Reading up on the arm and chest shaving posts, I’ve decided I’d like to give it a shot to see some more definition. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I hear once you start shaving body hair it’ll grow back thicker the next time around. I have a feeling it’s just a myth, but can someone with shaving experience shed some light on this topic? I’m already kind of hairy, and wouldn’t want more. Thanks in advance.
From what I’ve been told (by a few doctor friends) that myth is a load of crap. You have a predetermined number of hair folicles that lose and regrow hair daily. Your body doesn’t even know that the shaving happens, it just keeps regrowing as usual. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. My hair never grew back thicker, just seemed that way at first because I was used to seeing a bare arm/leg/etc. I think it was just psychological.
For what it is worth, ekul, I believe that you are absolutely correct.
I shaved my arms for over a year and got tired of it and let the hair grow. it grew all the way back and it looked just like it did before i shaved. ive also been shaving my head for over three years and let that grow out too. my hair looked just like it did before i shaved it. i dont think it makes a difference.
Despite what the others replied, I have to disagree in my personal experience. I know I shaved my stomach just a month or so ago for the first time (which wasn’t all too hairy to begin with), and without a doubt, a month later it is definitely hairier or thicker haired than before. However, I shaved my chest and thighs and they look just the same as they did before now. Maybe it’s just a mind trick, but I really do think my stomach is hairier.
The reason hair feels thicker after it grows back is because after you shave it, you leave the ends sharp and jagged, and it can stay that way for weeks. So when you brush your hand over it it feels rough and coarse, hence the belief it’s now thicker.
Hair anywhere on your body is just dead cells, so the follicle doesn’t have a clue what’s going on at the end of the hair shaft. I think the myth about it getting thicker comes from teenagers shaving; the hair on their faces gets thicker in their mid- to late-teens, which is incidentally when most teens experiment and get into the habit of shaving their faces. So the causal connection is deduced, (although false).
There is no way hair will grow back thicker or darker or more of it. when you shave a hair, it is still there inside its follicle, just shorter and under the skin. it continues to grow at the same rate. hair doesn’t have a brain inside it telling it that somebody jusy cut it.
I had virtually no body hair on my chest and stomach all the way into my mid thirties. I shaved my chest and stomach and when the itching stopped I for the first time had hair on my body. I have been taking supplements that increase testostrone and from time to time have shaved my chest and belly. I’m now in my mid forties have a reasonably hairy chest and belly. To say that the hair follicle doesn’t respond to being cut is ridiculous. The hair on your legs only get so long and then shut down otherwise for those of us who have never shaved our legs would have hair a foot long on them. Shaving stimulates new growth. Hair my thicken only to a certain degree. People like me who had no body hair are shaving off fine white hair. It is my contention that the fine almost colorless hair that is cut and re-cut becomes thicker and darkens to the level of the rest of your body hair. You won’t develope new hair follicles but the ones you have can become thicker and longer and darker. Really hairy men who have most of their hair follicles thick, long and dark probably won’t develope much mor if any new hair growth.
Thanks guys, looks like I’ll be shaving soon as an experiment. Can’t wait to see what my abs look like.