Does shaving promote beard growth?

Okay, so Cecil said in an early article ( http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_097b.html ) that your hair doesn't know it has been cut and has to grow back; it just grows more or less continuously. Fair enough.

But... what about my dad telling me in my youth that I shouldn't start shaving too early because that would just make my beard grow faster (which I would learn to hate soon enough)? Is there perhaps some sort of stimulus exerted on the hairballs by regular shaving? Does the strain on the skin cause some sort of protective reaction?

If the beard doesn't grow faster, does it grow... differently? Does shaving make it turn from downs to bristles? I do know that the way I shave largely determines whether hairs will grow back into the skin, so maybe there's a connection?

Or is this popular myth just based on the perception that beards start growing faster in adolescence, and get rogher with the years, and with most men shaving, a false causal connection is established?

Thanks for any enlightenment!

Holger

Cutting hair has no effect on growth and mens beards do naturally grow thicker as they age, regardless if they shave or not.


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MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck

I've always understood that shaving promotes facial hair growth. Am I wrong? If so how come women with facial hair go to such lengths as electrolysis and waxing when they could just shave?

When you shave, you just cut each hair off at the skin (or slightly above). It only has to grow a little longer to be visible again.

Waxing pulls the hairs entirely out, so the part under the skin has to grow back too. This means that more time has to pass before the hairs are again visible or feelable (is that a word?).

Electrolysis goes by the same principle, except that it kills off the hair follicles themselves. So the "hairless interval" is even longer.

No, shaving doesn't promote hair growth. Women get electrolysis for different reasons. Some unfortunate souls get excessive hair growth (hirsutes). But most of them who do, do it just because it's permanent (although expensive...you have to keep going back so it all adds up).

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MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!

i bought my hairy roommate who is 19 an electric razor for his birthday because he has to shave a lot. he said that his beard grows faster now that he uses it.

i am the same age, but due to my genetic predisposition i have had the good fortune of not really needing to shave my peach fuzz but once every two or so weeks.

when i do, i use the elctric shaver, and have noticed that it grows back somewhat more quickly.

now it seems to me that a majority of people believe that shaving makes the hair grow faster, yet for some reason there is no scientific speculation and even less evidence that this is true.

Astrologists speculate that the universe was created by big bang, the guy on at 2 a.m. on channel 78 can spray on hair, yet no one here seems to know if all this speculation is true and why.

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Sheepdog says:

Astrologists speculate that the universe was created by big bang, the guy on at 2 a.m. on channel 78 can spray on hair, yet no one here seems to know if all this speculation is true and why.

There's some stuff we KNOW to be true, like mathematics.

There's lots of stuff we don't actually KNOW absolutely positively for honest-to-god sure, but we're pretty damn sure. What does "pretty damn sure" mean? It means differing degrees of likelihood. Some things are reasonably certain -- how a woman becomes pregnant, for instance. OK, Jesus may have been a virgin birth, but that's one out of how many gazillions (see Mailbag). Other things are very, very likely -- like, how electricity works. We sometimes call these things "theories" to indicate that we don't really, absolutly know for sure, but that we have a best guess, and all verifiable evidence has pointed that way.

So, we know pretty much for sure that hair grows at the same rate regardless of frequency of being cut, and it's only our perception of faster growth. If the hair grows from 1 cm long to 1.1 cm long, it's a 10% growth and is noticable. If the hair grows from 10 cm long to 10.1 cm long in the same time frame, it's a 1% growth and is not noticable.

The Big Bang is our best theory to date, it fits all the evidence we have gathered so far. It's a good working hypothesis. Do we KNOW for sure? No, there are no eyewitness accounts from reliable physicists. (Whether we have a poetic eye-witness account from a Divine Source, I carefully leave open.)

The scientific process is that we devise a theory that seems to fit the known facts, and we amend the theory as necessary.

Newton posed a reasonable understanding of how gravity worked; it was a theory that explains, very well, what happens at a certain level (the more or less perceivable level). Einstein and others since have fine tuned that theory, to explain what happens at macro- and micro-levels. Will we ever have complete and absolute understanding? Probably not, but the very nature of beast, we can only reach 99.99999% certainty.

