My eyelashes are going white. Is that the vitiligo?
Most likely yes. DermNet says the loss of color can reach the scalp, the eyebrows, the eyelashes and body hair, in 10 to 60 per cent of people with vitiligo. Clinicians call it leukotrichia, or poliosis. Evidence Evidence Evidence
Why this matters
MedlinePlus Genetics describes vitiligo as pigment loss that can involve hair and the mucous membranes, not skin on its own. The 2023 international expert recommendations treat it as routine enough to write down. White hairs are one of the disease features on their assessment check list. They sit next to the type of vitiligo, how long you have had it, and where the patches are. So a white lash or a white streak in the scalp is the same process, in a different place. It is not a second thing that has now gone wrong.
Questions for your dermatologist
- Is the white hair in my eyebrows and lashes part of the vitiligo?Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
- Is there anything else you would want to rule out first?Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
Does white hair mean it is getting worse?
No. DermNet says hair whitening does not correlate with disease activity. It is not a signal that your vitiligo is moving right now. Evidence Evidence
Why this matters
DermNet lists it instead as a poor prognostic indicator. The group it sits in is longstanding vitiligo, patches on the lips or other mucous membranes, and new patches after a skin injury. Those are two different ideas. Activity is what your vitiligo is doing this month. A prognostic indicator is about the odds of color returning. The 2023 international expert recommendations keep the two apart in the same way. White hairs are one line on their assessment check list. What the vitiligo has been doing over the past six months is a separate line.
Questions for your dermatologist
- Do you see any sign that mine is active at the moment?Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
- Does the white hair change how you would describe where I am?Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
Will color come back where the hairs have gone white?
It is documented as less likely there, and this site would rather say so than leave you to find out. DermNet puts it plainly: treatment works best on the face and trunk, while hands, feet, and areas with white hair respond poorly. Evidence Evidence Evidence
Why this matters
The reason given is the same one behind how repigmentation works at all. The hair follicle is the main source of returning pigment. Where the hair has turned white, DermNet says the reserve of pigment-making cells in that follicle is destroyed. A 2015 study describes those reserve cells in follicles multiplying, moving and turning into pigment cells in vitiligo skin treated with narrowband UVB. This is not only a patient-reference framing. The 2023 international expert recommendations tell clinicians to weigh what is available for repigmentation when they plan treatment. The example they give for that is hair that still has its color, and no white hairs. They also say the outlook depends on which part of the body is involved.
Questions for your dermatologist
- Given the white hairs, what would you expect in that area?Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
- Would you treat that area differently, and why?Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
Does hair color count when the vitiligo is measured?
Yes. The 2023 international expert recommendations put presence of white hairs on the check list of what to record at a vitiligo assessment. One published tool goes further and makes it the top of a scale. The Vitiligo European Task Force grades an area from 0 for normal pigmentation up to 4 for complete hair whitening. Evidence Evidence
Why this matters
That tool grades five areas: head and neck, trunk, arms, legs, and hands and feet. DermNet describes it as an assessment form that also records sex, age, how long the vitiligo has been there, and how old you were when it started. So hair color is not a footnote on that form. It is the end of the range.
Questions for your dermatologist
- Do you use a score like this, and where would my areas sit?Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
- What would you want recorded about the hair?Saving keeps this on your device and needs JavaScript, which is off in this browser.
Evidence and update context
This optional layer shows the evidence boundary reviewed for this page as of 2026-08-22.
- What this evidence supports
- MedlinePlus Genetics describes vitiligo as pigment loss that can involve hair and the mucous membranes, not skin on its own. The 2023 international expert recommendations treat it as routine enough to write down. White hairs are one of the disease features on their assessment check list. They sit next to the type of vitiligo, how long you have had it, and where the patches are. So a white lash or a white streak in the scalp is the same process, in a different place. It is not a second thing that has now gone wrong.
- What it does not establish
- 10 to 60 per cent is an enormous span, and DermNet states it without a study behind it on the page. Neither source can tell you that the white hair you are looking at is vitiligo. A check list tells a clinician to look; it does not say what they will find. Hair loses color for other reasons. Only someone examining you can say which this is.
Applicability check
Who was studied?
These fields show what the cited evidence reports about the people and body sites behind outcome or safety claims. “Not reported” means the reviewed source omitted the field; “Pending exact source review” means SteadySkin has not made that determination yet.
It is documented as less likely there, and this site would rather say so than leave you to find out. DermNet puts it plainly: treatment works best on the face and trunk, while hands, feet, and areas with white hair respond poorly.
