# give someone grey hair

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/give-someone-grey-hair
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To give someone great frustration, confusion, or anxiousness.

## Examples

- My kids give me grey hair when they play near the road.
- This broken computer gives me grey hair every time I try to work.
- The constant delays in this project are really starting to give me grey hair.
- Learning to navigate the city's complicated new tax system is enough to give anyone grey hair.
- Waiting for the results of my medical tests for three weeks is truly giving me grey hair.
- Trying to plan a wedding for two hundred guests on a tiny budget is giving the young couple grey hair.
- Managing a team of disorganized interns during the busy season will surely give me grey hair before the year is out.

## Origin

The phrase is rooted in the folk belief that extreme stress accelerates the loss of hair pigment. This perceived link between anxiety and biology remained without empirical evidence until January 2020, when a study published in the journal Nature demonstrated that acute stress could indeed induce greying in mice. The idiom persists as a figurative attribution of one's follicular decline to the conduct of others.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.