Hiding axis labels in non-aggregate columns during drillown - highcharts

Question

How do I manipulate the x-axis style on a drilled down chart in Highcharts?
For instance, given the following drilldown chart, how do I hide the x-axis labels in the drilled down version of the chart (that appears when you click one of the columns)?
In general, it seems like there are are not a lot of ways to control the layout of the drilled down chart, is that correct?
// Create the chart
Highcharts.chart('container', {
chart: {
type: 'column'
},
title: {
text: 'Basic drilldown'
},
xAxis: {
type: 'category'
},
legend: {
enabled: false
},
plotOptions: {
series: {
borderWidth: 0,
dataLabels: {
enabled: true
}
}
},
series: [{
name: 'Things',
colorByPoint: true,
data: [{
name: 'Animals',
y: 5,
drilldown: 'animals'
}, {
name: 'Fruits',
y: 2,
drilldown: 'fruits'
}, {
name: 'Cars',
y: 4,
drilldown: 'cars'
}]
}],
drilldown: {
series: [{
id: 'animals',
data: [
['Cats', 4],
['Dogs', 2],
['Cows', 1],
['Sheep', 2],
['Pigs', 1]
]
}, {
id: 'fruits',
data: [
['Apples', 4],
['Oranges', 2]
]
}, {
id: 'cars',
data: [
['Toyota', 4],
['Opel', 2],
['Volkswagen', 2]
]
}]
}
});
<script src="https://code.highcharts.com/highcharts.js"></script>
<script src="https://code.highcharts.com/modules/drilldown.js"></script>
<div id="container" style="min-width: 310px; height: 400px; margin: 0 auto"></div>

Answer 1

Drilldown mechanism in Highcharts is responsible only for handling series, but it launches drilldown and dillup events which can be used for applying updates:
chart: {
type: 'column',
events: {
drilldown: function() {
this.xAxis[0].update({
labels: {
enabled: false
}
});
},
drillup: function() {
this.xAxis[0].update({
labels: {
enabled: true
}
}, false);
}
}
}
Live demo: http://jsfiddle.net/kkulig/11qhaffe/
API references:
https://api.highcharts.com/highcharts/chart.events.drilldown
https://api.highcharts.com/highcharts/chart.events.drillup