Thread: Carpet Thick

Gentlemen,

I seem to recall having read or heard an explanation for this, but the details escape me:

Why does the facial stubble grow seemingly thicker and coarser for those of us who use straight razors? Even those who use double edge razors.

What brought this up is a recent conversation with my wife's fellow co-worker. He had shown some interest in using a double edge razor, so I sold him one of my razors, plus a boar brush, soap, and a few other shaving incidentals. I also gave him some training.

He said that he since he started on the double edge razor he felt his stubble had grown thicker and denser. When I started with the straight razor a while back, I noticed the same effect on my stubble. Perhaps some of you gentlemen can shed some light on this.

Regards,

Obie

i am no expert but i would think that it is not really growing in thicker it is just the angle of the cut is diffrent. with a straight the hairs are more flat cut on the top while the other razors have more of a angle with there cuts. it feels thinner because the angle the hair is cut makes it more flexible.

sounds good to me atleast

I think it just looks thicker not that it really is thicker.

My facial hair grows in more uniformed since I've stopped sliding an electric face grader around my face. It's not thicker, I can tell when I touch it. But it does grow in more uniform in direction.

Obie,

This has been discussed a lot. According to the scientific information that I've seen (sorry, I didn't take time to look them up again), hair doesn't grown in any thicker based on any factor related to shaving. This is true of the "myth" (scare quotes because of preponderance of evidence) that hair grows in fuller if you shave it, peach fuzz will become more obvious, etc. I believe that it feels as if it is thicker because of the cutting angle, and because we become more aware of our beard growth due to the extra care that we take in achieving our shave as well as the amount of satisfaction that we derive from it.

yep, just another old barbers tale. No truth to it at all.