Canities subita

Canities subita, also called Marie Antoinette syndrome or Thomas More syndrome, is an alleged condition of hair turning white overnight due to stress or trauma.[1] The trivial names come from specific cases in history including that of Queen Marie Antoinette of France whose hair was noted as having turned stark white overnight after her capture following the ill-fated flight to Varennes during the French Revolution. An older case of Sir Thomas More's hair turning white the night before his beheading has also been recorded. Although a number of cases of rapid hair greying have been documented, the underlying patho-physiological changes have not been sufficiently studied.[2][3][4]

Causes

The syndrome has been hypothesized to be a variant of alopecia areata diffusa or autoimmune non-scarring hair loss that selectively affects all pigmented hairs, leaving only the white hair behind. Marie Antoinette syndrome is caused by high levels of emotional stress, which, in turn, causes less pigmentation of the hair.[5] These form the basis of most uses of the idea in fictional works. It has been found that some hairs can become colored again when stress is reduced.[6][7]

One study[8] with experiments on mice found that stress caused white hair even if the immune system was suppressed (ruling out auto-immune response) and if the glands producing cortisol were removed. The study concluded that over-activation of the sympathetic nervous system was causing stem cells to stop producing pigment cells in hair follicles.[9]

History

The earliest surviving recorded claim of sudden whitening of the hair is represented in the Talmud, by a story of a Jewish scholar who, at the age of 17 years, developed white hair locks due to overwork.[10]

Contemporary cases of accelerated hair-whitening have been documented, as with bombing victims in the Second World War, and in a case covered in the medical journal Archives of Dermatology in 2009.[11]

References
  1. Trüeb, Ralph M. (2013). Female Alopecia: Guide to Successful Management. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 132. ISBN 9783642355035.
  2. Kelly, EmilyWilliams; Nahm, Michael; Navarini, AlexanderA (2013). "Canities subita : A reappraisal of evidence based on 196 case reports published in the medical literature". International Journal of Trichology. 5 (2): 63–68. doi:10.4103/0974-7753.122959. ISSN 0974-7753. PMC 3877474. PMID 24403766.
  3. A. Navarini, Alexander; Nobbe, Stephan (2009). "Marie Antoinette Syndrome". Archives of Dermatology. 145 (6): 656. doi:10.1001/archdermatol.2009.51. ISSN 0003-987X. PMID 19528420.
  4. Trüeb, Ralph M.; Navarini, Alexander A. (2010). "Thomas More Syndrome". Dermatology. 220 (1): 55–56. doi:10.1159/000249512. ISSN 1421-9832. PMID 19828939. S2CID 35750175.
  5. Landois. 1866: Bubbles in the Hair Shaft
  6. Alice Klein (June 6, 2020). "Grey hairs sometimes regain their colour when we feel less stressed". New Scientist.
  7. Ayelet Rosenberg; et al. (May 19, 2020). "Human Hair Graying is Naturally Reversible and Linked to Stress". bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2020.05.18.101964. S2CID 218764733.
  8. Zhang, B., Ma, S., Rachmin, I. et al. Hyperactivation of sympathetic nerves drives depletion of melanocyte stem cells. Nature (2020).
  9. How Stress Turns Hair White: Harvard Study Points To 'Fight-Or-Flight' Response
  10. Shah, Vidhi V.; Aldahan, Adam S.; Mlacker, Stephanie; Alsaidan, Mohammad; Nouri, Keyvan (2016). "Canities subita: sudden blanching of the hair in history and literature". International Journal of Dermatology. 55 (3): 362–364. doi:10.1111/ijd.13203. PMID 26864494. S2CID 31738508.
  11. Navarini, A. A.; Nobbe, S.; Trüeb, R. M. (June 2009). "Marie-Antoinette Syndrome" (PDF). Archives of Dermatology. 145 (6): 656. doi:10.1001/archdermatol.2009.51. PMID 19528420.
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