Monday 20 June 2022 10:28 PM Why is my grey hair now turning orange? DR MARTIN SCURR answers your health ... trends now
Over the past few months my greying hair has turned orangey-yellow. Although new growth comes through a normal colour, it then turns yellow and gets frizzy at the ends. This coincided with me being prescribed new tablets (bisoprolol and tolterodine) but neither my doctor nor my chemist think they’re to blame.
Gill Reid, Cambridge.
Thank you for sharing your somewhat mysterious experience. It’s not uncommon for medications to cause hair loss or growth because they can interfere with the normal hair growth cycle — but a colour change is very rare.
Research suggests this can happen after taking certain medications including chloroquine (used to prevent and treat malaria), propofol (an anaesthetic), valproic acid (an anti-convulsant) and verapamil (for high blood pressure).
However, the evidence is not compelling and all too often other factors — such as environmental exposures — are involved, making it difficult to be sure that it’s the medication that’s responsible.
You say this change in hair colour coincided with the prescription of two new tablets; bisoprolol (a beta blocker commonly prescribed for heart disease) and toltero- dine (normally prescribed for urinary incontinence).
Greying hair may be more at risk of discolouration when using these products because it has lost its natural pigmentation (File image)
In your longer letter, you also mention you were already taking the high blood pressure medication losartan, omeprazole (to treat acid reflux), simvastatin (a common statin), and gabapentin (for restless legs).
All six of these common medications are frequently prescribed together, and I know of no association between any of these drugs and a change in hair colour.
There are compounds in cosmetics that have been implicated in yellow hair discolouration — selenium sulfide 2.5 per cent, which is used in anti-dandruff shampoo, and dihydroxyacetone, which is found in fake tan.
Greying hair may be more at risk of discolouration when using these products because it has lost its natural pigmentation. However, this would not explain the frizziness you describe.
With regret, your experience remains a medical mystery.
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