General Cycling Discussion - Shave your legs???

While watching the Tour de Spain with my brother in-law (A cat 1 racer), we started talking about racing and the things racers do. The topic of shaving your legs came up (he shaves his legs). He was saying I should start shaving my legs. His logic is, if I crash the healing process goes much better with clean shaven legs.

I started to wonder how many people out there shave their legs.

My wife and I both ride, but only she shaves her legs.

Shaving my chin is a pain , so I'm sure as hell not going to start shaving my legs.:)

I say show off those beautiful legs and shave them!

Not a living chance. I hate shaving the old face and I am 6'5 and have a lot of leg...

I'll stick with being furry.

the healing process goes much better with clean shaven legs
Very true, this is the only reason I shave my legs (well, it does feel good). The last time I went down hard I had to have the wound scrubbed out (once again) - it was soooooo much easier without hair.

It is A LOT easier to put sun-tan lotion on shaved legs!

Isn't it also true that you can't get your USCF racing license unless you send them a picture of your shaved legs? ;)

Don't like shaving my face so I'm sure as hell not going to start shaving my legs :D . Then, where would I stop ... wouldn't it look funny to have smooth legs to mid-thigh and then have some fuzz? Does one shave to the hip or up past the stomache? What if there's a little fuzz on the butt region? Where does it end???
I need to know? :confused: :D

We've discussed this at least 2 or 3 times in the last year but I'll respond again.

Yes I shave my legs. Three primary reasons.
1. The healing process goes much better after a crash. :eek: :crash:
2. It is much easier to apply sunscreen.
3. (Sometimes the most important reason ;) ) Showing off well-sculpted leg muscles. I have had lots of compliments about mine from the women at work. :D

Shaving is the only way to go. No buts about it.

Originally posted by lshield
His logic is, if I crash the healing process goes much better with clean shaven legs.

I have a hard enough time with my face. Were I to start shaving any other parts of my body, a healing process is what would be required as a result.

I shave, mainly fir the same reasons as RonH. I also have really nice legs... If you don't mind the roadwork.

Yup. I do and it looks and feels better. This is kinda like do you have a tattoo, some people like 'em and others are disgusted by 'em.
This is a really old subject BTW.

No fur here, either.

Shaving my chin is a pain , so I'm sure as hell not going to start shaving my legs.

I hate shaving also, so I am not about to find more parts to shave. I occasionally tease my wife, by saying that I will do it one day, she responds with "then you better find another wife, I married a man not a boy". She is VERY adamant about that.

CHEERS.

Mark

Originally posted by lshield
While watching the Tour de Spain with my brother in-law (A cat 1 racer), we started talking about racing and the things racers do. The topic of shaving your legs came up (he shaves his legs). He was saying I should start shaving my legs. His logic is, if I crash the healing process goes much better with clean shaven legs.

I started to wonder how many people out there shave their legs.
I don't shave my legs because I don't want to crash.

:D

I reckon it'd make them hairier, but the last time I said that people got really personal...

Vanity thy name is man.

My wife and I both ride, but only she shaves her legs. - Hey Webist, just think if it was the other way around....:p

He was saying I should start shaving my legs. His logic is, if I crash the healing process goes much better with clean shaven legs

I have to disagree. The physiological process where blood coagulates is independent of either the nature of the injury or the amount of hair. In a large wound, there are 'tapes' that can be applied that contain an enzyme that partially help the clotting process to but all that does is to facilitate the natural process that takes place within a matter of seconds after the cut. The hairs themselves don't do anything, and on their own, I doubt they prevent anything 'foreign' getting into the wound as most contamination would result because of either impact penetration, or in the case of a slide, substantial tearing of a large area of the skin.

I think the shaven hair thing helping healing is possibly in the same league as the tapes worn on the nose by some athletes. Just my $0.02c worth.

Winter is coming. Warm and fuzzy is the only way to survive. We must grow more hair.

Sorry if I offended anyone by the "W" word.

Originally posted by lshield
...... His logic is, if I crash the healing process goes much better with clean shaven legs.

If you follow that train of thought to the end.....then you gotta shave your butt too.:rolleyes:

If you follow that train of thought to the end.....then you gotta shave your butt too

And then some.:D

No shaving for me. I spend enough time training, stretching, planning and eating right that I'm not really looking for one more thing to do.

When I started to shave, the most common arguement I got against it was that smooth legs are too girly. To me, hair or no hair has no effect on my masculinity. It's kind of like flying a flag, I don't have to fly one to be patriotic.

I think the shaven hair thing helping healing is possibly in the same league as the tapes worn on the nose by some athletes. Just my $0.02c worth.

The nose thingy actually came up on another thread. They actually DO work for many people. It all depends on the anatomy of your nasal passages. In the medical setting, those strips are a first line treatment for obstructive sleep apnea.

And so that brings me to the leg hair. Shaved wounds in the surgical setting most certainly have lower infection rates than unhsaved wounds. It is easier to keep a shaven patch of skin clean, you see. It is not the mere presence of bacteria on the skin that affects rates infection, but rather burden of organisms per area of skin. With hair, your bug load goes way up, therefore so does your chance of infection.

