Your mother always told you that if you shave a part of your body the hair will return with a vengeance, causing you to look like a gorilla. And the beauty therapy clinics all promise to rid you of unwanted hair forever with just a few sessions of waxing. Is either of these true or just old wives' tales?
In fact, shaving does not make your hair grow thicker, but it may make it appear thicker. Shaving cannot damage your hair follicle because a razor cannot go under your skin where the follicle is.
When your hair grows from the follicle it is tapered on the end. When you shave it you just made the end blunt so it feels coarser than it did, giving the illusion that it is thicker. However, as it grows, the end will become tapered again because of it rubbing against things like your pillow, and even from the wind. Elements wear it down and it becomes softer again because it is not blunt.
So shaving doesn't affect hair thickness or color. Shaving your hair is the same as cutting your hair; you are just cutting it shorter. The follicles you have are the ones you're born with and they're certainly not going to increase. You can wreck your follicles, but definitely not by shaving. Only by waxing, tweezing, or permanent hair removal. You actually have to go in and zap it with a laser to kill it, or you have to repeatedly pull the hair out of the follicle as it grows. This second process takes years to cause damage to the follicle.
