Shaving and growing in faster

[sorgoth]

Is this just a myth?
A friend told me last night that he doesn't shave more often because he doesn't want to be one of those people who have a beard grown by mid-afternoon after shaving in the morning.
I was a tad skeptical (After all, why would shaving encourage hair growth?), but I wasn't sure.

So does shaving encourage hair growth?

 

[Matabiri]

No, it doesn't.

But what it does do is leave a thick, sharp tip to the cut hair, which looks and feels rougher than the tapered end of a non-cut hair. Waxing etc. removes the hair down to below the skin, so it take a while for it to re-emerge and, when it does, it has the tapered end that feels softer. Hence the myth.

I'm also wondering if the idea might be related to people starting to shave when they've got only a small amount of hair, and because (through natural developments during puberty) the hair gets thicker and denser over time, they assume this is because of shaving.

If it was true, it would be a reliable treatment for baldness ("Just shave your head every day until the hair is thicker and darker!"). But it isn't, and it isn't.

Edit to add: the five-o'clock-shadow your friend is worried about is just because some people's hair grows faster than others. I know people who only have to shave every two days or so - and know other people who look disarmingly rugged by the evening. Ho hum.

 

[Doc Dish]

So does shaving encourage hair growth?

This sounds a bit like this Urban Legend

 

[Matabiri]

Re: Re: Shaving and growing in faster

This sounds a bit like this Urban Legend

I don't know why

Hair color is an indication of temperament.

In superstition and folklore, redheads are assumed to have ungovernable tempers, dark hair suggests great strength and virility, and fair hair stands as an indication of a weak nature.

is included as urban legend, as I have observed that every time I've teased a redhead about the colour of their hair they have indeed become angry.

 

[Agammamon]

Hmm, perhaps not shaving encourages hair growth.

I mean while I was a child I never shaved and then hair started to grow in thick than it had been before. I've never shaved my chest and hair is starting to show up there.

 

[Doc Dish]

Re: Re: Re: Shaving and growing in faster

I don't know why

Hair color is an indication of temperament.

In superstition and folklore, redheads are assumed to have ungovernable tempers, dark hair suggests great strength and virility, and fair hair stands as an indication of a weak nature.

is included as urban legend, as I have observed that every time I've teased a redhead about the colour of their hair they have indeed become angry.

I agree totally - and given that I have dark hair, my great strength and virility should prove the point!

P.S. Matabiri, if you're 'down the pub' can I come, too? I'm gasping, here!

 

[Matabiri]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Shaving and growing in faster

P.S. Matabiri, if you're 'down the pub' can I come, too? I'm gasping, here!

Sure, I'll get them in. What are you having?

 

[Blondin]

Perhaps a bit off topic...

In my own experience, and from anecdotal evidence, it seems to me that hair growth/loss/colour/texture/graying are all hereditary attributes. My Father and both my Grandfathers had full heads of coarse hair all their lives. Myself and all my brothers do, too (so far). Occasionally, when I happen to run into people who I knew many years ago, I notice that, as adults, they usually tend to have similar hair (or lack thereof) to what their parents did at a similar age.

To be honest I guess I am talking mostly about men because womens' hair is seldom what it seems when it comes to graying or colour and baldness is much less of an issue for women.

One trend I've noticed also seems to be hereditary. It seems to me that many hirsute men who have hair on their backs like bears, started shaving at 12, etc., tend to go bald at an early age. There are exceptions (like Robin Williams) but I have noticed this trend among friends and relatives as well as strangers. At age 50 I still have thick hair with no sign of retreat although I get away with shaving every 2nd day and have fine, almost non-existent, hair on my arms and legs.

On those rare occasions that I visit a beach or swimming pool where a lot of men are walking around shirtless I can't help noticing that guys (of all ages) with full heads of hair are usually fairly hairless otherwise and the "sasquatches" are often bald.

I hasten to add that I am not saying all bald men are sasquatches (just thought I should clarify that in case Mr. Randi sees this).

 

[Doc Dish]

Blondin: Interestingly, my Grandfather had a very good head of hair, as do both myself and my Father and none of us are/were particularly hirsute on our bodies. Until my Dad started greying in his 50s, he was accused at work of dyeing his hair, or wearing a wig!

Matabiri: Pint of Cider, please, and make sure it's cold!

 

[BPSCG]

"As I get older, I find hair growing in my nose and in my ears -just where I need it the most! " -Alan King

 

[pgwenthold]

I think it is funny that they say that baldness is inherited from the mothers side, but I gotta say, my hair very strongly resembles my father's, including the types of hair in different areas and the bald spot (including the fuzz on the side and the little tuft in the front)

OTOH, I will say that my mother-side uncles are pretty bald, too, but the style is not the same.

