Shaving

Almost everyone selectively removes disgraceful body hair, and many of us do it as a matter of routine. We subject ourselves to the agony of waxing, and spend small fortunes buying razor blades and various shaving lotions. But despite this investment in time and resources, we don't think about it much; it's a means to an end, and a fairly mundane and straightforward one at that. Because of this, even if you consider yourself to be an expert leg-waxer or face-shaver, a bit of skepticism and a dash of research might still confront you with some surprising and practical insights.


For example, when my mother told the woman at her local beauty salon that she had been shaving off a little bit of facial hair that had begun to appear, the woman's response was one of horror. Telling my mom that this would only encourage further growth, she advised waxing it instead (I'm unclear if there was a monetary transaction involved). My mother went home and ripped a bit of skin off her face taking the advice.

The most unfortunate aspect of this incident is that it doesn't actually appear to be true that shaving somehow causes hair to grow back faster, darker or more thickly. In fact, as far as I can tell, shaving really doesn't effect hair growth at all.

It is true that if you shave if off, your hair will reappear more rapidly than if you wax it; and it will grow back with a blunt (as opposed to a tapered) edge, resulting in more "stubbly"-looking immediate regrowth. But if you shave a shaft of hair off your nose, you will not cause it to redouble its efforts, and neither will you cause two shafts to take its place. In other words women will not grow pants if they shave instead of wax their legs, any more than men can successfully combat hair-loss with a razor. If you think about it, it actually makes good intuitive sense.

But I can make my eye brows or armpit hair grow by shaving it off. Isn't my body somehow sensing the sudden lack of hair and responding by growing it back?

Good question, me. The ability of eye brows, lashes and pubic hair to regulate it's own growth is kind of eerie - how does it know how long it is?

As it turns out, your pubic hair doesn't actually just grow to a certain length and then stop; in fact, it's only by constantly shedding your eyebrows and underarm hair that you maintain it at a consistent length (Here's a brief technical explanation of how it works). So shaving these places does not stimulate hair growth because your hair is actually always growing to a certain length, falling out, and re-growing.

I don't necessarily blame the woman at the beauty salon for not knowing all this, partly because I was also under the impression that shaving somehow encouraged more rapid regrowth until very recently. But when the people who remove our hair for a living don't understand how hair grows, something isn't right (Here are some other myths your hairdresser might have fallen for).

If my mother ever forgives me for publishing this, I think she will agree that when you consider just how long humans have been shaving for - how long we've had to figure out how it works - this story illustrates how insidious and influential the urban myth can be, and suggests that critical thinking is generally undervalued.


Bonus Meme!! - Safety Razors

For such puny little things, safety razorblades are bloody expensive. And as a disgusting, hairy man I can fully appreciate this (and I suspect it has something to do with the fact that there are often 5 blades per cartridge - how did we ever make do with only 4?). In fact, this size-value disproportion is part of the reason that the razor blade industry, led by Proctor & Gamble, was one of the first to investigate the potential security benefits to be gained through the utilization of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags (aka "spy chips"), although there are apparently many other reasons why they might have become interested in this technology.

So, if you have been considering a resort to theft, or have been using a lighter to shave, you might like to know that if you instead use it dry your razor you can greatly prolong your blade's lifespan. Although most razors nowadays are made of razor blade steel, which is a type of stainless steel, it is doubtful that they are completely immune to corrosion. I have been drying my razor for a few years now and it seems to have made a significant difference, although I have yet to test this scientifically. Others suggest using rubbing alcohol to protect the blades. Unfortunately, according to this interesting 2007 article in the Chicago Tribune, the rather unhelpful folks at Gillette are at a lost as to how to go about extending the lifespan of their razors.

If you have tried this and are still spending way too much on razorblades, other suggestions I have come across include softening your hair by soaking it before you shave, and (for guys at any rate) it might also help if you stopped thinking about sex quite so often.