Here is the scientific article regarding this whole issue of Melanin production, my understanding is that they are saying that the Hydrogen peroxide is formed by our cells not left there by colour services! AND further to that it is primarily genetic you can't clean your cells or stop your genetic clock, so reach for the phone and call a hairdresser if you are bothered, or go grey gracefully as nature intended.:Love:
Hydrogen peroxide - or H2O2 by its the chemical formula - is a by-product of metabolism, and as such it is generated in small amounts throughout the human body, consequently also in hair follicles. With increasing age, the quantity builds up, because the human body can no longer keep up neutralizing the hydrogen peroxide using the enzyme catalyse, which breaks down hydrogen peroxide into its two components water and oxygen. In their work, the scientists showed that in aging cells this enzyme is still present but in very limited concentration. This has dramatic consequences. Hydrogen peroxide attacks the enzyme tyrosinase by oxidizing an amino acid, methionine, at the active site. As a consequence, this key enzyme, which normally starts the synthesizing pathway of the coloring pigment melanin, does not function anymore. "We now know the specific molecular dynamic that underlies this process," elucidates Decker. The scientists at the Institute of Biophysics at Mainz University have been working for about ten years already on research concerning tyrosinases, which are enzymes present in all organisms and performing a variety of functions. In computer simulations that helped to reveal the molecular mechanisms, the biophysicists were supported by the newly established Research Unit Computer-based Research Methods in the Natural Sciences at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Oxidation by hydrogen peroxide not only interferes with the production of melanin, but also inhibits other enzymes that are needed for the repair of damaged proteins. As a result, a cascade of events is set off, at the end of which stands the gradual loss of pigments in the entire hair from its root to its tip. With this research work, the scientists from Mainz and Bradford not only solved - on a molecular level - the age-old riddle of why hair turns gray in old age, but also have pointed out approaches for future therapy of vitiligo, a skin pigment disorder. For melanin is not only the pigment in hair, but it is also responsible for color in skin and eyes.
(study by Dermotologists at Bradford university England and Biophysicists in Mainz Germany)