 

[SGT]

I think the origin of the myth is by analogy with plants. If you trim a plant, it will grow stronger from the point where you cut the branch. So, people assume the same is true with hair.
The big difference is that plants grow from the free extremity. If you cut an extremity, the cells adjacent to the cut start producing growing hormones, that accelerate the process.
Hair grows from its root. The free extremity is composed by dead cells, so cutting it does not produce any hormones.
By the way, I think that baldness and chest hair have relation with male hormones. It is not well undertood, but it seems that those hormones cause hair growing in the body and falling from the head.

 

[BPSCG]

I think it is funny that they say that baldness is inherited from the mothers side

That's a serious crock. I saw a picture of my paternal great-uncles and great-grandfather when I was about 15 or so. Every single guy in the picture, as well as my father and his father, was bald or well on the way. I also noticed that, "Gee, I look a lot like those guys", and decided I'd probably go bald someday, too.

And I did. Of course, all the guys on my mom's side had Donald Trump hair until they died.

Anecdotal, I know.

Went the hair transplant route about ten years ago* and broached the subject to the doctor who did the work. Of course, since they get family medical histories from their patients, they're well acquainted with the statistics. He told me the "you get it from your mother's side" is old-wives nonsense.

*Yeah, vain, I know, but putting up with bald jokes all the time is a pain in the butt, even when you've accumulated a library of snappy retorts...

 

[pgwenthold]

Went the hair transplant route about ten years ago* and broached the subject to the doctor who did the work. Of course, since they get family medical histories from their patients, they're well acquainted with the statistics. He told me the "you get it from your mother's side" is old-wives nonsense.

I just sent a note to Snopes asking about this. We'll see what she says.

 

[MrMonty]

Nobody here seems to be answering the question, he said faster, not thicker. His followup to the title of this thread seems like a different question though.

When I shave every day, I have longer (hence it grew in faster) stubble 24 hours later than when I shave every other day. The biggest difference is Tuesday morning my stubble isn't nearly as long as Saturday morning because my Monday shave followed the weekend of not shaving while my Friday shave followed four days of shaving daily.

I theorize that the hair starts growing in slower as it gets longer. If it hasn't been shaved in a couple days, the growth rate has slowed down and when shaven, the growth rate needs some time to speed up. Shaving every day means that growth rate never slows down and stays at a fairly steady rate.

My $.02 theory,
Monty

 

[SGT]

Nobody here seems to be answering the question, he said faster, not thicker. His followup to the title of this thread seems like a different question though.

When I shave every day, I have longer (hence it grew in faster) stubble 24 hours later than when I shave every other day. The biggest difference is Tuesday morning my stubble isn't nearly as long as Saturday morning because my Monday shave followed the weekend of not shaving while my Friday shave followed four days of shaving daily.

I theorize that the hair starts growing in slower as it gets longer. If it hasn't been shaved in a couple days, the growth rate has slowed down and when shaven, the growth rate needs some time to speed up. Shaving every day means that growth rate never slows down and stays at a fairly steady rate.

My $.02 theory,
Monty

Since the points are composed of dead cells, they break easily. Longer hair has its points broken, so it shortens and give the impression of growing less.

 

[MrMonty]

Since the points are composed of dead cells, they break easily. Longer hair has its points broken, so it shortens and give the impression of growing less.

Is there something you can give us to back this up? Isn't all hair dead cells?

This would explain why my $.02 theory of growth rate would be wrong, it doesn't explain why, 24 hours after shaving, one day always seems longer/rougher than another day.

Monty

 

[tracer]

This sounds a bit like this Urban Legend

Oh, hey! Look at what they list among the list of "mistaken hair beliefs" at the end of the article:

"Shampoo loses its effectiveness as hair becomes accustomed to it.

The seemingly magic effects of a particular brand of shampoo don't wear off because the body builds up a resistance to it. Rather, our hair can react differently to a particular shampoo because it has been colored or permed somewhere along the line, or because something about our metabolisms or the state of our general health has changed."


Does this mean that Neutrogena is a crock?

 

[SGT]

Is there something you can give us to back this up? Isn't all hair dead cells?


Monty

The portion above the scalp, yes. Read the cite proposed by Doc Dish.

 

[Zep]

Your hair grows faster while you are awake than when you are asleep. So if you shave at night, you will be only slightly handsomely rugged by the morning. Whereas if you shave in the morning, you will more resemble a chewed shoebrush by the afternoon.

Apparently it is something to do with increased blood circulation (thusly more nutrients to the hair follicles?).