Subject: RE: Shaved legs? I was searching for wetsuit threads on a different subject and came across this one and thought I'd add my $0.02. I shaved in high school for swimming and it was a terrible experience, like noted above. I Swore I'd never do it again. I just remember it was in the middle of winter and freezing in NW Pennsylvania and every time I'd get goose bumps the razor burn would hurt like heck.
When I started triathlon almost 20 years later, the shorts I had were ripping out the leg hair on my thighs and it was driving me nuts, and giving me weird looking bald patches. So I had the bright idea to just shave that area...now that looked weird, like hairy thigh highs or something. It was not flattering to only have hair from the top of the knee down, at which point I was kind of cornered into going the full monty. It was uncomfortable at first but then I got used to it. Now I dig it so it's staying. It doesn't take much to keep up and it may help reduce times (as noted ) and some other benefits. Also, between the compression sleeves and shorts etc, I can just imagine that my original problem would persist even more now. Mostly though, I think it looks cool.
As far as all the debate; we do all kinds of stuff that may or may not actually help performance from aero helmets to aero bags to aero bottles to aero whatever...yet this is the only one that gets debated so much. Even if the real reason that most of us shave is cause everyone else is doing it or we like how it looks; that's precisely the ONLY reason women have been doing it for decades and nobody give them flack about it. I honestly think hairy legs look kind of weird now. |