Medical Myths
January 3, 2009 – 10:54 amMedical myths which people insist on believing baffles me. In the age we live in, reliable information is available at our fingertips, whether this is over the internet or in our local library. There is no reason then that people need to stick to their long held wrong beliefs in the face of scientific fact.
One that particularly bothers me is that hair grows back thicker after shaving. Really? Does that even pass the common sense test? Can you imagine how thick your leg hair would be, how thick a man’s beard would be if that were true?
Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser
Another common belief is that shaving hair off will cause it to grow back in a darker or coarser form or to grow back faster. It is often reinforced by popular media sources and perhaps by people contemplating the quick appearance of stubble on their own body.
Strong scientific evidence disproves these claims. As early as 1928, a clinical trial showed that shaving had no effect on hair growth. More recent studies confirm that shaving does not affect the thickness or rate of hair regrowth. In addition, shaving removes the dead portion of hair, not the living section lying below the skin’s surface, so it is unlikely to affect the rate or type of growth. Shaved hair lacks the finer taper seen at the ends of unshaven hair, giving an impression of coarseness. Similarly, the new hair has not yet been lightened by the sun or other chemical exposures, resulting in an appearance that seems darker than existing hair. [1]
Before you blindly state that you should not go swimming until an hour after you eat or remind your children that too much sugar will make them hyper, maybe you should question where you’re getting your information from first.
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