Shaving

[Alex55]

I know we have talked about this before, but I am really looking to see if I get any different answers.

I have some hair starting to grow under my chin and on my cheeks.  My mustache is starting to get a bit thicker now and longer.  I was not a hairy person prior to taking T, but I seem to have sprouted hair in places I thought I would never get it.  The hair on my legs is thicker where as before when I USED to shave them I could go a couple weeks with out having to do it again.  I have hair on my stomach and under arm hair is getting thicker/longer. 

I was wondering if I shaved my face will it take forever to grow back?  I dont want to waste all the time waiting for it to come back since I have waited a life time to get ANY...lol   I know everybody is different, but for the guys that have hair, have you shaved it alot and how long do you have to wait for it to grow back? I have been on T for 7 months and I couldn't be happier with the results so far.  Just dont want to get bummed out if I shave and I dont get any hair back.

[democration]

I've only been on T for two months, but I've got some chin scruff. It's not that impressive, but it's something. It takes maybe a week or two to grow back - and while not impressive necessarily, it's definitely noticeable.

[tvc15]

You'll get the facial hair back. It might take awhile at first, but it's actually a good way to measure how fast and how plentiful it's growing in. I went from not having to ever shave, to shaving every two/three weeks, to every week, to every 3-4 days to avoid looking scruffy. (But I still shave only once a week because I hate the whole damn process)

[Jared]

I shave once a week, cause it's not thick enough everywhere so it looks weird that I have "spots"  where hair is not visible enough. And I'm hoping that shaving will thicken my facial hair, I'm not sure if it's true or not.

[Magnus]

For now, unless I'm being incredibly lazy about it, I keep it shaved. Except for my sideburns usually, but otherwise it all gets shaved. I can't get it completely smooth and gone though and my hair grows back very quickly and always has. So for me once a week, for the time being, is fine. It doesn't take so long to get back to the scruffy teen-boy beard at all.

Your mileage, however, may vary. But, I do know that while shaving will not actually thicken the hairs themselves, what it DOES DO (because as far as your skin and hair follicles are concerned shaving is a very abrasive and irritating thing) is to bring the blood closer to the skin surface which in turn may speed up the activating process of the follicles (being as it's the blood that carries the T everywhere and it's the T that activates the follicles and well I think you get where I'm going with that). So that's definitely something to take into consideration of whether or not to shave.

Me, I don't like it as it is now because it isn't an even process at all. They're in all different stages, very patchy, some bald spots, some dense spots and so on. So it's better that I keep it shaved for now until I can actually grow something substantial that doesn't look like a Joe Dirt motif (or worse, the basically neck-only beard) lmao.

[Simon]

So it's better that I keep it shaved for now until I can actually grow something substantial that doesn't look like a Joe Dirt motif (or worse, the basically neck-only beard) lmao.

The "neck beard" is horrible but I've seen trans and cis guys with it thinking it looks great.

Back to the original post, facial hair just takes time. There is nothing to really assist it in growing in faster. I noticed in the beginning the more I shaved the faster it seemed to grow in over time. Now I can grow a full beard (minus the "soul patch" that is slowly filling in) and would have to shave every other day if I didn't want stubble. Mine grew in on my neck first, then mustache/sideburns, and finally cheeks. If you get bare spots no worries, in my experience it grows in eventually.

I know when guys are first getting facial hair they want to hold onto the six chin hairs and grow them three inches long because they think it makes them pass better. It really just looks unkempt. My advice would be to shave it (you will eventually anyways). It WILL grow back.

Oh, and if anyone wants facial/body hair I advise to steer clear of Propecia. It lowers DHT levels that are responsible for the growth of facial/body hair. It does keep the hair you have on your head so if balding is an issue then just have to choose what is more important to you.

[Adam (birkin)]

I was worried about shaving the few I have when they finally grew in, but I did it to be neat and I found they became noticeable again within about 3 days (my hair is dark brown, btw). Within a week the patches are scruffy. I didn't expect that since they had so recently developed but I find once they are thick and solid (as opposed tp peachy) they generally become noticeable again within a short period of time.

[Bastian]

Hey, shave that peach fuzz off  When I started noticing facial hair coming in I began shaving every other day. Now I get 5 o' clock shadow even if I've shaved that morning and by the third day it's gone from stubble to soft and long lol. I don't yet have a 'full pattern' yet, just bits of hair coming in, but since i've been shaving it hasn't slowed the growth or development down at all.

