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Sarah Vantassel/Demand Media

Whether it's due to age, illness, genes, stress or diet, you get gray hairs when the follicle stops adding color to the hair or when your body is short of the melanin pigment. While there are a few cosmetic and medicinal remedies for gray hair, you could try some potent natural remedies too.

Plain Yogurt

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Sarah Vantassel/Demand Media

Mix one gram of black pepper or coffee powder with 100 grams of plain unsweetened yogurt and apply the mixture smoothly on your scalp and hair. Wash this off with tepid water and mild shampoo after an hour. Following this regimen once every week will provide results. While the curd will add shine to your hair and prevent dandruff, the black pepper will aid in making the hair black and coffee will retain your blond or brunette shade.

Nails

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Sarah Vantassel/Demand Media

According to Indian herbalists and Ayurveda specialists, rubbing nails together can be useful in gray hair treatment. In this remedy you have to fold your palms inwards, bring the two palms close and rub the nails on one hand with those on the other, in fast, recurring movements. This motion and nail rubbing will enhance blood circulation to the scalp and aid in making the hair roots stronger. This is turn helps retain blackness of hair. While this can be performed at any time, at any place, it takes only about half a year to enjoy the benefits.

Bottle Gourd and Gooseberry

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Sarah Vantassel/Demand Media

Make a mixture of equal parts of bottle gourd juice and either sesame oil or olive oil. While this will help in the general well-being of your hair, making it long, lustrous and voluminous, the concoction will actually make your hair black and prevent graying. According to a popular, age-old, south Indian folklore, Indian herbalists of today's leading pharmaceutical companies still believe that a mixture of equal parts of Indian gooseberry or amla and mango seed paste will provide the same benefit if kept on the scalp for half an hour and performed regularly.

Tea Leaves and Henna

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Sarah Vantassel/Demand Media

Strain the water in which you have boiled tea leaves. Cool the fluid and add a couple of tea spoons full of salt to it. Apply this to the scalp and hair and keep for an hour before washing it off with regular water. Performed one time in 10 days will show remarkable results. A henna paste left undisturbed overnight in an iron vessel should be applied to the hair in a bun. You could also add pulp of the walnut in the morning. Let this mixture dry in your hair. Once it does, wash it off with some water for gray hair prevention.

General Measures

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Sarah Vantassel/Demand Media

You should eat protein-rich foods like whole grains, soybeans, meat, fish and poultry. Vitamins A and B and minerals like iron and zinc are crucial in the prevention of graying hair. So have foods like cauliflower, cabbage, yogurt, liver kidney, beef, parsley and almonds, which will provide you necessary nutrients.