Sheepdog, the reason hair seems to grow back faster when using an electric razor is simply that an electric shave is not as close as a blade shave, no matter what the commercials say. Whether peach fuzz or thick beard, an electric razor doesn't get the hair cut as close to the skin, and therefore hair growing at the same rate visibly appears above the skin sooner after an electric shave than after a manual one.

Blood flow increases hair growth. Shaving causes blood to flow to the area being shaved. No I'm not talking about the nicks and cuts, but just the general stimulation caused by shaving. Therefore, shaving increases hair growth. Since the anecdotal evidence also supports this conclusion, I won't be convinced otherwise without scientific proof. (And knowing me, probably not even then. I tend to be a bit stubborn about these things.)

No one has really addressed the "bristly" vs. "downy" issue. I'm guessing that shaving damages the tip of the whisker making it feel stiff when it grows out a bit. I've never grown out my beard, or felt anyone else's (not counting Santa), but I assume that when it gets long enough, and you trim of the ends with scissors, it feels more like head hair.


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[quote I've never grown out my beard, or felt anyone else's (not counting Santa), but I assume that when it gets long enough, and you trim of the ends with scissors, it feels more like head hair.[/quote]

Not in my experience. I'd estimate that my whiskers are about twice the diameter of the hairs on my head.

Sheepdog: I'm surprised no one caught this. I know it veers from the subjuect at hand, but I have to be nit-picky: Astronomers and Cosmologists believe (well, theorize; let's not start a religious argument here) the universe started with the Big Bang. Astrologers believe that essentially random collections of stars have influence on people on Earth.

I was just about to make the same comment Gutrender Blooddrinker.

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The facts expressed here belong to everybody, the opinions to me. The distinction is
yours to draw...

Omniscient; BAG

Blood flow increases hair growth. Shaving causes blood to flow to the area being shaved. No I'm not talking about the nicks and cuts, but just the general stimulation caused by shaving. Therefore, shaving increases hair growth. Since the anecdotal evidence also supports this conclusion, I won't be convinced otherwise without scientific proof. (And knowing me, probably not even then. I tend to be a bit stubborn about these things.)

No one has really addressed the "bristly" vs. "downy" issue. I'm guessing that shaving damages the tip of the whisker making it feel stiff when it grows out a bit. I've never grown out my beard, or felt anyone else's (not counting Santa), but I assume that when it gets long enough, and you trim of the ends with scissors, it feels more like head hair. -- Greg Charles

Ah, finally -- a tangible theory! Of course, we're really looking for proof in favor of our theory, not just lack of evidence against it. Do you know that blood flow increases hair growth? The two things might be weakly related. Also, while shaving certainly stimulates blood circulation, the effect doesn't seem to last very long each time. (Thankfully -- otherwise, it would mean that the skin is constantly irritated.) Is it still sufficient, then? Finally, the anecdotal evidence has been explained away pretty well by the skeptics on this thread.

Holger

You mean my mother was wrong? She told me to hold off shaving my legs because the hair would grow back - not necessarily faster - but darker.

I'm having some difficulties with this hair concept. Speaking from personal experience, hair DOES grow faster and thicker if it is shaved. Fingernails, which in some ways are a similar material to hair, tend to grow faster and become more hard if the person to whom they belong bites his/her nails. Or so a doctor assured me.

When infants are noticed to have weak hair, their scalps are shaved a few times. This reputedly strenghthens their hair. When I started shaving, I did so unevenly, and I now have facial hair that grows in different directions (my father warned me about this years ago; fortunately you only notice if you shave me). When a hair falls out, the next hair grown by the same follicle tends to be thinner and more delicate (the same should apply to waxing or otherwise pulling hair out). Hair above skin level may be dead matter, but shaving your head will improve the strength of your hair.

Obviously there must be a difference between cutting and shaving of hair. There are also marked difference between scalp hair, pubic hair, axillary hair, body hair, eyelashes, etc., as each of these has its own specific thickness, length and resilience. As far as beards go, I am of the solid opinion that the more you shave, the faster your beard will grow and the tougher it becomes. But some people who shave their eyebrows never get them back.

