Is there any truth to the myth of shaved hair growing back faster and thicker?

After two decades of serving in the military and cutting / shaving my hair very short on dozens of occasions, I haven’t yet seen it grow back in faster and thicker than any other time. For me individually, it certainly seems there is no truth to that myth.

“it would have grown faster and thicker as time passed whether or not I shaved.” When I was younger I was curious too. I shaved just a bit on one leg and I could see the difference when the hair was growing back. It came back thicker and faster. I wish I never did that.

Absolutely not true.

I don’t know about faces, but this seems to be true for legs, and certainly for teenagers. I had knee surgery when I was 17 and had a very hairy right knee for a bit, but as I kept going the density evened out. I haven’t shaved my legs since then, though, and I’m not about to repeat the experiment.

On a side note, growth patterns on people’s faces seem to be affected by shaving only into late puberty, and not beyond. I have no idea if it’s true or not, but that’s my theory and I’m stickin’ to it.

Let me see if I can find a medical opinion.

WikiAnswers Ask Alice Wise Geek

So not a legit medical opinion in the bunch there, but the overwhelming majority seems to say it’s an illusion. Maybe so, maybe not.

~spooky noises~

No truth!

I remember watching the Oprah show one day and saw this episode. Apperantly, according to Dr. Oz, it comes back harder, not thicker.

I think if it were true all the bald guys who have been shaving their heads for the last couple of years since it became stylish, would suddenly be sprouting beautiful crops of thick lustrous hair!

That’s a long sentence but I couldn’t figure out where to stop it.

ILLUSION!!! ILLUSION!!!

It’s actually true, but it’s what TheCreative said. It’s not that if you’re bald and shave your head it will suddenly grow. But hair does get more damaged the longer it is, since the root has to support a longer stem (just like with plants). This means that keeping it short helps it be healthier (but it doesn’t work the other way round, ie cutting an already unhealthy hair will not save it).

Personally I don’t shave that often, and my beard is quite soft for my age, and won’t grow back that fast. But the hair on my head started thinning a few years back (I’d lose lots per day, mainly because it got all tangled up and broke). I’ve been keeping it shorter and it’s been stronger since then.

Absolutely true. I know a girl who, after shaving her legs for several years decided to go au natural…Omigawd, she was like a jungle!

Best friend shaved her belly the other day. It looks like a damn thick forest is growing on her belly now. Hahahahh.

I had a cast on my arm after a broken wrist, and naturally had inflammation for the first week. When the cast was removed I had werewolf hair on that area (I could barely see any hair on the other arm). Doc says that it was because the inflammation made it easier for the hair to come out, and the lack of rubbing off things retained a lot of the hair. It was so thick and black. I suspect that shaving might have the same effect, and allows the hair to push out harder and thicker.

Here’s an experiment for someone (male), similar to @TheCreative.
Shave the left side of your face every day.
Shave the right side of your face only on days you plan on interacting with people (Y’know, so you won’t look like a weirdo).

After a month of this, shave both sides. See which one has the most growth in a day.

@Sarcasm: what if we interact with people daily?

Try mustache vs beard

I think it has something to do with shaved hair grows back with a flat tip as opposed to a tapered tip and therefore appears thicker or courser.

I’ve heard that hormones have something to do with women not having to shave their legs so much. Not so with me. After having a complete hysterectomy 5 years ago & my hormones being turned upside down, I still shave twice a week.

I have been shaving my head and beard on a regular basis (usually daily) since 1996. My hair has not come back in thicker at all. I spent three months letting it grow back once to see if it would cover the eyeball tattoo on the back of my head (sadly enough, it doesn’t, damn you, MPB!) but it did come back in much darker. Almost completely black. Back before I shaved my scalp, my hair was medium brown. That is the only change I have seen in 13 years of shaving.

Well, that and that I can now grow a full beard, but that is a result of aging, doesn’t have anything to do with shaving.

@jbfletcherfan funny thing, my wife and I were just discussing shaving legs, and she says her legs only need to be shaved once every 3 months.

OMG! Lucky her. See? It’s true with her then.

I thought myth, but Kramer proved me wrong.

I think the myth started in part because hormonal changes and the start of shaving occur at generally around the same time, so one could think that the thickening of the hair or stubby nature of stubble is in fact thicker. But in reality stubble is only a trick, once hair is long it becomes tapered at the end and softens up. However if you never observe this, you can see how you might think that shaving causes the hair to become thicker.

I have heard this as well but what’s happening when you shave is that you’re cutting off the hair in the middle so when it grows back in, the top is the thick middle part.

I have no evidence pro or con for shaving or cutting hair. However, when I went bald due to chemo (really bald…not a hair anywhere) the hair on my head grew back at the usual rate but was curlier for about three years. I really liked that, but now – 12 years after the fact, all hair behaving as it always has. (I am woman.)

It certainly does not grow faster and it certainly does not grow thicker!

I’ve never heard that it grows back thicker and faster. What I’ve always heard is that it grows back darker and more coarse. In my experience, the latter is absolutely true.

@kerryyylynn This is absolutely true in my case. It happened when I was in 6th grade. My mom didn’t allow me to wear pants so I was always wearing dresses. Since I wasn’t shaving I had a lot of people pick on me. I’m very pale and my hair is black, so imagine the horror I had to deal with. Due to this I not only started on my legs but decided that the hair on my stomach was next.

The thing is that the hair wasn’t bad at all, barely visible, but as long as I saw it it had to be removed. I removed mostly the hair below my bellybutton as a test. Soon enough the hair started coming back thicker. This wasn’t an illusion. The hair on my stomach was a light brown color, almost blonde, now it’s black and coarse. I even plucked it to compare to the hair I hadn’t shaved yet. I wanted to see if it truly was an illusion. It wasn’t. There is no way you can tell me this never happened because the hair is clearly damaged and much much coarser. So in attempts to even this out and experiment more I shaved above my belly button, but not all the way. Once my hair started to grow back there was an obvious difference once again between that hair and the one I didn’t touch. Even in the areas below my belly button that I didn’t change are very light and just fuzz. I strayed a couple of times and those hairs grew back thicker and darker.
I want to know what is the explanation behind that. There is no way it’s an illusion because people I’ve known, including doctors have mentioned there was a clear difference. I’m some kind of freak, lol.