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Remember the first time you shaved your face? Those dozen or so little baby mustache hairs clinging to your upper lip took you forever to grow to the point where other human beings could see them. Why did you go and shave them off, then?
Ah yes, of course, that wonderful old wives’ tale passed from generation to generation - if you shave any hair on any body part, the hair will grow back thicker and stronger. Shaving your hair can even make it grow back faster!
It was the fear of every girl not wanting her leg hair to grow back like a wolf’s. But it was the hope of every schoolboy shaving his sparse little ghost of a goatee and dreaming of a thick manly beard. Shave my twelve facial hairs today and wake up with total facial hair coverage tomorrow - sounds great to a fourteen-year-old!
We don’t know who these old wives are and where they get their information, so it looks like we’re going to have to figure this one out ourselves.
Can we add shaving to our list of ways to naturally thicken men's hair? Let’s see!
Does shaving boost men's hair growth?
Sadly for all the scruffy little pubescent boys out there, shaving your facial hair does not make it grow back thicker or faster. It doesn’t make sense that it would.
After all, when you shave, you’re just shearing the shaft of the hair. You’re not doing anything to the follicle, the living growing part of the hair under the surface of the skin.
Why do men think shaving makes hair grow back thicker?
There are a few reasons why this old myth has persisted. One is coincidence.
A young boy may coincidentally experience a pubescent burst of hair-stimulating hormones around the same time he starts shaving regularly, making it look like all this new thicker hormone-related hair came from shaving when really it would have happened anyway.
Another reason is that hair that is growing back may look different at first. The blunt tips of recently-cut hair can appear thicker than grown-out hair. Our hair shafts are naturally thicker at the base and taper to a thinner tip at the end as it grows.
When you shave, you’re cutting the shaft at its thickest point, the base. So when the stubble pops up, the end is sharp, blunt, and thick. Eventually, if left to grow longer, it will taper to a thinner point like the hair that was there before.
Hair that is growing back after being shaved is also fresh hair that hasn’t been damaged. So shaving them all off gives the follicles a fresh slate to grow hair that is all starting from the same undamaged place.
The uniformity of these emerging stubbly hairs may create the illusion of increased thickness and speedier growth. Lack of exposure is also why stubble looks darker - because the hairs haven’t been exposed to the bleaching effects of the sun yet.
Does shaving your head make your hair thicker?
Still no, mate. If you’ve been losing your hair and you shaved your head, hoping it would help your receding hairline become an advancing one, we’re afraid that’s not going to happen.
A better course of action would be to check out our men's thinning hair treatment kit, which has our all-natural thickening shampoo and conditioner, plus our Hair Food, a specially formulated vitamin infusion hair thickener for men.
Can you make your beard grow thicker?
That depends on what you mean by growing thicker. If you’re talking about the number and placement of individual hairs, then no, you can’t make new follicles grow where there aren’t any. Well, you can’t without surgery anyway, because facial hair plugs are a thing. Beard transplants - what will they think of next?
Hair density is determined mainly by genetics but can also be affected by age and hormone level. But there are some things you can do to make the best of what you’ve got when you're trying to grow a new beard and hoping for some beard girth.
Patience is a virtue, buddy. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was a thick beautiful beard. This is especially true if you’re in your teens or early twenties because beards generally don’t reach their full potential until you’re older.
Take care of yourself all around, too. A healthy diet is beard growth fuel, and exercising regularly keeps the circulation going to the follicles to make sure they’re getting those nutrients.
Low testosterone levels can affect beard growth as well. If you’re experiencing other symptoms like fatigue, depression, or low sex drive, you might want to have your levels checked by the doctor.
Lastly, make sure to take care of your skin on your face with an excellent skincare routine because the skin is the soil from which the hair grows. And once your beard progresses beyond the stubble stage, a nice fragrant beard oil will help keep the hair soft, strong, and healthy so it can grow as long as you want it to grow.
Okay, what’s the next old wives’ tale we’re debunking? Bubble gum stays in your stomach forever? Cracking your knuckles gives you arthritis?
Eh, maybe we’ll just stick to skincare and hair care and try VITAMAN’s natural grooming products for men!