Just an observation:
Several posters have mentioned shaving more frequently during late adolescence resulting in thicker beards. Without getting in to the actual "shaving does too thicken hair" debate, I would point out that shaving more frequently during that period of one's life when one's beard is beginning to thicken naturally does not prove much more than that if you shave more frequently at the time your beard is beginning to thicken, your beard will continue to thicken.

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Tom~

One cannot argue with a man who will not listen to reason - especially one who shaved
his eyebrows and never got them back.
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Huzzah

I brought up the eyebrow issue because I think it's funny that (still to this day) you see women without eyebrows, or with miserbale little scraggly eyebrows. That's what happens when you shave them, and it used to be quite popular for women to shave eyebrows in the past in some countries. these days you actually see men shaving parts of their eyebrows off.

The argument that beard becomes tough during late adolescence and that men begin to shave regularly during late adolescence is good. However most men with a beard (including myself) will assure you that the beard is getting tougher and tougher every day you shave it, regardless how many years ago you left adolescence behind you. I've also noticed that my beard becomes very tough if I shave it every day for long periods of time (like a couple of months), whereas if I get lazy and shave only every 3 or 4 days, it doesn't seem too bad. I won't say that my beard actually gets softer, but compared to shaving every day it certainly seems to slow down on its road to toughness.

Speaking of which.. what smiling lady in a famous painting has no eyebrows?
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Abe,
Part of that is, I'm sure, due to the fact that hair feels softer if you let it grow a few days than it does when freshly shaved. When just shaved, the hairs are fairly inflexible because they are so short and they feel rough. However, as they grow, they become more flexible because they have more length to bend with and they feel softer. You are also less likely to feel the end of a hair (which is the roughest part), the longer that hair is.

Personally, I've never noticed shaving having any effect on rate of growth.

My two cents,

TheDude

I wear a goatee, so I shave 80% of my facial hair every day. The beard itself just gets trimmed each week or two.

When I'd had the beard for about two years, I impulsively shaved it off. Then, looking at myself in the mirror, I became curious about whether the hair on my cheeks (shaved every day) would be any different than the hair on my chin (not shaved in two years). So I didn't shave at all for a couple of weeks.

Long story short, all the hair looked and felt exactly the same, and grew at the same speed. But the full beard itched too much, so I shaved again and went back to the goatee.

Also, in response to Abe's claim that babys' heads are shaved to thicken their hair, I asked a friend who's an Ob/Gyn. He says that thin, prenatal babyhair falls out after a short time regardless of what you do to it, to be replaced by thicker, more adult-like hair. So shaving the baby's head doesn't do anything except prevent you from noticing when the hair falls out.

I wasn't talking about thin prenatal hair, of course that falls out--almost always anyway. The practice I'm referring to is the shaving of an infant's head if its hair is abnormally weak or scraggly. I freely admit that I don't know the precise age range that this is done, because I've never paid attention to that and have no kids. I don't even know if this is done anymore. It was done to my brother 24 years ago when he was a toddler, and in comparison his hair is much stronger than mine, which wasn't shaved when I was the same age.

I used to have hair about 6 inches long, but for 3-4 years I've been buzzing it (almost shaving it) regularly. Well, the result is that I now have _more_ hair on my head, it's actually thicker, and certainly stronger. When I asked a dermatologist about this she told me that she recommends that people shave their heads every few years, because it's apparently very good for the scalp. Could there be a connection?

Thanks for the feedback regarding the facial hair. Particularly interesting account from AuraSeer. Anyway, I was referring to the texture of my beard after it's just been shaved, not after it's been growing for 3-4 days! I could swear there's a difference, although perhaps the level of irritation/dehydration caused by shaving every day may have something to do with it.

That sounds like a dermatologist who has been hurt at some point. Now she's taking out her bitterness on mankind by advising people to shave their heads. For all I know, she may be right, but I'm definitely not running for my razor until I get a second opinion.