To satisfy personal interest I shaved one of my arm pits a little while ago (I was seeing if I still preferred the idea of having no hair under my arms and If I was just giving in to what society thought of as male, turns out I like the hair lol). That was about a month and a half ago, it's not as long as the other side yet but it's certainly coming in faster than when I was pre-T.

When my happy trail started coming in I didn't like it AT ALL so I shaved it off. When it came back in two days I decided i'd deal with it cause I wasn't going to shave it every day.  I like it now, but the point is it grew back friggin fast!

It seems like all the hair that 'sprouted' as a result of T grows back much faster than places that simply got thicker. Ex: I have no doubt that if I shaved my legs they'd take a month to get back to where they are now, but If I go shave my belly of my face tomorrow morning, by Saturday it will almost all be back to the same length.

Peach fuzz is a feminine trait so I'd shave it off and keep shaving it off till it starts coming in dark and course. I personally hate the 'scruffy' look. I'd prefer to have a clean smooth shaven face than patches of hair, personally. But of course it's a preference thing. If you like what you've got now, keep it!

I can't recall if there's any scientific proof that shaving hair off makes it come back darker/more aggressive. I'm sure you could do some searching to find out. I doubt it makes much difference though.

[Alex55]

Thanks for the replies!!  I finally broke down and shaved my cheeks first, just to see how fast things would grow back.  I think that's a good start, then I will shave my chin hairs.  They don't look scruffy, I just know they are there and when the hair on my cheeks start growing back, the chin hairs will be next! 

[Nygeel]

<---currently has a neckbeard

It all depends on if you feel you need it. I have shaved off all of my facial hair since being on T (and having something to shave) and felt kinda nude without it. My facial hair helps me feel a little more secure, and I get seen as male significantly less without it. If you feel confident that it won't make a difference, then shave it off no problem. Or experiment and see what you like/dislike.

[Taka]

even on females, facial hair grows out after shaving. whenever i try to be a pretty woman (possibly a weird thing to say for someone who's considering t...) i end up shaving because my feminine hair growth is rather visible, looks like i have a mustache. very faint, but still noticeable. i even have a few strands of beard on my chin that insist on growing back no matter how many times i pull them out. if a hair has decided to grow somewhere on your body, it will take more drastic measures than shaving or pulling it out to make it disappear. they're persistent things.

[Blaine]

even on females, facial hair grows out after shaving. whenever i try to be a pretty woman (possibly a weird thing to say for someone who's considering t...) i end up shaving because my feminine hair growth is rather visible, looks like i have a mustache. very faint, but still noticeable. i even have a few strands of beard on my chin that insist on growing back no matter how many times i pull them out. if a hair has decided to grow somewhere on your body, it will take more drastic measures than shaving or pulling it out to make it disappear. they're persistent things.

Yep. I need to stop being in denial about this. I can't go FT yet and my old trimmer's dead so... I guess it's time to take it up a notch. I'll be glad when it's not considered weird for me to keep my facial hair.

[Ayden]

I have really light facial hair. I'm naturally blonde so my facial hair aside from the few dark ones are following the trend. I shave about every other day since my employer hired me because I'm bio female and if I go longer my preschool kids point at my face and say 'hige! Hige!' Which is Japanese for beard. I didn't start shaving until about six months in but it seems like it grows back faster now. That could be because I have gotten used to having a smooth face though.

[Darrin Scott]

<---currently has a neckbeard

It all depends on if you feel you need it. I have shaved off all of my facial hair since being on T (and having something to shave) and felt kinda nude without it. My facial hair helps me feel a little more secure, and I get seen as male significantly less without it. If you feel confident that it won't make a difference, then shave it off no problem. Or experiment and see what you like/dislike.

This.

I have a neck beard as well and I don't think it looks horrible and I pass almost 100% with it. It depends on how you feel about it. Without what I have, I know I wouldn't pass.

[Jared]

Your mileage, however, may vary. But, I do know that while shaving will not actually thicken the hairs themselves, what it DOES DO (because as far as your skin and hair follicles are concerned shaving is a very abrasive and irritating thing) is to bring the blood closer to the skin surface which in turn may speed up the activating process of the follicles (being as it's the blood that carries the T everywhere and it's the T that activates the follicles and well I think you get where I'm going with that). So that's definitely something to take into consideration of whether or not to shave.

That's interesting, I never thaught it works like this. Thanks for sharing.