Hair and eye Color changes from diet?

[Suiren]

My hair and eyes have changed over the past two years and now I am wondering what role my diet could be playing here.

I was unable to find good links to studies. I was hoping someone here might be able to point me into the right direction.
I read a bit about iridology to understand why my eyes might be changing. There hasn't been a drastic color change, my eyes are still green. But I used to have more brown, yellow and some orange parts in my eye, that have been reduced. The color also seems more even, with less of a "wave" like texture. This make my eyes look a bit lighter and I feel sometimes a bit blueish? Not sure. I will have to compare my eyes to old pictures to compare the two. I do remember changes from child hood to adult hood though.

My sister even underwent a lot of changes. Her eyes went from completely green to completely light brown/ hazel by the time she was a teen/ young adult.



I know now that these brown, orange and yellow bits could have been a sign of toxic build up, kidney and liver or digestive problems.

Aside from my eye color, I noticed my hair color changing. I was unable to find anything regarding diet and changing hair colors at all! Of course the change is also subtle. My hair is still dark brown, but the hue is changing. My hair is getting redder! So much that people have actually asked me what dye I am using (I don't dye at all). Especially the past year I have noticed changes, meaning I can even see red tones at the roots already. My hair is darker at the roots and gets lighter and redder as it grows out, but the roots do show it too. My hair color was never an ashy brown, but I really don't remember red tones. I am determined to collect a lot of old images to create some sort of collage, so I can demonstrate the change.
One thing I noticed is that my hair color also changes very much depending on the light and can be more or less reddish/ orange. But in the past it did not matter what light I was in, my hair wasn't this red.
I am by no means a redhead, but I can truly call this auburn. I hope the change doesn't signalize anything bad

Does anyone know why my hair color could be changing? I have only made a few guesses, but I haven't been able to confirm these yet...
My thoughts are that maybe a more nutrient rich diet could have simply restored my hair color to the way it should be? I remember pictures of me as a child where my hair seems more red than when I was in my 20's for example.

I remember a time when I was sick and not eating well at all (I wasn't able to stomach much food) and back then I noticed how my hair color grew in sort of greyish, ashy at the roots, with some very "pale" hairs here and there. None of this is visible anymore.

My diet: I don't eat much raw foods to be honest (I never made the transition fully) , but I have been fully Paleo for two years now and made lots of health progress this way also.
I eat a moderate amount of carbs I believe, less than a standard diet for sure, but more than 120 g I suppose. I have added some yellow potatoes to my diet because I digest these well and they helped me gain and maintain my now healthier weight. Aside from that I eat lots of meat and eggs, and some veggies, a few fruits. So for the most part my diet is starch, fat and protein. I eat quality meats raw but most of my meat is cooked, organic beef, veggies and starch always cooked and fruits raw...though my fruits are the not so sweet ones like tomato, cucumber etc.

[jessica]

it will probably continue to change. 

it seems like your health has been pretty up and down, is it finally now to a point where you feel you are healing and your health is more stable?

I am guessing that hair color correlate with amounts of minerals in the body, either deficiency or excess, being let out that way, you might find that it is more red now because your body is releasing some minerals that cause it to become that color.  mine has gone through many stages, often it is mostly effected by the sun, but mine is actually less red then it was growing up, when I was in my early teens my hair was extremely auburn and copper tones, and I had many symptoms of mineral excesses, and was totally sensitive to copper, I often wonder if the excess copper wasn't coming out of my skull, lol , again in my 20s my hair shifted to more red and copper.  i haven't cut my hair in a few years and what has been growing in for the past two  years, since i got my hormones back in check and also started actually healing, is much darker then i remember, and even as it changes with the sun and seasons it still is not that same very coppery, orange hue.  it will still most likely sun bleach to blonde, but its different, i don't think i have so much copper in my system, even my skin tone is less coppery.

i grew up with regular brown eyes, not dark, not light, you could always see the black ring around them. they started getting lighter in my early 20s when i did a stint at a raw vegan retreat, with low glycemic veggies and no grains.  now my right eye is partially green, the lower part is green and is a totally different pattern then elsewhere, i have looked at much iridology and its wavy which is mentioned in association with connective tissue break down, not sure if i believe that or not but because of my lack of hormones and being super skinny during my 20's i often felt like and may have damaged some of my joints, i feel much better now and like they are continuously on the mend, but the eye stays two toned, for now.

I always loved reading this in regards to iridology, I don't mind if its complete nonsense, what isn't?  http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020128iridagnosis/Iridiagnosis/short%20toc.html

[goodsamaritan]

We have an existing thread somewhere here on this very topic.
My brown eyes created a bluish halo.

[LePatron7]

I'd love before and after pictures for any changes in hair color, eye color, etc from anyone who has experienced such changes. Would also be interested in the disappearance of moles, freckles, etc.

[Celeste]

AV used to talk about eyes changing color. He showed me photographs of the progression of a person on the primal diet. He used to tell me that my brown eyes contained structures that indicated my eyes should have been either green or blue. I did have a friend ask me one time if I was wearing contacts. Lately I don't notice changes. Wish I could get digital copies of my iris pictures.