Mebbe shaving your head just allows the scalp to get really clean? With all that hair out of the way, there'd probably be more efficient shedding of the epidermis (also aided by all the people running their hands over your smooth, shiny head). This could help some conditions like dandruff or dry scalp, though I'd suspect the problems would return as the hair grows back.

Just to validate what AuraSeer wrote.
I've had beards off and on for the last
20 years or so. There's always some part
of my face that is shaved nearly daily,
while another part will go for extended
periods of not shaving. Invariably I will
get tired of the beard and shave the whole
thing off... then I get tired of my face
and decide to grow it back. It always grows
back uniformly.

Also to make the case that shaving doesn't
promote hair growth... I've been shaving
my chest for nearly 20 years. I started
doing this because I had only a few real
chest hairs and lots of downy ones. I
believed (because that was conventional
wisdom) that if I shaved my chest the
downy hairs would start to get thicker
and eventually I would have a nice manly
chest of hair... Never happened. Now 20
years later I still have lots of soft
downy hairs and a few macho ones... I
continue to shave my chest today so that
it looks uniformly bald rather than having
to suffer the embarassment of a sickly few
renegades...

I think this also answers the question as
to whether shaving makes downy hairs more
robust.

Greg Charles wrote:

> Blood flow increases hair growth.

Nonsense. Otherwise areas of the body
where increased blood flow is prevalent
would tend to be hairy.

> I assume that when it gets long enough,
> and you trim of the ends with scissors,
> it feels more like head hair.

0 for two. My facial hair is thicker and
more coarse than the hair on my head. Both
are trimmed with the same pair of scissors.

Abe wrote:

> When I asked a dermatologist about this
> she told me that she recommends that
> people shave their heads every few years,
> because it's apparently very good for the
> scalp. Could there be a connection?

Yes, but not the one you're looking for.
Shaving your scalp will allow you to do a
more thorough job of cleaning your scalp.
Clean healthy scalps, free of dry skin
conditions and oils will promote better
hair growth. Vigorous scalp massage during
shampooing is a recommended therapy for
preventing premature hair loss and it works.
Take it from a 40 year old who still has
all his hair and shampoos every single day,
but has a history of early hair loss in his
family...

... but then maybe there's a connection
between the abundance of hair on my head
and the lack of it on my chest... could it
be that all my hair growing natural
resources are going to my head???

Hair doesn't grow back faster when it is cut because hair doesn't know when it's been cut.

I think people confuse hair with plants. Plants DO know when they have been cut and therefore grow more.

Hasn't Cecil pointed out many times that hair is dead tissue? Only the follicle is alive and producing the growth of hair. So the last statment would be true in that removing dead tissue has no effect on the growth of more dead tissue.

You know, of course, that the whole wive's tale of "shaving causes thicker growth" is a vast right-wing conspiracy perpetrated on us by the blade and shaving cream manufacturers. They should be sued just like the gun manufacturers for making a product that works as advertised!

Well, from what I understand, the rate of growth of hair will increase if the follicles are stimulated. So maybe the follicles are stimulated by the very act of shaving to a degree?



I believe rastafarians religious beliefs forbid them from touching a blade to skin, which means no shaving, and while I have never querried a rasta if he followed that law strictly all his life, most rastas I knew /met in NYC had beards which were not all that thick, patchy in spaces, and indicative of a younger person - though the hairs would become fairly lengthy, it was far from full - more wispy...



Evidence, maybe?

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Brian O'Neill
CMC International Records
http://www.cmcinternational.com

ICQ# 35294890
AIM Scrabble1

Satan wrote:

Well, from what I understand, the rate of growth of hair will increase if the follicles are stimulated. So maybe the follicles are stimulated by the very act of shaving to a degree?

Yes and no in theory, probably not in application.

Certainly the hair follicles have a maximum production capability, no? Let's call this 100% efficiency. A follicle can achieve 100% efficiency if:

1. the follicle cells are receiving all the nutrients and oxygen they need;

2. if the follicles are supplied with a sufficient supply of protein building blocks to produce hair; and,

3. no environmental factors are inhibiting hair growth.

