Blond

Rob Quinn — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:24:05 CST

The grim economy is causing a gold rush in Britain's hair salons, a celebrity hairdresser tells the Daily Telegraph . His sales of blond hair products have jumped 67% since last year, and he credits the sales bombshell to women looking for a quick way to cheer themselves up amid the...

UK Gingers See Red Over Harassment

Dustin Lushing — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:13:17 CDT

The UK is ignoring a vicious form of discrimination, the BBC reports—one based not on skin color but hair color. Britain's red-headed schoolkids face bullying, women feel stereotyped, and auburn-haired Britons report harassment with epithets like carrot-top, copper-top, ginger-nut, and even Ronald McDonald.