Do shaving/waxing/depleting (back hair), make the hair come back thicker? Or is this an old wives tale?
This question is answered all over this site.
Shaving does NOT make hair grow. It does NOT make hair come back thicker or grow deeper. It only looks and feels that way because “virgin hair” ends in a tapered point and light is spread out over the lenghth of the hair. A shaved hair has a sharp end much like a fiber optic wire. It also catches light much like a fiber optic. It has a flat surface and the disk like surface will give that sparkle glint when the light hits it just the right way. Needless to say, rubbing a long soft tapered hair feels smoother than rubbing a short blunt sharp shaved stubble.
On the other hand, waxing, (any form of plucking really) and bleaching DO make hairs grow thicker and deeper. This is why permanent hair removal specialists prefer their clients shave if they must do hair removal other than their method in between treatments.
How on earth could bleaching make the hairs start to come in thicker, when there’s been no change made to the follicle at all?
I’d honestly like to see something in the way of solid proof for all of that–since this site’s always been focused on not just telling people things just from hearsay or personal observations.
I honestly don’t see any difference at all in the hair in the areas that I wax regularly versus the way it used to be. If anything, I’d say it’s somewhat thinner and lighter on my legs, because I’ve taken to missing patches of it because I can’t see it in the light of my bathroom, something I can’t remember doing when I shaved. 
I’m not aware of any evidence that bleaching has an effect on hair growth.
[ February 04, 2003, 07:30 PM: Message edited by: Andrea ]
I am on vacation right now, and don’t really want to talke the time to research this, but the short answer is, the bleaching makes the hairs “fatter”. I don’t remember if it makes them grow thicker as in, if you stopped bleaching you would have dark hairs growing in really thick, just that the bleaching process causes the hairs to expand. This may be due to some sort of plumping of the material having soaked it in the bleach. But like I said, I can’t go digging on that now.