For almost all of us, when we look in the mirror, we realize that as the years pile on, the hair on top of our heads (and elsewhere) is changing. It’s thinning, or graying, or disappearing or even newly arising on some parts of our body. Why is that? Your genes are largely determinative of these sorts of changes, and estimates are that by age 50, 50% of us will have 50% gray hair no matter our sex or original hair color. And there are lots of biological and hormonal processes going on as we age that affect the look and appearance of our hair. For an overview of these changes and whether you can do anything in response, pull out your comb and read here and here. And for those of you who swear your hair is becoming coarser as you get older, that perception probably doesn’t match the reality of what’s happening on your scalp and in your hair follicles. To better understand hair texture changes as you age, click here. In addition, we know that it’s not just our hair- our nails are also changing and even our ears and teeth can appear different. To find out more, put down the mirror and face some hard truths here.