Shaved areas grow back faster?

For years I've heard that if you shave off hair, it comes back thicker and faster, like a renegade army. For example, if you're a woman with hairy arms, you don't want to shave your arms because when it grows back you'll look like Robin Williams. I remember reading somewhere that this is untrue, and that was backed by a scientific explanation that seemed plausible at the time to my layperson's eyes.

But I've recently regrown my beard, and it seems like it grows in faster than it did before. That doesn't make any sense from the standpoint of having subsequently shaved having anything to do with it, because I shaved regularly before the original beard was grown. But before, with the original beard, I measured its growth at right about 1/8" every ten days. If I wanted to grow my goatee out to 3/8", it took 30 days from clean shaven, 4/8" took 40 days, etc. And maybe our bodies just grow hair faster as we age, but now I'm calculating about 1/8" growth per week instead of ten days. In 3 weeks I've grown my goatee to 3/8"--21 days instead of 30. The way I've measured has just been by using the appropriate guard, and seeing if it's grabbing any hair.

Possible my estimates on the rate of growth have been flawed before, but I really don't think so. I just thought this was interesting.

 

I think that the speed of growth really depends upon the health of the individual, along with nutritional intake, much like the growth of trees (ring thickness), rather than the hair removal process.

 

Hair growth speed can vary by diet, physical condition, age etc.

As to the old wives tale about growing back thicker, what's happening is that naturally growing hair is tapered to a soft tip (just like a good badger brush) but if you cut the hair, as the hair grows back, the ends are going to be sqared, making them feel stiffer and more "scrubby" just like a bad brush that has it's ends trimmed off would feel like.

 

My beard doth feel like a bad brush. It's time to shave!

 

Agreed.

 

I was told many years ago that shaving your beard often will make it grow back faster and thicker. It's NOT true at all. It depends on your tendency, your genes. I'm a hairy guy with a tough beard. My Dad strangely enough is not hairy, and his beard is not as tough as mine.

 

I always thought that was just a ruse my Dad used to get me to shave off the sparse whiskers I had when I was a teenager. worked too.

 

Something that may have cotributed to this belief could be that as one begins to shave during puberty, the beard is just beginning to grow. So naturally since one is shaving and the beard is developing it might appear that the shaving is causing the growth.

 

I already look like this, it can't possibly get much worse.



Either way, the barber when I was a kid said it was true. Now days, I'm positive it's an old wives tale.

 

Not at all. It is entirelly genetic. Yet, it doesn't always run in families, or even in world regions. Mediterranean men are said to be swarthy, (which I am) with hairiness, (which I also am) and heavy, fast-growing beards, (which I also am) however I have seen many men from around the Mediterranean who are the opposite of me. One of my brothers-in-law has light coloring, and just a normal beard, and he's from Morocco.

 

So then the developing beard doesn't grow faster and thicker as it's developing? That's absurd!

 

No. You reach a maximum of beard growth at a certain age, and that is it. Then, even if you were to shave a hundred times a day, it won't make any difference in how fast it grows back or how thick it will be.

 

Read my post again. That's what I wrote.

Your correction of what I wrote has you (not me, my beard developed in puberty as do most humans) emerging from the birth canal with a full beard.

 

OK, so I misunderstood. English is not my native language. Sorry.........

 

I've heard mixed reviews on this. I'm still young and my beard is still maturing so I can't say for myself but I've heard nutrition and daily life activities affect growth more than anything.

 

The things that Google knows.
Never ceases to astound me.

 

I'm experiencing a weird thing.
The last couple of months my beard is stiffer than usual. I used to be able to go days before shaving without any problem, but now my beard is stiffer and it gets itchy if I don't shave at least every 2-3 days. I used to like to go 4-5 days without shaving, almost growing a healthy 1/2" beard in that time - but now I need to shave it after maximum 3 days and it feels stiffer than it used to do.

Anyone know what might be the reason for that other than just getting older - I'm a 40 years young adult

 

I was talking to my father and he said that his beard changed when it started to grey... No idea if your getting grey hair on your face or what. But that could be an issue. I have sometime before I hit the 40 mark. I have to shave everyday... but probably 6 times a week or 5. Just to let face heal and get all nice for the next shave.

 

Hormones?

I have no idea. I'm 49 and never really noticed any major changes in my beard, other than it's getting grayer.

 

If were true, I'd be shaving my head every hour on the hour.