I had a thought regarding that story, that shaving causes hair to grow back thicker. When I shave my legs, there's something like 7-10 days where I can't feel the breezes and textures around my legs like normal. What if the neurons in the skin react to that denial of proprioception (sensing what id's around you by touch) by making more hairs grow? After all, one can think of body hair add having a sort of function like whiskers.. What if the skin considers the hairs important?