I keep a tidy mustache and goatee, and I’ve noticed that the hair on my chin has gone gray way faster than my mustache. Has anyone else experienced this?
My wife doesn’t mind—and honestly, neither do I, but I caught the contrast while shaving this week and it got me curious. Is this something other people notice? Just wondering how common it is and what others think of the look.
Comments
Please do not delete your post after receiving your answer. Consider leaving it up for posterity so that other Redditors can benefit from the wisdom in this thread.
Once your thread has run its course, instead of deleting it, you can simply type “!lock” (without the quotes) as a comment anywhere in your thread to have our Automod lock the thread. That way you won’t be bothered by anymore replies on it, but people can still read it.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I only get gray in my beard, in two big patches on the side of my chin, under my lip. The rest, mustache included is red. Always surprises people because the hair on my head is almost jet black.
It happens…. Also, sometimes you get the sides of the head graying before the top.
yeah it happens. mine were blonde for a while and then it turned white.
I think this is pretty common. I don’t maintain much of a beard, but when I let it grow for a few days I notice there’s a ton of gray on both sides of my chin but not really anywhere else. Have seen tons of other guys for whom this is the case as well.
Similarly, I have three distinct white spots on my chin while my moustache hasn’t changed. There are some other common patterns like greying at the temples.
I’ve asked the question in various science forums and never found anybody who knew for sure, but I wonder if it is a manifestation of Blaschko’s lines.
Yeah same here but I think that’s a universal thing. All my buddies with beards or goatees the chin goes gray before the mustache.
Meanwhile I got the exact Jesse Gemstone thing going
Maybe I should become a preacher.
my goatee had had greys and whites since my late 20s, my stache is still solid at 43. When I grow out the beard it is a mix of natural, greys and whites also. Head is still natural, if slightly receded.
Chin hair tends to gray faster than lip hair due to a combination of factors, including faster growth rate, higher visibility, and a potentially faster hair cycle. Beard hair, which includes chin hair, typically grows more rapidly than head or lip hair. Additionally, because beards are more prominent and visible, gray hairs are more easily noticed
Thats how I grayed. Chin and temples, happened extra early tho, so I used gray reducing shampoo to keep it minimal but still natural looking. Now my only real problem is to know when to quit, since I’ve been doing this for years and am now 40.
Same. Chin only. Started on the right and now over to the left. Not as noticeable when trimmed but definitely there. I’m 40
I get an even distribution of white. I have a dark beard and hair, so it tends to stand out. The thing is, it isn’t static; if I pull a white hair, it does not always come back white. Also, sometimes i can watch a hair dumping color, if that makes sense. Maybe it grows that way, but I’ll notice a white tip and black down by the skin from time to time.
What’s nice is because, im a man, it makes me look more distinguished and somehow… hotter, according to my wife?
My left side of my mustache went gray before any other hair in my body. I looked like I had a patch. Eventually, the rest has caught up but I am definitely more gray in some areas compared to others. Kinda ready to get it even again tbh!
Yeah, got wings on my chin, nothing my stache, speckled in beard. Head hair is well on the way but fighting the good fight lol.
I hear that happens when you perform cunnilingus often
Standard facial hair behavior.
Ask me about my white-as-snow Jesse Gemstone sideburns and black as night goatee.
Welcome brother, I just noticed mine in 2024, now they are colonizing my chin, nothing like your mortality right on your face huh?!
Man, my beard started going grey from the bottom up, but stopped at a certain point and started turning white, while the area that wasn’t grey yet was still black. After a while, from a distance it looked like I had really shitty, patchy facial hair because the white hair was nearly invisible from a distance, but a strap running across my mustache up to my ears. Now it’s mostly grey but my mustache.
Never cared about dying the hair on my head, I’ve been salt and pepper since my late 20’s, but my facial hair is different and I’m going to give it a shot dying it. It just looks too jacked up with the 3 different colors of hair growing on it.
This is a very common pattern of greying that I’ve always noticed too and is happening to me now in fact (although I rarely let it get beyond a few mm so it’s hard to notice it fully).
I was curious about why it happens, so I put it into ChatGPT, with the following response:
Me: “Is there a known reason why male facial hair tends to grey earlier around the chin than to the upper lip?”
ChatGPT: “Yes, there are a few theories—though no single confirmed reason—why male facial hair often goes grey earlier around the chin than the upper lip:
Follicle density and growth rate
• Hair in the chin area tends to grow faster and be denser than in the moustache area. Faster-growing hair may cycle more frequently, and every new cycle is another opportunity for pigment-producing cells (melanocytes) to decline in function or die off.
• As melanocyte stem cells deplete with age, faster-cycling follicles might run out of pigment sooner.
Regional variation in melanocyte resilience
• Different parts of the face may have variations in how long melanocytes survive. Some studies suggest that pigment cells behave differently depending on their location, possibly due to blood supply, local hormone levels, or even micro-environmental factors in the skin.
Androgen sensitivity
• Facial hair is heavily influenced by androgens like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT). The chin may be more sensitive to these hormones, which could influence not just hair growth but also how soon the follicles age or lose pigment.
Genetic patterning
• Hair greying follows genetic patterns that can vary significantly between individuals. Many men see their chin or sideburns grey before the moustache, but others see the reverse. It’s likely that specific genes affect when and where pigment loss starts.