If the follicles aren't getting oxygen, nutrition, and proteins because of poor circulation; then, naturally, they won't be operating at 100% efficiency. A reduced efficiency means slow growth and/or weak hair. If, however, regular massage or stimulation restores optimal circulation (and thus, increased and stronger hair production), then it will only seem that stimulation makes hair grow more! When in fact, stimulation is just taking away what has been impeding hair growth. It won't make hair grow at 120% efficiency.

Is a daily shave enough stimulation to restore good circulation to a poor circulation area? Doubtful. Would several vigorous massages a day performed to prove that stimulation promotes growth be enough to restore good circulation. Probably. (Although, it would be better if one were to eat right, exercise regularly, and knock off the smoking and drinking to promote good circulation everywhere in the body.)

Although, what do you really mean by stimulation? Is the tugging of hair that accompanies shaving going to do anything? Doubtful. Try tugging your right sideburn several times a day and see if it starts growing faster than your left sideburn.

Stimulating follicles with electricity or magnets has been proven both ineffective and dumb.

Now, there are other factors to hair growth to be considered:

1. Natural fall out. Hair follicles work in cycles. Once they have produced for a given length of time, they shut down and shed that follicle and start again. That's why we don't (normally) have to comb our eyebrows. The cycles are different depending where the follicle is. The cycle is set by genetics and influenced by hormones.

2. Hormones. They turn on and off (and may possibly speed up or slow down) the follicles. Most of us know the havoc that the hormones of puberty can do to hair growth in places that previously (almost) hairless. When the hormones (or genetics) shut down a follicle, no amount of stimulation makes it work again. Monoxydil may keep a dying follicle working harder against its will -- but it needs a continual application from this hormone overrider.

3. Temperature. Hey, we're mammals. And most mammals' hair is tuned to grow faster in colder weather as a survival instinct (or maybe not so much faster as having less fall out in the winter.

Since hats may slow down circulation and keep the scalp hot -- they may just be a cause of hair loss. In this regard, Moms are right -- but they wrong about shaving making it grow back thicker, faster, harder, or darker.

[[If the beard doesn't grow faster, does it grow... differently? Does shaving make it turn from downs to bristles?]]

This has been responded to a few times on the thread, but not to my satisfaction. Hairs taper toward the ends, kind of like a blade of grass. When you cut them, just like when you cut the grass, the tip is no longer tapered and soft, but is sharp and bristly (bristley?) It doesn't grow differently, but it feels different. If you wax or have electrolysis, you will have hair regrowing from the root that feels downy again.

OK. As a natural surfer girl, I can tell you from experience that shaving hair doesn't make it grow back thicker, darker, etc. I shaved from 13 to 16, didn't from 16 to about 30 (arms or legs). Didn't make any difference as far as hair growth. I noticed my hair on my legs started getting darker as I got older (I still don't shave in the winter) but so did the hair on my head because as blonds get older, their hair darkens. However, since I still don't shave in the winter, I can say with certainty that shaving doesn't make a difference with thickess, etc. P.S. I NEVER had a problem getting boyfriends! For all you women anti-shavers out there. Actually, quite a few real cool dudes liked it.

popokis5- I think the main criterion was about the hair growing 'faster, aside from 'thicker' or 'darker' (unless I missed something, must admit I read through the column a bit too hastily).

Can't say I know what the truth is, but I've realised that when I cut/shave my hair, at first is grows back really fast - to a certain length, then it's speed slows down gradually... hey, maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I've observed!

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Never bite the hand that..... looks dirty!

[m anderson]

Regarding the old ladies with no eye brows-
All the 90 to 70 year old women in my family have this attribute, but they achieved it through plucking, not shaving. I also have experienced the slow process of destroying a few follicles that I have consistently plucked the hair from. I have not been able to duplicate it on my legs however, which I shave.

[TheIncredibleHolg]

Yeah, my grandma has been plucking her eyebrows for as long as I can remember, only to paint on new ones. I've never understood about that. Occasionally, her eyebrow pencil seems to slip upward, and she walks around all day with a surprised look on her face... LOL!