- Age range
- Pending exact source review
- Condition subtype
- Pending exact source review
- Severity or extent
- Pending exact source review
- Sample size
- Pending exact source review
- Geography and care setting
- Pending exact source review
- Skin tone or phototype
- Pending exact source review
- Race
- Pending exact source review
- Ethnicity
- Pending exact source review
- Body sites
- Pending exact source review
What that means for this page: This is explicitly gated as a group-level outcome claim, but exact population extraction is still pending. It cannot publish or support an individual prediction until that review is complete.
Evidence behind this page
Sources
Each evidence badge opens the source and its limits. The full list stays available here.
- Journal of Investigative Dermatology (Goldstein NB, et al.)Observational study · Supporting research, tier 3Independent source
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
What this source supports
Supports pigment-cell precursor populations in hair follicles and their observed proliferation, migration, and differentiation in studied NB-UVB-treated human vitiligo skin.
What it does not support
It cannot predict whether a patch will repigment, how much color will return, or how long change will take for one person.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.
- MedlinePlus Genetics, National Library of MedicinePatient education · Patient education, tier 5Independent source
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
What this source supports
Supports patient-facing context on complex genetic susceptibility, family occurrence, associated autoimmune conditions, and possible pigment loss in hair and mucous membranes.
What it does not support
It does not predict inheritance or disease course for an individual, recommend genetic testing, diagnose a comorbidity, or prescribe a screening plan.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.
- Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and VenereologyGuideline · Regulatory / guideline, tier 1Relevant relationship disclosed
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
Why the independence label says this: The journal is the publisher. This label refers to extensive author relationships disclosed for the recommendation, not to the journal itself.
What this source supports
It supports current expert-consensus terminology, clinical assessment, disease-activity evaluation, treatment-goal discussion, and shared decision-making. Its modified assessment check list names where the patches are as a disease feature, and gives genital involvement as its own example. It records white hairs as an item of its own, apart from what the vitiligo has done in the past six months. Its classification table keeps mucosal vitiligo as a subtype, both across more than one site and at one site alone. It supports planning care around what is there to work with, and its example is hair that still has its color.
What it does not support
It is not independent comparative proof. It cannot diagnose a reader from a description or photograph. It gives no figure for genital involvement, and it does not name lichen sclerosus. It does not set out the Vitiligo European Task Force grading scale. It puts no figure on white hairs and predicts nothing for one person.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.
- DermNet (Dr Bushra Alsayaydeh, Dermatologist, Amman, Jordan)Patient education · Patient education, tier 5Independent source
- Published
- SteadySkin last checked
What this source can and cannot tell you
What this source supports
Supports a dermatology reference account of vitiligo. It supports that loss of hair color is called leukotrichia or poliosis. It supports that this may affect the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes and body hair in 10 to 60 per cent of patients. It supports that it does not correlate with disease activity. It supports that it could be a predictor of poorer response to therapy, because the melanocyte reservoir in hair follicles is destroyed. It supports that treatment is most successful on the face and trunk. It supports that hands, feet, and areas with white hair respond poorly. It supports that new patches are more likely to respond to medical therapy than long-standing ones. It supports that the hair follicle is the main source of pigment restoration. It supports that another potential reservoir can be at the borders of the white patches. It supports that poor prognostic indicators include longstanding disease, leukotrichia, mucosal involvement and the Koebner phenomenon. It supports that segmental vitiligo often has an irregular border with leukotrichia. It supports that leukotrichia and halo naevi are listed as predictors of transformation into the mixed variant. It supports that the Vitiligo European Task Force assesses five sites: head and neck, trunk, arms, legs, and hands and feet. It supports that its grading runs from 0 for normal pigmentation to 4 for complete hair whitening. It supports that its clinical assessment form records sex, age, duration of disease and age of onset. It supports that premature hair greying has been described but that the association is still uncertain.
What it does not support
It is a dermatology reference page, not a trial and not a measurement of any one person. Its 10 to 60 per cent figure is a span, stated on the page without a study behind that span. Its wording on response to therapy is that hair whitening could be a predictor, which is weaker than a finding. Nothing on it predicts whether one patch or one hair will repigment, how much color returns, or how long that takes. It sets no treatment, no dose, no schedule and no product. It does not diagnose white hair on a reader as vitiligo. Its author line is dated August 2022 and the page records a last review of 11 July 2023, so parts of it are older than the date registered here.
Claim-specific review for this source is still in progress. Only the source-level evidence and limits are shown here.