Scientists may have discovered a permanent way to get rid of gray hair.

Gray hair is believed to be caused by an accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the roots of hair follicles, which causes harmful oxidative stress, Medical Daily reported. This accumulation causes the hair to bleach itself from the inside out. The same phenomenon is linked to a skin condition called vitiligo, which leads to patchy pigmentation in skin and can cause eyelashes to turn white.

In a new study, researchers analyzed a group of people suffering from vitiligo and found that patients had low levels of an enzyme called catalase. This enzyme helps break down hydrogen peroxide and relieve oxidative stress.

Researchers gave the patients a cream containing an imitation catalase, which can be activated by sunlight. After applying the cream, patients spent time in the sun and the pigment returned to both their skin and eyelashes.

This finding has led researchers to believe that a similar cream applied to the hair could restore the strands to their natural color, according to Medical Daily.

"For generations, numerous remedies have been concocted to hide gray hair," said Dr. Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, which published the study, "but now, for the first time, an actual treatment that gets to the root of the problem has been developed."

While mainly cosmetic, graying hair can have socio-emotional effects on people, Weissmann added.

'The improvement of quality of life after total and even partial successful repigmentation has been documented,' said Dr. Karin U. Schallreuter, the study's author from the Institute for Pigmentary Disorders in the Netherlands.

Schallreuter did not say when the graying and vitiligo treatment would become available to consumers.