Thread: Does hair get thicker as it grows?

This is something that's baffled me for as long as I've been around the forum.

I read all the time that people have a harder time shaving several days worth of growth, or that some people use a full hollow as a daily shaver but prefer a big wedge if they've missed a few days.

What about the hair changes as it grows other than the length? In my mind the hair has the same structure, it's just longer.

If that is the case, when using a single blade instrument with no guards on it, the length of the hair should be irrelevant. I can understand cartridge razors getting clogged up with long hair, but I don't see any reason that the length of the hair should affect a straight razor shave.

My experience is that I get a better shave if I go at least two days between shaves. My assumption is that this has to do with the skin healing, but I don't know for sure. I do know for sure that if I try to shave daily I get poor quality shaves and a lot of skin irritation.

This is something I haven't really seen discussed on here, and I'm curious to know what other people's thoughts are.

Medically, biologically, there is no difference between a day and a month worth of growth at skin level.

All the ballyhoo is because of the same thing that makes Filarmonicas 'super 1337 shavers!!1!1'...

...It's all psychological, really. FOTM

This is really interesting topic.
I personally think it does.
Why you get a good shave is one of the reason .
in 1 day grow your hairs is not hard enough after 2 days it gets there and you have nice shave.
Make a experiment.Let's say wait 5 more days and try shave see what happens.
i have tried this experiment and clearly you can see Blade will act differently while you shave 1 day grow vs 5 days grow.
This is how i felt.
lets see what others think.
GL
if you can make Poll questions on this that will be helpful too.

Well I have relatively sensitive skin, and I know that unless I skip at least a day or two then my face will be hurting. However I also think the hairs get softer over time, because I find it much easier to shave whiskers than stubble, regardless of whether or not my face has healed. That's really all the input I can provide; I know I get a better shave if I wait a little while.

Ben got it right. It's a psychological perception.

IMHO:
Shaving or cutting will NOT make the hair grow back either 1) thicker, or 2) coarser, anymore than cutting will stimulate new growth (contrary to what people think or say...if it did, there wouldn't be any bald people ). This belief seems to stem from the false perception that short hair seems to be tougher than longer hair. Think of it as a bambbo cane: a long cane flexes easily...cut the same cane shorter and it feels harder and tougher...it's the same cane, just different length.

Another reason may be because of the finer ends of uncut hair, which are tapered. You cut it and it feels like it's thicker...but, it's not...it's just blunt and seems thicker. So, the observation that hair gets thicker as it grows is "biologically" wrong and in some ways, backwards ...it actually gets thinner (because of the tapered end) at the end...base remains the same.

Same principle applies to your hair. It is more flexible at few days growth than one. Besides, part of why we get a better shave after a few days rest is exactly because we (or rather your skin) has had a few days break .

Hope this helps a bit.

To the guys who have decided this is psychological: sorry, but I don't fit into anyone's neat little shoebox.

I shave every day. Whenever I go a day or two without shaving, my razor noticeably pulls more. It isn't the razor because I can use that same razor the very next day and I'm back to getting a decent shave again.

That puzzled me so I gave it some thought. I'm going to borrow Robert's analogy of the short and long bamboo canes. My stubble is as hard as a wire brush. With one day's growth, it's like the shorter bamboo cane. While my beard prep is going to soften the stubble, it's still not going to flex very much. So it tends to stand up to the razor and the edge slices through it.

This is important: Just about everyone here uses two or three passes to get a decent shave. I doubt there are many who get a BBS shave with just ONE WTG pass. So you know you're not shaving your hairs off at the skin line -- not on the first pass anyway.

Now if I wait a day or two between shaves, my stubble is longer and like the longer bamboo cane, it's going to flex more than one day stubble, even though my beard prep is not going to make it any softer.

Here's what I think happens. With one day between shaves, on the first pass, my razor slices through the less flexible stubble at closer to a 90º angle to the direction of the hair growth. When I go a day or two between shaves, the longer stubble is now more flexible. As my razor's edge pushes against the more flexible stubble, it tends to bend over further before the edge cuts into it. That flexing absorbs energy from the effort I put into pushing the edge of the blade across my face. And since the razor does not cut the hair off at the skin line (not on the first pass anyway), when it does slice through the more flexible hairs that are being bent over further, the angle of the cut is going to be closer to a 40º angle to the direction of the hair growth. The edge is going to have to travel further through a given hair to cut it off. Effectively, I'm shaving a thicker hair now than I did with just one day's growth. Both of the above occurrences are going to absorb energy from the effort I usually put into a stroke of one day's growth of stubble. So it's going to require somewhat more effort from me to complete a stroke. My brain interprets that as my razor pulling more than it does with one day's growth of stubble.

