I know that shaving doesn't affect the structure of hair but whenever I shave, the hair comes back appearing thicker. So, will trimming hair make it appear thicker as well?

I know it's kind of a stupid question but I'm asking because shaving and trimming is similar, right? You're cutting the hair at the surface of the skin so you cut off the tapered part of the hair. I've just used scissors to get really close to the root of the hair and it works good for me because the hair is thin, soft and not very dark so it looks like I have barely any hair but I'm just really paranoid that I will eventually make it look worse.

Nope, you doing the right thing. Yes, shaving and clipping affect the hair the same way - you are cutting the thickest part of the hair and the blunt ends will always feel like stumble. When it grows back, it will be the same old hair structure whether you cut it 500 times or 5,000 times. It will not get worse.

Dee

OMG.

Even though this is all over the board, here it is again:

When a virgin hair is allowed to grow from start to maturity, it ends in a tappered point on the end. This causes a bend in the hair, and reflects light in a certain way. Because of the changing thickness towards the end, the hair feels softer and until the hair reaches a certain length, it may not even be something you feel at all. It takes time for you to feel any coarseness.

Now, cut that hair, or shave that hair, and you have eliminated the tapered end. The hair has a blunt end, or a sharp point from the sideways slice of the razor. The thickness is uniform and the light is reflecting off a disk of hair at the end, instead of having less reflecting area on a natural point.

This hair will feel thicker, because it doesn't have the natural bend found in a substance that tappers to a point (the smaller parts having a lower bend threshold than the thicker parts). This hair will feel harder to the touch because of the thickness on the end of the hair and the inflexibility of those non-tappered ends, and the light will reflect more noticeablly as well, making these hairs more noticeable, but still not different in composition. When they fall out of phase, they will regrow from the virgin state as they had previous to shaving.

It was very nice of you to answer that question so clearly, James. My "OMG" comment was in relation to this person's spamming link.

Oh, yeah, that.

I am just so busy trying to do my work and answer questions, that I simply missed that link.

Good God what a time waster that was!

Oh, well, I hope that helped someone who saw the question and answer.