How Shaving Affects Your Hair Growth, According to a Hair Scientist

does shaving make hair thicker

And with those many changes (both puberty-related and not) comes the inevitable body hair debate. We know puberty brings more hair growth in certain areas (more on that later), but what exactly to do with that hair—if you choose to do anything at all—isn’t so simple. When shaving your face, wash it first before applying shaving gel or cream. Be sure to gently glide the razor against the skin in the direction that your hair grows.

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(Although, in rare instances, excessive waxing, which tears a hair from its root, can eventually reduce growth from certain hair follicles due to the repeated trauma). When you shave, you’re slicing off dead hair at the surface of the skin. Since shaving doesn’t remove hair under the skin like other hair removal methods do, it’s impossible for you to affect its color, thickness, or rate of growth.

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…men had the hair on their legs shaved with a straight razor and warm water. One to three weeks later, a carefully measured area on each leg was shaved and all the shavings collected. A 10 by 10 em square card was placed just below the patella, with its upper edge horizontal and centered over the patellar tendon. The card was outlined with Micropore tape and then removed.

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If shaving made hair grow thicker, I'd have a full head of gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen hair by now and a beard like Santa Claus. Pubic hair growth is also comparable to that within the leg and underarm region. The increased androgen production that comes with puberty causes vellus hair in all three areas to turn into terminal hair, increasing hair growth thereafter. Longsworth estimates that hair growth in the area is similar to that of the legs, though it can be a bit faster.

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The thickness, color, and length of hair (both vellus and terminal) largely varies depending on the individual and even varies within a single individual depending on the area. Shaving hair from our faces, legs, armpits, and other parts of the skin is a daily routine that millions if not billions of people follow. But once the allure of shaving wears off, I’m sure many of us have wondered – why did I ever shave light and fine hair?

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On average, the hair on your scalp and lower legs grow about half an inch to one inch per month. After all, you’ve always been told that shaving your hair will make it grow back thicker … in exactly the spots where you don’t want luscious locks to grow. When it comes to shaving their legs, many people can do it as frequently as once a day without experiencing irritation. As we said before, shaving frequency is completely dependent on the person, how much hair they have, how quickly it grows, and their preferences. "If you roughen it up, the hair will be stimulated to grow back," he said, adding that it's just not yet proven the hair grows back thicker.

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does shaving make hair thicker

As Dr. Garshick explained above, genetics are the main deciding factor when it comes to how quickly your hair grows back. “Some people may notice that hair grows back within one to two days after shaving, though this can vary among individuals,” she adds. And if you’ve heard rumors of a prescription wonder cream that can slow down hair regrowth, well, that’s sort of true — but Dr. Bullock says they’re not really worthwhile. If shaving isn’t giving you the results you’re looking for, consider talking to a dermatologist about other hair removal options.

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It can have positive effects such as exfoliation, however, which is good for the skin. You can also prep your skin for shaving with a gentle scrub. “This will slough away dead surface skin cells, which will allow for a smooth shave and promote surface cell turnover,” in addition to minimizing the risk of ingrown hairs, she explained. To set the record straight, shaving does not make your hair grow back thicker.

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Now it’s thicker, darker and results in an irritating stubble. A dermatologist is a medical doctor who specializes in treating the skin, hair, and nails. “Those with curly hair are more prone to develop folliculitis, a skin condition in which follicles become inflamed, than those with straight hair,” Marcus said. “When you shave, it does not change the thickness of the hair,” said Sara Lamb, M.D., an assistant professor of dermatology at Virginia Commonwealth University.

He adds that the best time to apply moisturizer is right after you shower, when your skin is most able to absorb moisturizer. "That's not been demonstrated to be so," Kurt Stenn, a biologist who's studied hair for more than 30 years, told Business Insider. Shaving the rest of your body is purely an aesthetic choice there are no health benefits.

The answer is no; shaving has nothing to do with how fast your hair grows or how thick it becomes. You might think that your hair looks thicker or grows faster because of how different the new hair looks when it finally pops through your skin. The act of shaving removes the dead portion of hair, not the living section lying below the skin’s surface, which is why it doesn’t affect the rate or type of growth, according to the BMJ. While this area can have different rates of growth and thickness, Shays says most people shave their underarms every day or two, especially during the summer months.

Whether it was from your parents before your first shave or your friends when discussing grooming routines we’ve all been told that same thing at some point. Now you know that shaving doesn’t make your hair grow back thicker, the next question on everyone’s lips is, “But Gio, does shaving make hair grow back faster or is that a myth, too? You’ve guessed it, it originates from the same optical illusion that makes you think shaving makes your hair grow thicker. “No hair-removal methods have been shown to allow hair to regrow softer than what was removed,” says Dr. Miller.

Many people online believe it to be true — but does shaving really make your hair grow back thicker? As we mentioned above, this body wash is a great pick for prepping and priming your skin before you shave. Formulated with salicylic acid, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and three essential ceramides, it gently dissolves dead skin cells while helping to soothe and retain skin’s moisture barrier. As a bonus, it’s fragrance-free and non-comedogenic. “Other tips include to cleanse the area using a gentle cleanser and making sure the area is damp prior to shaving to help soften the hairs,” says Dr. Garshick.

Hair growth is primarily determined by genetics, hormones, and overall health. We pull the skin on our faces or legs taut just so razors can whisk away the undesired hairs sprouting on the fertile landscape of our bodies. After shaving, the hair grows back with a blunt tip and typically feels stubbly and coarse, which is why it can sometimes appear thicker. Plus, the sun and other chemical exposures have not yet lightened the new hair, making it appear darker or thicker. High school is a time filled with experimentation and a lot of learning—and we're not just talking about during school hours. For many of us, it’s a time of immense change and self-exploration.

From the time you first picked up a razor to shave your legs, you might have had someone warn you about the potential dangers or mistakes of shaving. You’ve probably heard things like shaving causes razor burns, shaving leads to ingrown hairs and perhaps the most notorious, shaving makes your hair grow back thicker. There seems to be this long-standing myth that shaving can make your hair grow back differently. To find out if there’s any truth to it, we consulted with board-certified dermatologists Dr. Jason Miller of Schweiger Dermatology Group and Dr. Marisa Garshick. Ahead, they’re doing some major myth-busting around how shaving really affects your hair growth.

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Shaving hair: Does shaved hair grow back thicker?