[SoMoMom]

Ok, girls, I know I'm not the only one here. I lived in a dorm for 4 years so I know it's true. In the winter time, women that don't need to wear skirts will shave their legs less often (skin can get so sensitive in the winter). By Spring the hair seems to be growing just as fast, but each hair is thinner so the stubble doesn't show as quickly.

I always assumed that because of the pulling that shaving does on the hair follicle that it makes the hair thicker so that it is stronger. Maybe the blood-flow increase is more accurate.

As for the hair on your head growing faster when it is cut, it would be more accurate to say that it is damaged slower after it is cut. Ask any hair dresser. The reason why we get our split ends cut off is because, if you leave them they just keep splitting farther up the hair. As your ends split they are much more likely to break off. Therefore, if you keep your split ends trimmed off, it will seem like your hair grows faster.

[Camilla]

I checked with Schick, which presumably has a legal responsibility to know the effects of shaving on the human body, and whose researchers would therefore learn, if only incidentally, whether any of your theories hold water.

Here's what the company web site says:
http://www.schick.com/shave_tipswomen_frame.html

"Myth: The age at which you begin to shave influences the amount of hair you'll have on your legs and underarms.

Fact: These factors are determined strictly by heredity. Early experiences with shaving coincide with the natural increase in hair growth resulting from puberty.

Myth: Shaving promotes darker, thicker or faster regrowth of hair on legs and underarms.

Fact: Since shaving removes hair on the surface of the skin, it doesn't affect the color or the thickness of the hair. After an area has been shaved, the hair shafts start to emerge from the follicle, so your hair looks and feels coarse and bristly. If you allow the hair to grow out, it will take on its original appearance and texture."

Of course, you could argue that Schick has a vested interest in people believing that shaving does not increase the need to shave because they want us all to become hirsute razor destroyers, but I'll leave that theory to the black helicopter set. If you think Schick is misleading you, and if you think hairier is uglier, sue the company. You'll be sure to make a future Straight Dope column, one way or the other.

[WhiteNight]

This is an interesting topic, this a lot of questionable theories flying around.

If shaving does increase hair growth, or hair thickness, then it must do it by irritating or stimulating the skin or follicles.

Assuming the blade doesn't have special properties, this would be testable by massaging a certain area, shaving another, and leaving a control area untouched. Nobody here has made any scientific attempts to do this.

The best test I heard of so was was by the goatee wearer, who let the whole beard grow, thus having the control (unshaved) and shaved areas growing side-by-side.

All the other 'evidence' was either third-party testimony, or very hard to judge. If I shaved my beard, and watched it grow (well, looked once a day...) I wouldn't put much stock in my being able to make accurate comparisons with the last time I did such a thing well over a year ago. Let alone when people who have been shaving for years try this, their last memories, if not distorted by time, were from a different period of their life when their hair would be expected to grow properly.


The idea that hair growth speed up initially after shaving, and then slow down, seems quite silly. Especially since this could be accounted for by the fact that hair growing above the skin will be noticed, where a mere lengthening of that hair will be more subtle.


Also mentioned was the idea that hair needs a certain environment to grow in, and that less hair in the way means more oxygen and less dandruf (which presumably is hard to push hair through.) I've got more hair (longer, thicker, and more of it) than anyone I know, and yet it is far from being airtight.

I can't comment on the dandruff issue from experience (never having conveniently had dandruff on one side like a Head and Shoulders model) but it seems silly.


I personally think the whole thing is explainable by the fact that when hair grows out after shaving it appears to be a larger change than that same ammount of growth later. None into some is significant. Some into more... depends on the ratio. As was mentioned before, 10% is noticable, 1% is not.

[loser]

Okay, I can't add much but here it is.
Way back about halfway through, the question of shaving making stubble came up. I'm a guy, I shave my cheeks to keep the beard neat, and it creates definite stubble. Scratchy when I rub it. But in the past, I used to have a great hairdresser, and she would wax my cheeks for me every couple of weeks. When the hair grew back, it wasn't stubbly, it was downy. There. Empirical evidence, supporting that theory that shaving makes stubble because it chops off the tops of the hairs, and makes them feel rough. There was no difference in density between then and now.
Cool?

