Shaving Makes Hair Grow Back Thicker
"The belief that shaving causes hair to regrow darker, coarser, and thicker than before."
A visual illusion, not biology. A foundational 1928 study, reaffirmed decades later in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, found no measurable difference in regrowth after shaving. What people actually notice: shaved hair is cut bluntly at the skin's surface, giving it a blunt, rigid tip, unlike an unshaved hair's naturally tapered end, so it looks and feels coarser at first. Coincidence reinforces the myth too, a teenage boy's first shave often overlaps with puberty, when hair is thickening anyway for unrelated hormonal reasons.
Myth vs. FactShaving changes how a hair's cut tip looks and feels at first, not how thick or fast it actually grows.
Sources: Anatomical Record (1928); reaffirmed in Journal of Investigative Dermatology.