Why Your Pubic Hair Grows Back So Damn Fast (2024)

Maybe you’re a regular manscaper, or perhaps you just took the plunge into trimming out your nether regions. Regardless, it seems like one truth holds true: As soon as you take off the hair, it blooms right back again.

But when you’re waiting for the hair on your head to grow back—say, after an especially unfortunate haircut—it seems like it takes forever. So does that mean that the hair down below is taking some serious Miracle-Gro?

Sure, it might seem that your pubic hair is on a steroid-fueled regrowth. But that’s actually something of an optic illusion, says Alexes Hazen, M.D., a reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgeon at NYU Langone Health. (Here's everything you ever wanted to know about your pubic hair.)

“People who trim or shave their pubic hair often think it grows faster than the rest of their hair, specifically the hair on their head, but this is not the case,” she says. “We simply notice hair growth most, and the speed of that growth, the shorter the hair.”

So if you’ve buzzed down the hair on your pubes, you notice the regrowth more because there’s simply not much there. But it’s hard to discern the same amount of growth on your head, because the hair that’s still there is much longer. If you flat-out buzzed your head, you’d probably notice the regrowth is similar to that of your pubic region.

All hair, regardless of its locations, follows a three-stage cycle: growth, stagnation, and falling out. Part of the perception that your pubic hair grows much faster than the hair on your head may be due to the growth cycle it follows.

With pubic hair—and other body hair—the entire process takes about 30 to 44 days, Dr. Hazen says. That means the same pubes that started to grow will shed in about a month to a month and a half.

Hair on your head follows a much more spread out process. In fact, it can keep growing for up to six years before it falls out. As a result, the hair on your head grows to much longer lengths than your pubes can ever reach. (Here are 7 manscaping tricks every man must know.)

This difference, especially if you like your hair on the longer side, adds to the perception that your pubes seem to be on the fast track to growth.

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However, there are factors that can influence growth rates and hair strength, she adds, such as usage of medications like finasteride (also known as Proscar or Propecia) and minoxidil, known as Rogaine. These medications can stimulate hair growth by widening blood vessels in the scalp, which allows more oxygen, blood, and nutrients to reach the follicles.

Hormones can also play a part, says Dr. Hazen, particularly androgens like testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. Lower amounts of androgens, or issues with hormone balance, may cause some hair loss, and is one of the biggest factors for male pattern baldness.