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Frequent Shaving = Faster Hair Growth?

I used to have regular jobs where I needed to shave daily. I would often have a 5:00 shadow by noontime.

Currently, I shave 5 times a week. Sat and Sun with electric; and Tue and Thu with DE. Would my hair grow faster if I shave more often? Or is it that once you start shaving it grows at the same rate?

Would it be better to give my face a rest 2 or 3 days a week, or to shave everyday?

Am I being stupid worrying about how fast my hair grows when I am over 40 years old?
 
Your beard growth is unaffected by your shave. Deep in the follicles where the growth takes place, the timing and amount of growth is dependent on other things. Shaving will neither discourage nor encourage beard growth.
 
Welcome, Mr-Scruffy!

Your hair pretty much grows at the same rate, regardless of how you are shaving. With a DE razor, a good blade that matches your razor and your beard/skin type, a badger brush, and a great smelling soap or cream, shaving every day could be a very nice part of your daily routine. You'll look better, and feel better, as a result. Your skin will also feel more healthy. I'm sure that much more can be added to this! :thumbup1:

See you around the board!

Tchau,
chop-chop
 
Shaving soap makes hairs grow. It's a conspiracy of the sopa makers to sell more soap. Remember your grandma's advice, and don't wash your hands with shaving soap, and it should all be OK.
 
I am very new to using a DE (about 2 months) but I've been noticing my beard shows up faster than it used to with the goo can/mach3. And by "shows up", I mean I can see the whiskers and not necessarily feel stubble.

My current theory is that the hair on my face doesn't get ingrown like it use to with the mach3's yank and hack technique (By the way, shaving is a great time for meditation and crazy theory formulation). So it seems like ever since I started shaving with a DE exclusively, my hair is just not growing into the skin anymore.

So perhaps it's not that the hair grows faster, it's just that it doesn't take the 12 hour ingrown hair detour.

Perhaps someone with more experience has a different take.

-Dan
 
Your whiskers are going to grow about 0.5mm to 0.7mm per day. Awake, asleep, shave, don't shave --you get approx 5/8" to 3/4" growth per month. <shrug>

-- John Gehman
 
Your whiskers are going to grow about 0.5mm to 0.7mm per day. Awake, asleep, shave, don't shave --you get approx 5/8" to 3/4" growth per month. <shrug>

-- John Gehman
I don't know how you arrived at that, but if the hair on my head is any indiction, it grows a LOT faster than that. If I don't go to the barber for 6 weeks, I look like I'm wearing a Russian fur hat. It has to be 2" in six weeks.

It also changes with the season and who knows what else.
 
Well.. THe mach X/fusion/whatever actually pull up the hair and cut it. So you are cutting "below the skin".

Which is why you see more ingrowns, if memory serves me correctly.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
:lol: revived by spam :lol: nice work Josh!

Beard grows and I never noticed if it was quicker or not if I stop for a few days...
 
I've noticed that with DE my beard seems to be thicker... however I am 21 so there's that. My main thought on the matter since I doubt I've gone through a "beard growth" spurt in the past 2-3 months is that my whiskers are getting cut on an even level and thus growing more evenly as opposed to sporadic cutting/plucking/bending whatever it is that a dull cartridge does :lol:
 
Your beard growth is unaffected by your shave. Deep in the follicles where the growth takes place, the timing and amount of growth is dependent on other things. Shaving will neither discourage nor encourage beard growth.

There are many schools of thought on this subject, (few are fueled by
any empirical data I suspect) but I must respectfully disagree.

While shaving does not directly affect any change upon hair
follicles, the act itself is essentially a destructive one. Thus the body
responds, as it would with most other forms of damage,
by rebuilding the damaged tissue (regrowing the hair),
and rebuilding it stronger than it was; Or in this case, regrowing it
faster to do the job of protecting the face.

Cause and Effect. You give your body cause to regrow hair faster
by destroying it, and it does.
 
I must respectfully disagree with your respectful disagreement. :001_rolle Does your hair grow faster after a haircut? Do your fingernails grow faster after you clip them? Hair (and whiskers and finger/toenails) is primarily composed of a protein called keratin and is not living tissue. The act of cutting a shaft of hair (as long as you don't damage or irritate the follicle) is completely harmless to the body and will not create a response (other than people commenting on your nice shave or good haircut! :lol:)

There are many schools of thought on this subject, (few are fueled by
any empirical data I suspect) but I must respectfully disagree.

While shaving does not directly affect any change upon hair
follicles, the act itself is essentially a destructive one. Thus the body
responds, as it would with most other forms of damage,
by rebuilding the damaged tissue (regrowing the hair),
and rebuilding it stronger than it was; Or in this case, regrowing it
faster to do the job of protecting the face.

Cause and Effect. You give your body cause to regrow hair faster
by destroying it, and it does.
 
as already stated hair is produced by a gland beneath the skin, the hair above the skin is dead matter (keratin) it is not tissue, it has no nerves to let the production gland know that it was cut

the production rate of hair ( and nails) has nothing to do with cutting or shaving

this topic has been discussed many times on this forum; let go

ken
 
I have noticed in my mustache that the long end is thinner than the cut end by a noticeable amount. I suggest that shaving causes the perception of faster growth because the stubble is the thickest possible hair for that follicle, and stands out from the skin. After 3 days growth (typical among people I know) the hair has become long enough and soft enough to no longer give strong feedback to the skin, therefore the perception of growth is reduced. As the hair becomes longer the growth is a tiny fraction of the overall length, reducing the perception of growth further.

One of my friends may well be a werewolf and goes from clean shaved to full beard in a week, and it takes me 2 months to get equivalent growth.

Phil
 
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