Male Body Shaving (Page 2)

I've shaved for swim meets for a long time.  Legs, chest, armpits.   Just use a disposable razor and take my time.  The trickiest part for me is just below my kneecaps, that's where I normally manage to nick myself.  I'll shave a couple of days ahead of time and then do some "touch up" in the shower later if needed.  There always seems to be a spot that you miss.

I think most of the benefit of it is psychological (at least for me), but it does feel good.  An unexpected consequence for me is that shaving my chest accentuates the scars from my open heart surgery 17 years ago. Some of my newer friends who don't know my medical history are still taken aback sometimes.  

Mark

Like RedCorvette, I've shaved twice for swim meets and will be doing so again at the end of the month.  I will shave not just the legs, but also the chest, arms, underarms and whatever of the back that I can reasonably reach.  I've used a male disposable razor in the past and have gotten a few cuts.  I may try a ladies' razor this time.

But regardless, I found that I missed a ton of areas.  Sitting in the sun or a bright light later, I found spot after spot after spot that didnt get it all removed.  So I would address each area as I found them.  Its at least a couple hour process (for me) the first time through.

I would also do a touch-up each night (multi-day swim meet).  You do get stubble.  These go much, much quicker.

I use a razor and yes, I shave the night before the big race.  I am always out of practice since my races are always 6 months or more apart so it always take about 3 times as long to shave as I think it will (but I don't miss any spots I get it all after about the 7th time over).  Getting to bed late the night before you race because it takes two hours to shave has me thinking I will try shaving a few days before the race with the clippers then follow up with the razor the night before.. 

And i've won races, and by about 30 seconds.  I was very happy for the minute i saved shaving my arms and legs.

Ya...we got that the first time you posted it in this thread, but it is still a personal preference. It doesn't state anywhere in the rules that you have to shave and I don't even know of any coaches that would insist that their athletes to shave if that wasn't the athletes preference (because it really doesn't matter).  Some prefer to shave so they can say that they save 5 Watts. If 5 Watts makes or breaks my race then I am not racing for the right reasons.  I race for recreation.  Yes, I like to go fast but speed is relative.  Some people would cry for joy if they were able to get to a 20 MPH average and other do 26 MPH making it look easy. As a personal rule I only race against myself.  First place, fourth place, tenth place it doesn't really matter to me.  What matters to me is how I did compared to previous race efforts.  If I never shave then the plus or minuet 2-3 minutes doesn't matter.  If I always shave the plus or minus 2-3 minutes doesn't matter and the effort is the not measured in time anyways so it is irrelevant to my racing.  ***Note***: My last race I didn't shave but I won by over 4 minutes, and broke the course record.  It was a small local race of about 50 people.  The weather conditions were perfect for racing and I had been feeling really good in my workouts leading up to the race so I thought there was a good chance for a PR.  By the effort I put out I thought I would be close to the PR but wasn't which surprised me.  Could shaving have made a difference between a PR and missing it?  I really don't know, but my preference is to not shave for training or B races.  They are just to make me stronger.  I only shave for "A races" and my last race was not an A race..  

The poster had asked *why* people shave.  The answer is that it makes you go faster.  I guess going faster is a personal preference...but i don't think that really answers the question of why people shave.  I guess you would say you don't shave because you don't care.  Seems silly to me to do all this work and then away all the time you worked off, but if you want to go for it.