

At the start of the series, Kaneki's hair is dark brown, except in the OP,
where it we see an image of him with white hair. In episode 11, we see a final
scene of Kaneki, his hair having turned white. This turns out to be a preview
of things to come, his hair being brown at the start of episode 12.

However, during episode 12, we see a scene, theoretically taking place in
Kaneki's mind, or as a hallucination, wherein his hair fades from brown to
white.

![Kaneki's hair changing color](https://i.stack.imgur.com/e9R3U.png)

After this scene, however, this color change seems to manifest in the real
world, too. (Kaneki's clothes also seem to invert colors.)

What caused Kaneki's hair (and/or clothes) to change color in the actual real
world during this episode?


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tokyo-ghoul
Why did Kaneki's hair change color?


His change in hair color is probably due to Marie Antoinette syndrome, a rare
condition that causes the hair to suddenly become white in response to some
great stress or shock. It's so named because Marie Antoinette's hair
supposedly turned white after she was captured during the French Revolution.

[Here's Wikipedia on Marie Antoinette
Syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette_syndrome).

[Here's a more reliable
article](http://archderm.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=712060) from
JAMA Dermatology, a site that archives papers in dermatology.


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It seems that his hair turning white and his nails turning black was both due
to the physical and mental stress he was experiencing during the torture and
the forced regeneration of his toes. (Sources:
[one](http://www.comicvine.com/ken-kaneki/4005-101900/),
[two](http://www.reddit.com/r/TokyoGhoul/comments/2g4365/tokyo_ghoul_episode_11_links_and_discussion/ckfksmr),
[three](http://www.qaster.com/q/489749515193184256/can+someone+explain+to+me+how+kaneki+got+white+hair+from+torture))

The whitening of the hair due to stress is also known as [Marie Antoinette
Syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette_syndrome). The
condition got its name after Marie Antoinette's hair supposedly turning white
the night before she was going to be executed.

**Sidenote:** Another anime I know of where Marie Antoinette syndrome appears
is [Gosick](http://myanimelist.net/anime/8425/Gosick) where
[Victorique](http://gosick.wikia.com/wiki/Victorique_de_Blois)'s hair also
change colour due to experienced stress.

The changes going on both in his mind and the real world (even though that is
just my opinion) might be because what happened in his mind affected his
behaviour in the real world as well (gave him strength to fight "Jason" while
standing up to Rize) and vice versa. Another possible reason is to depict the
change in him as a person (not just the physical appearance).


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You should read the manga. His hair turned white because of the stress of
being tortured 2 or 3 times everyday for 10+ days.

The anime is wrong. Why? Because Kaneki's hair didn't change in a moment, in
the manga they show us his hair gradually turning white while he also loses
his mind.

![Gradually turning white](https://i.stack.imgur.com/UjlZr.png)

![There his toenails are already black ](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wtVVB.png)

![Crazy](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MnC5g.png)![Ghoul](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2R1HQ.png)
![Badass](https://i.stack.imgur.com/lV9SD.png)

They don't explain why the hair turns white or the nails black (also they are
not black black, they're more like super dark blood colored), but we can
assume that the hair it's because of the [Marie Antoinette
syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette_syndrome), and the
nails are because of the constant regeneration. Like I said before the nails
are like dark blood colored, they're not pure black, it's like when you hit a
finger really hard, and the nail falls off in a time? Well before that, it
gets really dark blood colored, Kaneki's are like that.

I know you posted this a time ago but maybe if you can read it, or other
people that has the same doubt will understand.


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His clothes change colors probably due to the blood on his shirt drying.
Usually, when blood dries and forms scabs, it turns black. That is also the
basis for the suddenly darkened color in the fingernails.

His hair changes in color in response to extreme stress as pointed out by the
others and is called Marie Antoinette syndrome.


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Unlike stated in some of the other answers, it's not Marie Antoinette
Syndrome. In the Tokyo Ghoul Re: manga, it is explained in Chapter 131:  
because the bodies cells are only able to divide a certain number of times
before they fail, aka Ageing.

As Kaneki had to repeatedly heal his toes over and over and over, all the
while being tortured and borderline starved. His body was basically getting
weaker and weaker because the cells were wearing thin, which is why his hair
turns white, as happens with people when they get old.  
This is also why Takizawa from Re: had his hair turn white, torture.

For the same reason Kaneki's hair turns black again, because he was no longer
undergoing torture.

It's explained in Chapter 131. Directly states that his torture has caused him
to age at a heightened rate. Which seems to be an issue with human turned
ghouls though... Same with Takizawa


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Having read the manga and kind of knowing the style of writing this author
does I doubt it's due to some Marie-whatever syndrome. It's such a huge detail
and having it be because "oops biology" doesn't seem very likely to me. I
would bet that it's symbolic, either just for Kaneki's change in character
(although that maybe wouldn't make much sense since the second time Kaneki
gets black hair he doesn't act at all like he did the first time he had black
hair) or for some deeper poetic or philosophical reason. The manga at the very
least is very poetic after all. But what this symbolism means is a different
discussion.


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