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An earlier Skeptics Stack Exchange question asks: If you shave or wax, will the hair grow back stronger or thicker?

However, I am interesting in a more specific claim: that shaving the head of an infant will lead to thicker and stronger hair later. For example, this is discussed at babycenter.com.

Does shaving of hairs of an infant really promote hair growth and better quality new hair?

The BMJ web-site reports an answer for adults, but I have been unable to follow the references to see if they are applicable to infants.

Many of the comments give reasons that the hair is dead and, hence, it does not matter whether you cut it or not, but I see there are many confounding variables e.g. the weight of hair may have some effect on the follicle. The weight reduction is more prominent in infants. Also, the pulling action affects the delicate hair follicle of infants.

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  • I think this is a good question but you will fare better here if you demonstrate where the claim is being made by finding an example of where someone makes the claim and linking to it. – matt_black May 10 '14 at 10:23
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    Although not providing references is a "Taboo" here on skeptics, some claims are widespread enough to not require a reference, IMHO. Such as this one. Skeptics is about checking claims people believe in, people DO believe that cutting hair makes it thicker. – Hello World May 10 '14 at 10:31
  • One possible explanation of "Ever since cutting it, he's always had a beautiful head..." is the fact that the hair will *look* better after being trimmed. See my answer. – Hello World May 10 '14 at 10:53
  • Putting the question on hold while we decide if it is a duplicate. – Oddthinking May 10 '14 at 12:17
  • There is a [very closely related question](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/490/if-you-shave-or-wax-will-the-hair-grow-back-stronger-or-thicker) which I believe will have the same answer, so we can close this as a duplicate. However, this one specifically mentions infants, so it could be argued is a different question (but should be edited to make more specific). Ali, are you happy with the answers in the other question? – Oddthinking May 10 '14 at 12:19
  • @Oddthinking No, this question should be only about infants ,adults are much different than Infants to the extent we have paedratics . I its more specific as it asks about scalp area hair only. I am not satisfied with the answers there too, – skept101 May 10 '14 at 14:18
  • there are many confounding variables in this which makes it inconclusive to give a judgement. eg weight of hair reduces due to cutting hence may have some effect on the follicle. Thie weight reduction is more prominent in infants . Besides the pulling action also affects the delicate hair follicle of infants. – skept101 May 10 '14 at 14:20
  • I doubt this will be answerable; there are unlikely to be studies specific to infants, but I am ready to be surprised. – Oddthinking May 10 '14 at 16:55
  • @Oddthinking We wouldn't need a study specific to infants. A description of the mechanism of hair growth and evidence that this is the same regardless of age would be sufficient. –  May 11 '14 at 01:35
  • @Ali You've said in several places that "the weight of hair may have some effect on the follicle", but I haven't found a single reference that suggests this may be the case. All references I can find say that weight does not affect the follicle's activity. –  May 11 '14 at 01:36
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    @Articuno: Ali seems to be speculating that there *may* be some, as yet identified, factor that makes the general case unable to be applied to this specific case, and therefore the general case should be treated with suspicion. Hence my conclusion that it would require an (IMO unlikely) specific study. – Oddthinking May 11 '14 at 07:48

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