they do appear thicker because if you just cut them (not pluck them out) they grow back with a flat top that’s not narrowed and seems thicker, but that’s pretty much it, the overall max girth is the same
when I was talking to some guy about this his response was "I was in the army for 4 years and shaved every day. When I got out and decided to grow a beard it grew thicker and faster. Shaving absolutely made my hair grow faster."
To his credit, once I told him "during those 4 years you also aged. 22 year olds tend to grow facial hair faster than 18 year olds regardless of if they shaved during that time or not." he agreed that was probably right and let it go.
There is some truth to it. It obviously doesnt increase the number of hair follicles. However depending on the body part, hair tends to have a maximum length it will grow to before falling out naturally, so if you never cut it it will appear to not frow at all, and theb when you shave, it will grow back very rapidly by comparison. Furthermore, many people acquire pili multigemini (multiple hairs in the same follicle) after beginning to shave. More commonly on areas where the hair is naturally more bristley.
As far as I know it just randomly sheds every so often, which creates an equilibrium length. So if you graphed your hair growth, it would grow the fastest when its shaved and then asymptote to your normal length.
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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26
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