SCIENTISTS have got to the root of grey hair - paving the way for locks that retain the lustre of youth.

US researchers have identified a protein, "wnt", found to be vital to the production of colour in hairs.

The breakthrough raises the prospects of drugs, lotions or shampoos that raise levels of wnt, and restore white or grey hair to its natural colour.

Such a treatment would save women endless expensive trips to the hair salon. It doubtless also would be popular with middle-aged men keen to recapture their youthful looks.

Writing in the journal Cell, the researchers show wnt kick-starts a chain of reactions which lead to stem or "mother" cells in the scalp maturing and producing the pigment that gives hair its colour.

A similar chain of reactions takes place in the human scalp, but the researchers, from New York University's Langone Medical Centre, yet have to prove faults in the system turn people's hair grey.

Wnt also is vital for hair growth, suggesting a treatment that keeps hair dark may have the advantage of also stopping it from thinning.

Previous research showed wnt is responsible for the production of new hair follicles.

It had been thought that follicles, the tiny structures responsible for hair growth, always were formed before birth, with their gradual death leading to baldness.

Wnt, however, may not be solely to blame for greying locks. Researchers at Bradford University in England found wear and tear on our bodies leads to dangerously high levels of hydrogen peroxide building up in hair roots, blocking the production of pigment.

They said young women using hydrogen peroxide-based dyes should not necessarily worry. In older women, though, going blonde may speed up greying. It is thought genetics control if and when a person goes grey. Stress, alcohol, smoking and poor diet may accelerate the process.

- Daily Mail