Okay, here is something odd. I know that shaving has no effect on the rate of beard growth or the thickness of the beard. But since I have been straight razor shaving—five months—I notice that my beard seems to grow faster and is slightly thicker. I generally have a rather light beard. I know it can’t be that I was getting a closer shave before with DEs. In fact the straight razor givea much closer one-pass shave.