From: Alfred 16/01/2001 14:15:44 Subject: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208035 I have occasionaly (onece every few of months) shaved my partners pubic hair over the last couple of years and there has been a noticable increase in both the coarsness and length of hair in this region. Can anyone explain why hair grows thicker after shaving? From: Majic ® 16/01/2001 14:25:18 Subject: re: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208043 When you remove hair by shaving, you also remove a layer of two of skin cells.. The skin layer starts making the layers of skin more quickly. The increased growth also stims the hair cells to increase the production of hair. Thereby in the space of the same time as non shaved hair, the shaved hair becomes thicker and longer... This was explained to my by my bio teacher. (no blame taken if wrong...lol) Majic From: steve (Avatar) 16/01/2001 14:26:08 Subject: re: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208045 Hair does not get thicker or longer from cutting it. If it did, no-one would be bald. hairs fall out naturally and are replaced. When a hair starts growing it starts off very fine then gets coarser. When you cut a hair, it continues growing but does not have that fine end so it seems as though the hair is coarser than before. The lack of fine ends also makes it appear both thicker and longer. Try an experiment. Wax a test area somewhere on your body and remove all the hairs. Take an identical area elsewhere and shave the hairs off. The shaved area will seem to grow hairs first and quicker than the waxed area. That is because new hairs are growing in the waxed area while the old hairs are continuing to grow in the shaved area. Leave both patches alone for, say, three months. See if you can tell the difference then. From: tritium ® 16/01/2001 15:18:42 Subject: re: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208091 do hairs sense how long they are? i heard somewhere that when hairs get to a certain length they stop growing From: Terry Frankcombe (Avatar) 16/01/2001 15:25:34 Subject: re: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208100 I think it's more to do with the length of time they grow for rather than the length of the hair. From: Purple ® 16/01/2001 16:00:52 Subject: re: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208128 *deja vu* The hair appears thicker and coarser because it now has a blunt end (as steve said). Body hair length is one of those predetermined genetic thingys. From: pigman ® 16/01/2001 17:05:58 Subject: re: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208170 the length of hair may be predetermined genetically, but the phenotypic response is often different, compare animals kept indoors and those run outdoors From: J.F. ® 16/01/2001 18:40:12 Subject: re: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208335 AFAIK, hair follicles have "grow for so many days, the stop for so many days" habit, possibly followed by a "now eject filament" phase. " " I used to own + breed + show longhaired chinchilla cats. I was going to uni too, back then, + read about cats genetics + welfare with great interest in the uni + public libraries. They have 4 types of hairs. The longest + thickest are guard hairs, that provide some water - repellancy, and determine the overall "length" of the coat. I forget one of the types now, but the finest + shortest is "down" hair, close to the skin. This provides winter warmth, is not water repellant, tangles easily, used to mat in their "groin " + "axilla" equivalents. Great patience from human groomer , sharp scissors + great trust from cat was needed to get these away from their skin, sometimes a few hairs at a time... you could tell it hurt.. once released from the ball, the skin would be pink from the tugging of these mats. There were "awn hairs", thin at base, thicker then tapering at tip, medium length, also shed in summer. Winter coat had all 4 types, a big job to keep it nice. If cats went outside, did not feel the wet but came in wet + ready to mat like a boiled wool jumper. Best kept inside, for their own sakes. Even better, not kept at all, they are pretty but too much work. From: loulou 17/01/2001 13:22:22 Subject: re: Shaving and Hair Growth post id: 208895 i remember seeing a thread about leg shaving in here a couple of months ago - you might want to search for it. i dont know about pubic hair, but leg hair seems to grow coarser and darker after years of shaving. my theory is that most women who shave begin to do so around the start of puberty - when body hair begins to get thicker anyway. This forum is un-moderated. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individual poster and not the ABC. The ABC reserves the right to remove offensive or inappropriate messages.