[Vestal Blue]

I haven't noticed. I've been shaving for 23 years now, both blade and electric, and I still only have to shave every 3 days or so (Yesss!).

This brings up the question of methodology; I think I'll start a new thread in MPSIMS. Ladies are invited also.

[Lithia]

Couple points but no conclusions:

I have always been under the impression that hair on animals grows to prevent heat loss. Insulation, i guess.

That said, hair on people will grow on areas of the body that have the highest amount of heat loss; head, pits, groin, whatever.

I would assume that this has something to do with bloodflow? Not sure about the top of head thing though, although a lot of blood flows through the brain.

This would all support the the argument that blood flow near the skins surface increases hair growth. I guess that this is why those late night infomercials say that their "system stimulates the scalp and increases hair growth". Not only is he the owner...

As far as saying that shaving increases blood flow, i can't back that up. A good open handed smack across the face or splitting of the trowsers has always seemed to send more blood to my face than shaving.

Sorry, rambling. Probably all genetic anyway.

Lithia

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o¿o
\0/

[Bubba_blue]

Just a comment about women's eyebrows:

Women don't usually shave their brows, Abe. They tweeze them. While shaving cuts the hair at the surface, tweezing pulls it out by the root, and that can damage follicles.

You'll also find that women lose a lot of hair after menopause. Body hair, including eyebrow hair, becomes thinner and more sparse.

[macvoyager]

I shaved in November- but I can't recall which year.

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Whatever works...

[FORMERAGENT]

FYI, EVERYONE... THE SHAVING INDUSTRY, IS DRIVEN BY ITS PRODUCTS, WHICH ARE IN TURN MANUFACTURED TO CREATE MORE BUSINESS. SHAVING CREME, IS DESIGNED TO STIMULATE FASTER HAIR GROWTH, LIKE "ROGAINE", BECAUSE IF YOU STOP IT FROM GROWING, DO YOU NEED SHAVING CREMEM AND BLADES ALL THAT OFTEN? HMMM

ALSO MOST PRODUCTS MADE IN THE U.S., ARE DESIGNED TO NOT WORK 100%, BECUASE IF THEY DID, IT WOULD CREATE NO REPEAT BUSINESS... WORKING IN A POSITION LIKE THE ONE I USED TO, I LEARNED THAT MOST OF WHAT GOES ON IN OUR COUNTRY IS A SCAM AGAINST THE CITIZEN, AND SINCE BIG BUSINESS PAYS MORE TAXES, THE GOV'T SIDES WITH THEM.

[FORMERAGENT]

FYI, EVERYONE... THE SHAVING INDUSTRY, IS DRIVEN BY ITS PRODUCTS, WHICH ARE IN TURN MANUFACTURED TO CREATE MORE BUSINESS. SHAVING CREME, IS DESIGNED TO STIMULATE FASTER HAIR GROWTH, LIKE "ROGAINE", BECAUSE IF YOU STOP IT FROM GROWING, DO YOU NEED SHAVING CREMEM AND BLADES ALL THAT OFTEN? HMMM

ALSO MOST PRODUCTS MADE IN THE U.S., ARE DESIGNED TO NOT WORK 100%, BECUASE IF THEY DID, IT WOULD CREATE NO REPEAT BUSINESS... WORKING IN A POSITION LIKE THE ONE I USED TO, I LEARNED THAT MOST OF WHAT GOES ON IN OUR COUNTRY IS A SCAM AGAINST THE CITIZEN, AND SINCE BIG BUSINESS PAYS MORE TAXES, THE GOV'T SIDES WITH THEM.

[Jo3sh]

Funny. I switched to shaving soap about five years ago (Caswell-Massey, for the record), and haven't noticed any change in the way my beard grows. I haven't actually gone to the length of switching over to the Sheffield straight razor, though. I'm afraid of it.