I was grey for years — but now my hair’s gone brown!

Q MY DARK brown hair started to go grey when I was in my early 50s. Over the past 20 years it has gone a nice white colour. I am now in my early 70s, but over the past three months my hair has started to go dark again. Why? Myra Forster, Middlesbrough. A This is fascinating, and i admit your question baffled me. i have never come across this in practice, so i resorted to consulting a specialist dermatologist with whom i have worked for some years.

This event is so rare that even they have come across this only once or twice during their career.

it occurs in people who have experienced a mild form of alopecia areata, which they have then recovered from — only for their hair to ‘regain’ its colour.

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition in which antibodies attack the hair follicle. The triggers are unknown, but it is more common among those with other autoimmune conditions such as type 1 diabetes or thyroid disease.

Whatever the cause, a major target for the antibodies are the pigment-creating cells in the follicle, which give colour to hairs as they form.

Alopecia areata also usually leads to the loss of patches of hair on the scalp (and sometimes other parts of the body).

in a mild case, if the hair loss is general rather than localised, there may be some thinning, and the only observed change is that nonpigmented hairs arrive and the white appearance evolves exactly as you have experienced. When the immune attack abates, the pigmentforming cells recover and, to an extent, darkening reappears.

This improvement will, of course, not happen in the majority of us who go grey or even white in middle age, as this is usually caused by the production of pigment-producing cells simply grinding to a halt with age and not mild subclinical alopecia areata.

When my colleague gave me this explanation, i recalled being taught years ago that people with albinism never develop alopecia areata, because they have no pigmentforming cells for the disease to target.

so there is your answer. But there is a residual question: did you notice even slight thinning of your scalp hair as you lost colour, as this might confirm my theory? Q I AM a gardener by trade and very practical — I can mend almost anything — but I’m not good at paperwork, from bills and insurance, to spelling, arithmetic and much more. My mother helps me at the moment but one day I will be on my own, and I don’t know how I am going to manage. Would a brain scan tell me what’s wrong? Stephen Atkinson, Worthing, W. Sussex. A i Congratulate you on being brave enough to ask for help. Your beautifully presented letter is a tribute to the aid your mother is giving, yet, as you say, this might not be a service available to you for ever.

Brain scans — of whatever type — detect only the anatomy (the structure) of the brain. A scan gives no clue as to how well, or how poorly, the brain is performing.

how well the brain works, or whether there are faults in its function, is best revealed by observing how well a person copes in a series of tests or tasks.

clinical psychologists are the name of the professionals who are trained in this type of examination.

A clinical psychologist could help you reach an understanding of the nature of your difficulties (which may be a common but much under-diagnosed variation of the norm, such as dyslexia), and then establish a suitable programme to help you master at least some of the skills that you may be lacking.

confidence may also be part of this — you might find your abilities, at least in some areas, are not as bad as you think. As you say, you have considerable skills; mending and repairing equipment requires the ability to work out problems and effect the necessary changes to restore function.

The examinations a clinical psychologist carries out are called psychometric tests. These include tests of numerical reasoning — checking a range of maths skills, starting with the simplest. The next area is abstract reasoning, in which your problem-solving abilities are assessed — and your practical skills suggest you may be very good at this.

Third, there are tests of verbal reasoning, looking at your ability to weigh up written information, along with your knowledge of grammar and spelling.

Finally, there are aptitude tests to assess your performance in other areas, including cognitive function.

none of this need be too daunting: think of it as a survey to see what you can do, and in what areas you are weak, so that measures can be put in place to help you reach a level of independence with the skills you need for everyday admin.

start with a visit to your gP to request referral to a clinical psychologist for psychometric testing. it would help if you take to the gP appointment a short description — written on a postcard — briefly describing your fears and difficulties, so that your request is correctly understood.