Once you reach a certain age, unwanted hairs start to sprout out of your body. They might
be on your face, your legs or any number of other intimate places that you'd prefer to
keep bald. There's just a slight snag, most people believe getting the razor out and shaving
them off will just cause them to grow back even faster, thicker, and darker than ever.
And what about the solitary stragglers? If you take the tweezers to those little suckers,
then lots will sprout back in their place!
But is there any evidence that this really is the case?
I’m Stu, this is Debunked and we’re here to work out the truths from the myths and
the facts from the misconceptions.
First let’s take a look at shaving, something I gave up awhile ago…
The concept that shaving causes hair to grow back mightier than before was put to the test
way back in 1928, by Forensic Anthropologist Mildred Trotter.
Four men shaved a portion of their faces under controlled conditions, the naturally regrown
and shaved hairs were then compared, and the study concluded that shaving had no impact
on the regrowth.
In a more recent study published in The Journal Of Investigative Dermatology,
Doctors conducted a study where five healthy young men shaved one of their legs each week
for several months. The other leg remained hairy and untouched as a control for the experiment.
Other than looking rather stupid in the summer months, shaving was found to have no significant
impact on hair regrowth.
So where did the belief originate? Well, it often starts during our adolescent years,
when our bodies are changing and puberty begins to kick in.
Boys begin producing the first evidence of facial hair, in the US I believe they call
it ‘Peach Fuzz’, while us Brits prefer the slightly bizarre term ‘bumfluff’.
Either way after their first hazardous shave takes place the hair usually grows back fuller,
and before you know it they’ve got a full face of hair…
But this is simply a coincidence, because the time you start shaving is also when your
body is going through a series of natural hormonal fluctuations which lead to the development
of adult facial or body hair.
The actual act of shaving has no bearing on this, and this process will naturally occur
at different rates for everyone.
This fresh hair growth can also appear to be darker, because it’s yet to be exposed
to the sun, or the chemicals and pollutants of everyday life, that make hair lighter.
The darker appearance can also be an illusion, as you are now seeing hairs dotted against
the backdrop of your normal skin colour.
So moving on from peachy bumfluff, what about shaving body hair? Now this can be a concern
for both sexes,
because when you first shave away unwanted hair on your legs, back, pits or chest then
the regrowth appears to sprout back coarser and thicker than before.
This occurs because by shaving you are blunting the end of the hairs.
You see, a human hair is naturally tapered at the end, meaning the most visible part
is the thinnest part. When you shave, you are cutting the shaft of hair at its thickest
point; blunting the end. So it now temporarily appears to be thicker, and with the hairs
now sticking straight up from their follicles, that clasp firmly around them, they also seem
much more coarser than before.
Joar Austad, chief physician at the Oslo University Hospital uses this analogy:
And in fact the portion of hair that you shave off is not alive, meaning it can’t send
any information to the follicle to tell it that it’s been cut, so the follicle just
continues functioning as before.
Although, methods like plucking
pull the hair straight out of the follicle, so how does this affect regrowth?
"I found a grey hair!"
"I was going to tweeze, but if you pluck it, 6 more will come to its funeral."
The fact is, one hair follicle produces one hair. If it appears that two are sprouting
out from the same point, then it is likely two hair follicles have merged together.
Waxing can also change the appearance of hair regrowth. As repeatedly ripping out the hair
from legs and arms changes the actual direction of the hair follicle by pulling it away from
it’s natural grain.
This can result in regrowth appearing fluffier than before.
Plucking out or waxing the hair will not cause more to grow back in its place. Surprisingly,
repeated plucking or even waxing can do quite the opposite.
The act of plucking or waxing tears the hair from its root, and doing this repeatedly can
traumatise the follicle. On the human head if a hair is continuously pulled from an area,
then after a while a message will be sent to the follicle that ‘its services are no
longer required’, it shrinks and then stops growing hair,
which could unfortunately lead to a bald patch.
On a more positive note,
according to Cosmetic Scientist Randy Schueller,
plucking out a grey hair could, if you’re lucky, lead to the replacement one being less
grey, as the process that creates your hair colour is not totally consistent from hair
to hair.
But generally the safest thing to do in order to avoid damaging your hair follicle is to
carefully snip it off or dye it.
Ultimately, if you’re in your adolescent years then I’m afraid that all that unwanted
hair will just keep coming back but shaving it off won’t turn you into Bigfoot.