Granted, the angles I state above are arbitrary and impossible to measure. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that's what's happening.

So If I'm not imagining it, why is it everyone else doesn't also experience this? The Creator did not stamp us all out from the same cookie cutter. Our beards and skin are entirely unique to the individual. One of my shipmates on the Pulaski didn't even use any beard prep. He'd just rub some foam-in-a-can onto his dry face and with one pass from his Gillette DE razor, he'd have a BBS shave with no nicks and no razor burn. Go figger.

One last comment and I'll get off my soap box.

We have members here who have discovered that a cold water shave gives them the closet, most comfortable shave with less razor burn than they had when they did all the hot water beard prep. The theory is that cold water makes their stubble LESS FLEXIBLE so their razors slice through the stubble easier then if they used hot water beard prep that made their beards MORE FLEXIBLE. I rest my case.

Now, if you like, you could tell those fellas that the cold water benefit they are enjoying is psychological and that it's all in their heads, but I doubt they will buy that loaf of bread. ;-)

Namaste,
Morty -_-

Originally Posted by Morty

To the guys who have decided this is psychological: sorry, but I don't fit into anyone's neat little shoebox.

I shave every day. Whenever I go a day or two without shaving, my razor noticeably pulls more. It isn't the razor because I can use that same razor the very next day and I'm back to getting a decent shave again.

That puzzled me so I gave it some thought. I'm going to borrow Robert's analogy of the short and long bamboo canes. My stubble is as hard as a wire brush. With one day's growth, it's like the shorter bamboo cane. While my beard prep is going to soften the stubble, it's still not going to flex very much. So it tends to stand up to the razor and the edge slices through it.

This is important: Just about everyone here uses two or three passes to get a decent shave. I doubt there are many who get a BBS shave with just ONE WTG pass. So you know you're not shaving your hairs off at the skin line -- not on the first pass anyway.

Now if I wait a day or two between shaves, my stubble is longer and like the longer bamboo cane, it's going to flex more than one day stubble, even though my beard prep is not going to make it any softer.

Here's what I think happens. With one day between shaves, on the first pass, my razor slices through the less flexible stubble at closer to a 90º angle to the direction of the hair growth. When I go a day or two between shaves, the longer stubble is now more flexible. As my razor's edge pushes against the more flexible stubble, it tends to bend over further before the edge cuts into it. That flexing absorbs energy from the effort I put into pushing the edge of the blade across my face. And since the razor does not cut the hair off at the skin line (not on the first pass anyway), when it does slice through the more flexible hairs that are being bent over further, the angle of the cut is going to be closer to a 40º angle to the direction of the hair growth. The edge is going to have to travel further through a given hair to cut it off. Effectively, I'm shaving a thicker hair now than I did with just one day's growth. Both of the above occurrences are going to absorb energy from the effort I usually put into a stroke of one day's growth of stubble. So it's going to require somewhat more effort from me to complete a stroke. My brain interprets that as my razor pulling more than it does with one day's growth of stubble.

Granted, the angles I state above are arbitrary and impossible to measure. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that's what's happening.

So If I'm not imagining it, why is it everyone else doesn't also experience this? The Creator did not stamp us all out from the same cookie cutter. Our beards and skin are entirely unique to the individual. One of my shipmates on the Pulaski didn't even use any beard prep. He'd just rub some foam-in-a-can onto his dry face and with one pass from his Gillette DE razor, he'd have a BBS shave with no nicks and no razor burn. Go figger.

One last comment and I'll get off my soap box.

We have members here who have discovered that a cold water shave gives them the closet, most comfortable shave with less razor burn than they had when they did all the hot water beard prep. The theory is that cold water makes their stubble LESS FLEXIBLE so their razors slice through the stubble easier then if they used hot water beard prep that made their beards MORE FLEXIBLE. I rest my case.

Now, if you like, you could tell those fellas that the cold water benefit they are enjoying is psychological and that it's all in their heads, but I doubt they will buy that loaf of bread. ;-)

Namaste,
Morty -_-

Hi Morty,
Thanks for the points. Sorry, I (and I am sure Ben as well) didn't mean to fit anyone in a shoebox . Poor choice of words, I guess.

