Thread: Why does shaving thicken hair?

Originally Posted by joke1176

Weird.. I can GIS it and it show up but the link is busted. Here is text. As far as I know, they closed the case on this question a loooong time ago. Hell, this article is from 1970!



"Journal of Investigative Dermatology (1970) 55, 170–172; doi:10.1111/1523-1747.ep12280667
SHAVING AND HAIR GROWTH

Yelva L Lynfield and Peter Macwilliams
Dermatology Section, Medical Service, Brooklyn Veterans Administration Hospital, Brooklyn, NY 11209
Received 20 March 1970; Accepted 10 April 1970.

Top of pageAbstract

The effect of repeated shaving on human hair growth was studied. Five healthy young white men each shaved one leg weekly for several months and left the other leg as a control. No significant differences in total weight of hair produced in a measured area, or in width or rate of growth of individual hairs, could be ascribed to shaving."

at this, I am really surprised.

I posted the exact same question a little while ago.

Hair does not become thicker because of shaving.

When hair is shaved or clipped it leaves and abrupt angle and the sharp corners of the hair and the open circumference leaves one feeling a wider coarse hair.

When a hair starts growing the tip is very small compaired to the circumferance of the rest of the hair. The tip is what is felt to be small rounded and smooth.

No other physical evidence exist indicating otherwise.

Hope this helps.
MikeB

Search "shave thicken hair" for Flyboy's thread.

I also remember there was another thread about this (which I cannot find now). In that thread, I posted something along these lines:
If shaving made your hair grow thicker/faster, imagine what the face of an older man who shaved every day would look like.

Seriously, imagine the consequences if this myth were true, assuming the average male shaves his face every other day (which sounds reasonable to me; or stick in whatever statistic you think is reasonable).

Some people claim that shaving your head will make your hair stronger... but if you are going bald, tough luck my friend... that's the way it's gonna be! Shinny and squeaky...
Seriously though, the hair feels coarser and thicker because it is simply cut short and it is pointy and stuff (too tired to articulate... sorry). It really isn't thicker. For instance, if you look at Joe's shinny and supposedly squeaky head, you would assume that he could grow this giant afro! Apparently, he cannot...





I'm not sure if you can understand - judging by my tone - that I am starting, ever so slightly, to grow a bald spot on my head... It appears that my forehead (big as it is... sort of a landing strip for a cesna) is going to meet the top of my head, on the back (that now resembles a very small heliport...). So there! I said it!

Originally Posted by joke1176

Aww fiddlesicks! They stopped researching it because it's case closed.

I say my assertion stands, since I'm the only one with data to support my claim.

There's other stuff on pubmed, I just don't feel like lookin' it up.

That is a very scientific attitude ;-) I am not questioning the results, only the methods used to reach the conclusion. ;-)

Al raz.

All the hair above skin level is dead. It's like the ends of your fingernails. Whacking it off with one thing or another isn't going to change it. Maybe clippers don't cut it off so neatly and leave a soft fuzzy end on it. If there's anything to that at all. If your friend's hair did indeed get thicker after shaving it then that's all you can say about it. It could have been a change in diet, stress, weather, puberty or any of a million other things that might have effected it about that time. Same thing with brushing your hair makes it healthier. The effect is mostly due to spreading skin oils on the hair which makes it look better/shinier.

I agree, the whole "shaving makes hair grow back thicker" idea is a proverbial old wives tale. I have no scientific research to back this up but, if you think about it, if you shaved the back of your hand over and over again it will not make your hand look like a gorilla's. And if this was true there would be no envious men out there with light/sparse beards out there, everyone would have thick and luxurious beards. Just my two cents.....

That's a good point Quick. The conclusion that hair grows faster or thicker after shaving because of shaving is a logical fallacy called post hoc ergo propter hoc, which is latin for "after this, therefore because of this." Essentially what it means is that just because one event comes after another event, does not mean that there is a causal relationship between the two. For example, it is fallacious to assume that just because the glass broke after I took my shoes off, that my taking my shoes off caused the glass to break.

They can add a 6th subject to that research, I shaved one of my legs once just to find out if it was true. Turns out, it wasn't, I have just the same amount of hair on both legs to this day.