I am unhappy about this comic because I found that article some time ago, and now everyone knows about it and will think I got it from xkcd if I mention it.
I am meta-unhappy because being unhappy about that makes me feel like a hipster.
Long-time pet peeve of mine: one of them doesn’t belong on the list:
Shaving does not cause hair to grow back thicker or coarser or darker. This belief is due to the fact that hair that has never been cut has a tapered end, whereas, after cutting, there is no taper. Thus, it appears thicker, and feels coarser due to the sharper, unworn edges. The fact that shorter hairs are “harder” (less flexible) than longer hairs also contributes to this effect. Hair can also appear darker after it grows back because hair that has never been cut is often lighter due to sun exposure.
In other words, this is wrong, you are an idiot for believing this, but you should act as if it were true for all practical purposes, as there are no observable distinctions between your misconception and reality. So, if you don’t want to have to keep shaving back seemingly-denser hair, don’t shave off the hair.
I’ve observed the very evidence (in my face and body hair) that causes people to have this “misconception”. Whatever hair I shaved off came back exactly as the “misconception” warns (thicker, darker, fuller, uglier looking than if I left it alone). I’m not sure what I gain from being informed that this is a misconception.
Then that would be wrong, as I have to permanently, regularly shave my face to maintain the same facial-hair-visibility that I had from the lifetime of growth before the first shave. (And over long enough periods, a once-shaven person will appear to have more and darker hair than the never-shaved version of that person.)
I have to permanently, regularly shave my face to maintain the same facial-hair-visibility that I had from the lifetime of growth before the first shave.
That sounds more like the result of puberty than the result of shaving, but I guess that’s not what you mean.
I had been developing facial hair for a long time before I learned to shave. (I had outpaced my peers in the “noticeable ’stache” department.) However, it was very thin, light, and wispy.
Today, it would take me a few days to grow a mustache that’s darker, thicker, and a more dominant facial feature than the one I had developed in the year or two between puberty onset and first shaving. Had I never started shaving (and maybe just regularly trimmed), this upkeep would not be necessary, yet by reading the “misconceptions” list, I would have unwisely dismissed this possibility.
Also [rot13 for moderate squick] gur cngpurf bs yrt, purfg, naq nez unve jurer V unir cerivbhfyl funirq vg bss ner abj guvpxre, qnexre, naq shyyre guna gur fheebhaqvat nern, juvpu pna’g or nppbhagrq sbe ol choregl.
Exercise physiology could take up half the page. One of my pet peeve misconceptions is ‘a pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day’ (closer to 6, and fat burns 2).
I recently had to extract a myth from my head that olive oil was bad for cooking because of poor tolerance to heat. It’s actually substantially more robust in that regard than butter or margarine and refined olive oil is pretty close to the well regarded peanut.
A direct link, for those rare folk who don’t enjoy the comic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions
I am unhappy about this comic because I found that article some time ago, and now everyone knows about it and will think I got it from xkcd if I mention it.
I am meta-unhappy because being unhappy about that makes me feel like a hipster.
So who wants to add God to the list of common misconceptions?
Long-time pet peeve of mine: one of them doesn’t belong on the list:
In other words, this is wrong, you are an idiot for believing this, but you should act as if it were true for all practical purposes, as there are no observable distinctions between your misconception and reality. So, if you don’t want to have to keep shaving back seemingly-denser hair, don’t shave off the hair.
I’ve observed the very evidence (in my face and body hair) that causes people to have this “misconception”. Whatever hair I shaved off came back exactly as the “misconception” warns (thicker, darker, fuller, uglier looking than if I left it alone). I’m not sure what I gain from being informed that this is a misconception.
I think the point was that you might have some temporary effects but no permanent effects.
Then that would be wrong, as I have to permanently, regularly shave my face to maintain the same facial-hair-visibility that I had from the lifetime of growth before the first shave. (And over long enough periods, a once-shaven person will appear to have more and darker hair than the never-shaved version of that person.)
That sounds more like the result of puberty than the result of shaving, but I guess that’s not what you mean.
I had been developing facial hair for a long time before I learned to shave. (I had outpaced my peers in the “noticeable ’stache” department.) However, it was very thin, light, and wispy.
Today, it would take me a few days to grow a mustache that’s darker, thicker, and a more dominant facial feature than the one I had developed in the year or two between puberty onset and first shaving. Had I never started shaving (and maybe just regularly trimmed), this upkeep would not be necessary, yet by reading the “misconceptions” list, I would have unwisely dismissed this possibility.
Also [rot13 for moderate squick] gur cngpurf bs yrt, purfg, naq nez unve jurer V unir cerivbhfyl funirq vg bss ner abj guvpxre, qnexre, naq shyyre guna gur fheebhaqvat nern, juvpu pna’g or nppbhagrq sbe ol choregl.
Exercise physiology could take up half the page. One of my pet peeve misconceptions is ‘a pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day’ (closer to 6, and fat burns 2).
I recently had to extract a myth from my head that olive oil was bad for cooking because of poor tolerance to heat. It’s actually substantially more robust in that regard than butter or margarine and refined olive oil is pretty close to the well regarded peanut.