Not a guy here, but will give my experience as I've seen quite a few variations of manscaping. First off, from a physiological point of view, your early shaving has nothing to do with your current hairiness, so let yourself off of the hook for that. It is just an old wives tail. Repeated waxing however will eventually help to thin the growth, as the repeated trauma eventually kills some of the follicles. That being said I wouldn't recommend it. Most men I know who wax, also get horrible ingrown hairs from it. If you decide to wax, perhaps just start with a test spot, and see how it goes for you.

A better, albeit more expensive option is laser hair removal. Permanent, and free from ingrown hairs. This works best on dark hair/light skin combinations. I have lighter hair, and bronzed skin, so while it greatly reduced my hair growth, it wasn't a perfect solution for me.  

I however love a hairy guy. I know it's not popular in modern culture, but the Burt Reynolds type turns me on!! It's really whatever make you happy though. I understand wanting less hair. I know that I love how my experience of touch changes when I am freshly waxed or shaved.

I'm not sure how a man can be *afraid* of hair but whatever. To be fair, I use a beard trimmer to trim the hair on my back and those on my testicular area. Other than that, the body hair that I have is on my chest and it's in the pattern of the superman symbol…and I work out, too ….

i said this before
waxing is waste of money and costs almost as much as laser at this point

I did the laser on my back and it's smooth as a babies behind. Laser didn't work as well on the front, to much grey and light colored hairs.

I get my front waxed every 8 weeks. Growth has been reduced and it has gone from being painful to slightly annoying.

Hope this helps.

I had a couple of treatments around the crotch.  I liked the results.  The service was fun if you like a bit of pain.  (I do.)

She has retired however.

As for hair growing in thicker after you shave, here's what Seinfeld has to say on the subject:

My BF is really hairy and he knows I don't like it.  He's naturally got a very hairy chest (which I do like, so manly) but I hated his quite hairy upper arms, shoulders and back.  It looked messy and hid his muscular torso.
So I bought him a waxing a few years ago.  Neither of us knew what to expect.  The lady should have told us to trim his hair to no more than half an inch.  She just started ripping it off and it was like the scene from "40 Year Old Virgin."  IOW, it hurt him like hell.  But when it was done he looked much better.  It even motivated him to do more lifting at the gym.  Now I call him my little Greek God, LOL!
Now his routine is he uses a trimmer to keep his chest hair neat, manscapes his C&B, uses his razor on his upper arms and shoulders and gets his back waxed every 4-5 weeks.  It really does get easier after the 2nd or 3rd time because the follicles weaken.  Each waxing, which covers his entire back, costs $35.  I guess at some point he'll consider laser, but I've heard the hair actually does grow back after a while.
We are both happy with the result.

Cons. Yeah it grows back and it's "prickly" but you have to let it grow out a bit to do it again. Get a good body groomer a trim it down. Oh and shaving causes hair to grow back thicker is a myth One that's been disproven. So there's that ... I know it's easier that thinking your mom had sex with a Yeti  

but I do manscape.