Poll: The shaving myth

[Adam]

(Search bar approved)

You have all heard this Myth, the thing that if you shave your beard it will brow back thicker and faster. Is this actually true? I have been doing my own little research stint on the interwebs and have found quiet detailed arguments for both sides of this argument. My fried, who had quiet a thick beard, has not shaved in years and says it makes little difference. Another friend, who also has a thick beard, says that shaving makes it grow back thicker.

This dilemma has left me quiet confused as I don't know who to believe, both have thick beardy beards and both have conflicting arguments. I want to know which one is true because I myself am trying to find out what to do with my own face scruff, should I shave it all off and let it come back, or just leave it and trim whenever I need to?

So my fellow Escapists, here is your question. Does shaving make your facial hair grow faster/thicker?

 

[Aunel]

How should I know, facial hair scares me.

When I started growing face-fungus, I shaved it of immediately,
that will teach my body to be something less then perfect!

 

[DC_Josh]

I have found letting my stubble grow out into a beard type thing and then shaving it makes it grow back faster than if I shave every day/few days.

 

[Baby Tea]

Naah, I don't think so.
I use only a trimmer for the face, but it seems to grow at random spurts.
I think it has more to do with sun spots.
Also, I have a bridge to sell you.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Well, I ain't testing it. I don't plan on shaving.

 

[Xojins]

It does grow back thicker; when hair grows, the roots are always the thickest, and the ends are always the thinnest. So if you cut the hair down to the root (shave) then the hair will indeed be slightly thicker when it grows out again.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_shaving_help_facial_hair_grow for more details.

 

[rainman2203]

Personally my facial hair comes back as fast as possible to make me look rather trashy. Anytime I try to create any classy goatee or soul patch or whatever it seems to stop growing entirely. Its like its trying to spite me.

 

[Aac18]

Yes it does, this is because after the removal of hair the body increases the rate at which the hair will regrow (and its thickness) in order to prevent the hair from being removed a second time. Its an old bit of genetic programming back from when the humans still used the human body as a protective system.

It doesn't make a world changing difference overnight but in the long term there is definitely an effect.

 

[Biek]

How should I know, facial hair scares me.

When I started growing face-fungus, I shaved it of immediately,
that will teach my body to be something less then perfect!

Billy Mays just rolled over in his grave.

 

[Cattuss]

I was under the impression that this was an old wives tale.
The thicker and faster part is mainly due to people getting older and the facial hair just growing faster in my opinion

 

[TheSeventhLoneWolf]

I think it does but it's at a rather slow and snailpaced rate of change. That's what i believe anyway.

 

[Tekyro]

I think it depends on the person. Me and one of my friends both shave regularly, and while my facial hair seems to be gradually becoming thicker when it grows back in, his is exactly the same as it's always been.

 

[rokkolpo]

YES yes it does and alot

 

[Emperor Inferno]

It depends on the person just how much thicker and faster, but yes, it's true. Shaving stimulates the hair folicles, causing them to do just that: produse thicker hair, faster. It also depends on the hair you shave. If you shave your face and have little to no facial hair to begin with, then the effect will be there, but minimal. And if you shave something like your head or groin area, where the hair is already long and thick, the effect will be quite pronounced. I shaved my head a couple times and every time I did, when it grew back it grew back fast, and thick and coarse as hell. My dad keeps his head shaved, and even though he has thinning hair, whenever it grows back a little bit, it's extremely coarse and prickly. Same thing goes for shaven hair all over. It just depends on the person and the thickness of the area shaved.

 

[ToxinArrow]

No actually, it doesn't.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15916_your-mom-lied-5-common-body-myths-debunked.html

It's only a matter of time before you have a big bushy beard. I was kind of upset when I first saw this, because I wanted to have my eventual son never shave and grow a ZZ Top like beard, but of only peach fuzz.

 

[Frank_Sinatra_]

It's not true. How fast and how thick your beard grows is dictated by genetics. Even when I was getting peach fuz all those years ago I had to shave every other day or else I'd have a beard of peach fuz.

 

[PhiMed]

What it actually does is blunt the hair that's already there.

When hair begins growing, it starts thin and thickens as it grows until it fills the entire mature follicle. This is why "new" (i.e. hair never grew there before) hair has sort of a tapered appearance.

When you haven't shaved before, the hairs are in various states of maturity. Some are mature, with thick bases and tapered ends. Some are young, with thin whispy hairs. Some are almost at their end, and will eventually fall out spontaneously.

If you cut it short (shaving), all the hair follicles that were already growing at full thickness continue to grow at full thickness. Thus, the appearance of being thicker develops, because all the hairs are full thickness, as opposed to being freshly-developed follicles. In addition, they are all more or less the same length, and this uniformity adds an additional thickening optical effect.

So no, shaving does not make it thicker. It makes it look thicker

This isn't based on personal experience or opinion. This is based on a knowledge of cutaneous histology and physiology.

 

[BigEaZyE]

Yes it does, this is because after the removal of hair the body increases the rate at which the hair will regrow (and its thickness) in order to prevent the hair from being removed a second time. Its an old bit of genetic programming back from when the humans still used the human body as a protective system.

It doesn't make a world changing difference overnight but in the long term there is definitely an effect.

How exactly does your body know the difference? It's not like you're taking the hair out at the root... I can see this explaination for waxing but as hair is dead it makes no sense. That's like saying your hair grows thicker if you cut it.

Your hair grows the same amount but it does get thinner near the end of the strand, which is why if you cut off the end through shaving/getting your hair cut, it seems like it's thicker than before. The root itself is no thicker.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

As a man with an (apparently) impressive beard, I can tell you that it makes no difference. It'll start growing faster as you get older, that's the only thing that'll really effect it's growth.

 

[thiosk]

i've been shaving for fifteen years, and its just as sparse now as then.

Also, if people tell you to use the search bar, and you used the search bar, THEY ARE TROLLING.

I hate disclaimers with an undying passion.