[jessica]

I wish I had any access to documentation of this, I can see in my head the pictures of me that might still be in my parents possession that would demonstrate my hair color and eye color, even though I have been extremely disinterested in having my photo taken my whole life   For the last several  years all I have had access to is a phone camera, and not even one of those extremely nice iphone quality ones, and I am not the kind of person to spend time trying to document moments on photo.  But if I can get anything together I will be sure to post.   This topic has been brought up several times and I know it was discussed many  years ago at the raw vegan retreat, that people would notice eye colors changing and mostly all that was ever mentioned was that they were getting lighter.

[Suiren]

Sorry for the late reply! My evenings have been busy!

Jessica
Hm, I probably wouldn't call it ups and downs, since my health has been steadily bettering and my major problems listed in my signature, stood away at all times.
But I think the path to recovery isn't always smooth and I certainly kept running into problems that must have manifested years before.
Most of my problems are actually related to my digestion I believe. Some is also hormonal. I have always been sensitive to digestive issues and my hormonal situation is understandable, considering that I was on the pill for over 7 years, and then on replacement thyroid hormone, as well as hormones to suppress prolactin production, during pregnancy, and then I gave birth via C-Section. I can understand my hormones were having a hard time after this 

But to answer your question - I feel like right now, I am the best I have been in a long time. Certainly much better than 2009 when my problems began showing more aggressively.

What you described about being super skinny, made me think of something: when my hair was more neutral colored, and darker, I was also skinnier. When you are skinnier, with less body fat AND you eat less fat in general, the estrogen balance is different. More of a certain, bad estrogen is produced and Androgens can be raised. This can result in darker hair. But maybe also more neutral colored hair?
Before I went through puberty, my hair was the color it is now, a bit less reddish, but also a bit lighter than later in my twenties.
This might all be connected to hormonal changes.
After pregnancy, I started taking DIM to balance my hormones. I had a build up of bad estrogens (estrogen dominance). It also helped to get rid of hormonal break outs, and of course the PMS.
My changes could also be hormone related. Or maybe a few things.

I don't think I have symptoms of excess copper, but do you have a good link? The ones I found were a bit vague when it came to symptoms. No changed skin color here though.

I think iridology might hold some truth, like many things. I want to read more about it, so I can compare claims to studies and experiences. Of course standard medicin enthusiasts will immediately label it as quackery.

Celeste
That sounds interesting! I would love to see pictures. I can usually take pictures off of regular photographs with my camera using the macro modus. I am looking for eye pictures from my child hood. I found a few already.
My eyes were bright blue for a long time when I was a baby. Though I am not sure that should have been my color. But maybe the brownish, yellowish parts really aren't natural?

DaBoss
I am working on collecting pictures and I want to blog about it in the future. I found a macro photograph of my eyes from 2008 that still shows more of the brown and yellow around my eye. I should also have some pictures from 2011/ 12 when I started to make changes. Good thing I have always been so picture happy. I have documented myself in pictures. I also have pictures of freckles from years ago. 

I did not notice any moles disappearing. But a few grey hairs. I never had more than three at a time, but all except one regained color. This has happened before changing my diet too though. I think it might have to do with nutrients.

My freckles actually seem to come out more this year! But they look good and healthy. I remember on the birth control pill, parts of my freckles started enlarging and growing into one big blob of freckle. Now they are small and spread out evenly. It was probably just the pill though.

Are all moles necessarily bad? Or just the raised ones? Isn't it just an uneven distribution of melanin?
Freckles for example, can happen when parents with two different skin tones come together. Many "mixed" people have freckles. Pale redheads and also Blondes often have a tendency for freckles, because with a very light skin tone, the likely hood of being paired with an average, beige, European skin tone, is just very likely.

I think freckles are normal, as long as you don't overexpose your skin to sun. That can cause sun spots. I read that especially when people are on a unhealthy diet it will cause lots of photo-aging.
It would be so interesting to compare this also.

goodsamaritan
That probably looks quite unusual on you! I think iridology has a theory on blue halos, though I am not sure it is all true. Maybe the blue-ish changes in eyes can be attributed to raw nutrients. Raw Vegans also claim that their eyes get more blueish.

[jessica]

  Suiren, I totally understand about healing not being a straight trajectory, just seems like most recently you were posting with some issues with weight and other things, so wasn't sure if you were still mostly on the up and up.  I know from my own experience that, after a while, you start to gain resilience, so your health might back track temporarily, but it doesn't put you in the same pit as it may have before.  So happy to hear you feel the best you have in a while !

I also agree that it might be from hormones, but I am not going to agree that any of these ideas are exclusively correct.  I know for a fact that copper effects hormones, that's why they make IUD's out of it.  I am not saying that was the only thing out of balance at the time, because it has been shown high copper=low zinc, higher risk of candida/gut disbiosis=impaired digestion/assimilation+physical and mental stress=high cortisol=lower sex hormones and inflammation...etcetc ad infinitum

So while,  yes, when my hormones were lowest I felt my mineral imbalances were highest.  Which came first and who drove what?  I don't know, most likely just co-occurring, one got a little off, the other did too and it all spiraled down from there.  I mean our human bodies are so dynamic, the number of things that effect something like hair color are going to be just as dynamic.  Anyway this is all PS

(MODS:  why is there such a short limit on modifying a post?  I would love to be able to correct all of my spelling errors and such)

[LePatron7]

I don't think moles are necessarily bad. They're just concentrations of melanin. I ask because a few of my freckles/moles have become much less noticeable.

[Iguana]

(MODS:  why is there such a short limit on modifying a post?  I would love to be able to correct all of my spelling errors and such)

Only GS can change that time limit.