I do hear what you are saying, loud and clear...from a purely physical point of view, you are absolutely right. If I may though, I'd like to respectfully make a couple of points (just for discussion...no shoeboxes )

Point #1:
Yes: to if you cut through hair that's more bent, you effectively go through more hair. Purely angles and physics. I get it.

But,

No: to beard grows thicker and coarser, which is what I believe the OP suggests. There is no biological basis for this (well...unless you change your genes and/or fiddle with one's molecular/hormonal makeup).


Point#2 (cold shaving):
Warm shaves are known to relax and so-called "open" the pores around the follicle...skin puffs up/stretches ("grows") a bit around the hair and engulfs more of the follicle, exposing less of it at the base for cutting. When razor sees, it cuts whatever it sees, right above skin. The reason why cold water gives closer shaves is that when skin is cold (cold rinse, alcohol, etc...), it shrinks/retracts, exposing/pushing more of the hair out (above skin). When razor cuts (same as in warm water), it cuts more hair (because skin is a bit more retracted around the follicle, exposing more of the hair shaft for cutting.This is primarily why cold water shaves give closer shaves. the razor still cuts at skin level, where hairs have same stiffness/thickness.

I may be way off here, but just my 2 cents.

Of course everyone is different.

For me when I skip a day I get a better shave all around and I have a pretty tough beard. In my mind it's really simple. The more hair there is the more of a target the blade has to work on.

This is a good topic for me as I just shaved off 5 days of growth about 20 minutes ago, and with a full hollow Bismarck no less. This is unusual for me as I will typically use a wedge for that much growth because, yes, I find it plows through the underbrush that much more effectively.

Originally Posted by HNSB

This is something that's baffled me for as long as I've been around the forum.

I read all the time that people have a harder time shaving several days worth of growth, or that some people use a full hollow as a daily shaver but prefer a big wedge if they've missed a few days.

What about the hair changes as it grows other than the length? In my mind the hair has the same structure, it's just longer.

If that is the case, when using a single blade instrument with no guards on it, the length of the hair should be irrelevant. I can understand cartridge razors getting clogged up with long hair, but I don't see any reason that the length of the hair should affect a straight razor shave.

My experience is that I get a better shave if I go at least two days between shaves. My assumption is that this has to do with the skin healing, but I don't know for sure. I do know for sure that if I try to shave daily I get poor quality shaves and a lot of skin irritation.

This is something I haven't really seen discussed on here, and I'm curious to know what other people's thoughts are.

I think a number of things go on when you shave off a few days growth. And I don't believe that the follicles are physically thicker...

-There is noticeably more hair on the face, providing that much more resistance to the stroke of a razor. Full hollows work well, but due to the flex a stiffer grind will face less resistance.

-Longer whisker length provides more for the razor to 'grab'.

-Skin stretching becomes more effective. The whiskers stand on end a lot easier than when they are a day's length.

-The aforementioned skin healing time, especially if you have sensitive skin.

I find I get a buttery smooth shave after a few days. My face is like glass at the moment, and I KNOW that's not psychological.......

Originally Posted by BladeRunner001

Ben got it right. It's a psychological perception.

IMHO:
Shaving or cutting will NOT make the hair grow back either 1) thicker, or 2) coarser, anymore than cutting will stimulate new growth (contrary to what people think or say...if it did, there wouldn't be any bald people ). This belief seems to stem from the false perception that short hair seems to be tougher than longer hair. Think of it as a bambbo cane: a long cane flexes easily...cut the same cane shorter and it feels harder and tougher...it's the same cane, just different length.

Another reason may be because of the finer ends of uncut hair, which are tapered. You cut it and it feels like it's thicker...but, it's not...it's just blunt and seems thicker. So, the observation that hair gets thicker as it grows is "biologically" wrong and in some ways, backwards ...it actually gets thinner (because of the tapered end) at the end...base remains the same.

Same principle applies to your hair. It is more flexible at few days growth than one. Besides, part of why we get a better shave after a few days rest is exactly because we (or rather your skin) has had a few days break .

Hope this helps a bit.

I'm not sure man, I'd swear on a stack of bibles that since I've started shaving with a straight razor my whiskers have gotten coarser and thicker
I don't think it's in my head either because other people i know have said that my face looks scruffier (I shave every day so the growth length is the same)