So while there isn’t one single answer, it’s probably a mix of follicle turnover rate, local biology, and individual genetic factors.“
Yep. No gray in the stache, tons on the chin, and the head is becoming grayer too as I approach 50. I’m rolling with it
You grey from the top down.
Currently half way down my torso, like a battery running out
My chin is also starting to gray first. That’s where my kids headbutt me the most so I just kinda figured there’s an association there.
I don’t know. Genetics is always the answer. I have a few grey hair in my head, but none in my beard whatsoever. My dad had none until he was like 50, and now at 65 his beard is white. So maybe I will be the same?
Also, I am sure people doesn’t notice this minute things as much as you think, lol.
I’m 53 with zero gray hairs on my head. But if I go a few days without shaving, it’s clear my beard is salt and pepper.
Give it a few more years and you’ll be like me. I’m completely white on my chin, and now dirty white on my ‘stache. So yeah, it’s coming. I’m told it “looks distinguished”…
My grey seemed to go from chin upwards, including up the side of my head to the top. I’m not grey in the beard, mostly in the ‘stache, mostly round the sides of the hair and about half way on top.
I have a theory that the hair turns grey in the order that it originally sprouted, so your chin hair probably came first.
It’s very common mine did too I just use “just for men” to die it dark again or I leave it alone my wife says it makes me look more distinguished lol
I got one grey eyebrow. And only the middle part of my mustache is dark, so it looks like Charlie Chaplin (or worse) from a distance.
So you got it easy. 😀
I only have gray in my beard/chin. You are not alone
https://i.redd.it/mmrxcspm49ve1.gif
Genetics.
/thread
I have a stripe going down one side of my beard on my chin that’s snow white. It’s nowhere else on my face or head, just one area and it’s about a half inch to inch wide stripe.
Had the odd hair until 36 that year got me chin
43 and just started for me too. I keep the chin extra short to compensate. Chest just started to gray too but not pubes. I have a 33 year old black fuck bud who is already salt and pepper down below. 🤷🏽♂️
Yeah, that’s how I’m going grey. Goatee is white and I have grey at my temples, but just a few greys in the rest of my beard and my moustache.
Oh! Give it time my friend, give it time…
Yep, I’ve kept a full beard since I was 26. At about 30 I started getting grays on my chin and it spread underneath the chin and the sides of my cheeks…but never touched my mustache. At 44 now, mustache is still black with a thin line of black at the top of the sides of my beard and the rest is gray. I often get compliments on the beard pattern and asked if I dye it. I don’t. It ended up being a rather distinguished look
Ugh, dude, I hate this. I have worn a neat goatee for over 20 years, from when my goat was mostly reddish-brown, to now when it’s about 90% white. In all that time, my mustache has been solid, greasy black. A 100% mismatch to the rest of my facial hair. So I shave that f’er every damn day. Even when I go full beard, that ‘stache just will not cooperate.
I would like to know the answer to this question – too. I’m over 60 and my hair is still mostly brown. I’ve some some grey sprinkled in by side burns but its all mostly brown. My beard is brown except for my chin which is all gray. It’s been this way since my 50s. I think it’s kinda weird and it’s a unique look for me. I can knock 10 years off my appearance just by shaving and getting a tight haircut. Except I like the salt and pepper look. People treat me differently. I just don’t know what it means.
yes. grey and then white definitely hit the chin first. sometimes long before everywhere else
My chin skipped grey and went straight to white/silver opalescent
I began to grey on the chin when I was 37. I’m 45 and I’m still not completely greyed
My beard is mostly pepper, only a little bit of salt. Except I have two little gray streaks in the mustache, one below each nostril, so if you’re not looking close it looks like I have snot funning down my face.
Now I use Just For Men to color them. It’s like a big mascara container/brush. It’s just man-makeup.
I felt like mentioning that.
My chin has been growing in pretty much white for the last several years. I usually don’t grow a mustache as I never like the way it looks but it’s still much more black/gray mixed as compared to the chin when I do let it grow.
My beard is usually more white moving away from the chin, and darker as it moves up to the sideburns
My head is getting more grays but is still quite a bit dark
So seems like my hair/beard is whiter as it moves down my face.
My hair is pretty much all grey except my sideburns.
I started with a white spot of hair on my chin. Just one spot that had white hair. It expanded outward over time and took over eventually. Now it’s an all white with a few dark stragglers here and there. Except the corners of my mouth have a very thin dark line of hair, you don’t really see it unless you look closely, but it’s there.
Point being everyone greys differently.
Same here. Full beard, grey on either side of the chin and some along the jaw. Almost none in the stache
Yep, grays be graying.
I have two stripes in my beard, center is black, to the left and right are gray. My dad went the same way. I had a professor in college and the left half of his mustache went gray before the right side did…goofiest shit I’ve ever seen but dude rocked it.
Mine has too, looks odd to me, but my hair is mostly gray except one circle in the back that is still solid black.
Extremely common as are many other variances.
It is the way.
It starts on the chin, but creeps upward and downward. Just how it goes, Man.
Extremely common. Grey hair pretty much always comes in different rates at different times at different places.
I have a full beard. Some parts of my beard are totally white while some parts of the hair on my head is still black.