Personally, I think raking a razor across vast expanses of my skin weekly is a lot to ask for a mild edge in wound healing - I don't even crash that often. I think you'd expose yourself to infection (e.g. ingrown hairs, cuts) far more frequently if you compulsively...er...regularly shaved your gams. Y'all just like to look at yourselves in the mirror...don't try to deny it!

BK

IMHO there is nothing more unsightly than a walking hairball.
That's what I'd look like if I didn't shave. :eek:

How many other "hairballs" do you see when you go to the mall? :crash:

I've gotten spoiled having a beard. I kind of like not having to shave every day. They had to shave a spot on my leg the other day for a little surgers. In three days the hair was about 1/8", 3mm. I would have to shave my legs every day at that rate! I had toyed with it before, but now I'm really hesitant to start.

BuddaKnuckle.

In surgery I can see the need to shave the area beforehand, based on what you describe about the bugs. In a cycling injury, would it not be the case though that the tissue damaged would have the more primary importance in dramatically enlarging the portal for infection to enter?

I mean, if I fell off and opened an area of my leg, then the potential for infection through the damaged area would be much more significantly enhanced than the bugs on the hair, because there is a greater area of damage, and usually quite deep as well.

For me, it comes back to the start of the thread. As I read it, shaving may reduce the potential for infection, but shaving itself does not contribute to the healing of the wound except to reduce the possibility of infection? There is the cause-and-effect of infection and healing, but healing and coagulation for example are independent of the infection - in all but some extreme circumstances, like haemophilia?

Right now, taing the viewpoint of where I lay on the ground with my leg damaged, I'd be more concerned about that than forgetting to have shaved that morning.:)

I have to shave my legs every other day minimum to feel truly comfortable showing them in public. Unfortunately as a side-effect I do get quite bad ingrowing hair. So, unsightly hair (bear in mind I'm brunette) or some unsightly rash?

I did try not shaving. Hence why I know it's about every other day for comfort... :rolleyes:

Ellie

Theres also the thought that a shaved leg will
"slide" on pavement easier than an unshaven leg
in the event of a crash, less roadrash?
Having had some significant roadrash in the
past, when the ER went to clean the area I truely
wished I was shaven.
That said I still don't shave my legs.

Marty

I am smooth all over my little plastic body!

I used to (the girlfriend LOVED it) it made wearing my pleather pants to the club SOOO much more comfortable.


BTW I'm 6'4" so yes that is a lot of leg.:beer:

This is what it should look like......

Dear Bokkie

Confusion reigns

I think my post was unclear. I was simply trying to illustrate that, for the same wound, the presence of fuzz probably INCREASES the chance for infection over the absence of fuzz. But what you point out is very true. The actual reduction in potential for infection that shaving brings is minuscule in the grand scheme of things. A rider vs pavement injury is reliably contaminated. After the ER does its best to cleanse the wound, suture and dress it, maybe then the +/- hair argument gains some power. But I'm with you, in the realm of bike injuries the presence or absence of leg hair probably determines very little.

Now Lotek suggests that shaven legs slide across pavement more easily than unshaven legs. I don't see why that would intuitively be the case. I don't know how you could prove such a thing (volunteers?). However, it is definitely the case that a naked wound is easier to clean than a hairy one. So we are left with only this practical benefit of shaving legs with respect to bike wounds: Shaving makes clean-up easier.

Oh, and it makes you look fly.

BK

Originally posted by Buddha Knuckle

Now Lotek suggests that shaven legs slide across pavement more easily than unshaven legs. I don't see why that would intuitively be the case. I don't know how you could prove such a thing (volunteers)
Well I sure ain't gonna volunteer.
The idea is that the hair will catch on pavement easier
than bare skin, increased friction and increased roadrash
At least in theory. Not sure where I read that I'll have
to look it up.
As for hair and infection, the hair give a nice direct route
for germs to migrate into the wound, of course hair
growing in will provide the same route (just shorter).
and believe me having roadrash scrubbed that has hair
is not a pleasant experience (been there done that).
Marty

I shaved the first time for the logical reason of easier road rash cleanup, but I keep shaving because. . .

1. I feel like a cyclist after shaving.
2. Lance, Tyler and Levi shave.
3. My 30 mile TT average speed improved by .000000367 mph after shaving.
4. It bothers my 15 year old son that his dad "shaves like a woman."
5. It really bothers my MTB friends that I shave.
6. I actually think I have a pretty good pair of legs and my male ego likes showing them off. But no one ever notices. What's up with that!!
7. At a race I don't stand out as the Cat 5 amateur that I am. . . until I actually have to race.
8. My bike deserves it.
9. My wife and I actually have something in common.
10. Scratches, chainring tattoos and other marks of distinction stand out much better.

Originally posted by WoodyUpstate
I shaved the first time for the logical reason of easier road rash cleanup, but I keep shaving because. . .

3. My 30 mile TT average speed improved by .000000367 mph after shaving.
:roflmao: :roflmao:



4. It bothers my 15 year old son that his dad "shaves like a woman."
My 34 year old son kept giving my legs the "look" when he visited from Florida a few months ago. He never said anything though. ;)
My 33 son came for a short visit last weekend. He made a comment about my shaved legs as soon as he walked in the door. :D

Originally posted by knifun
This is what it should look like......

:eek: :eek: :eek:

that's soooo wrong...

Hairy legs here :P Plus if I shaved my legs, you'd notice that 75% of the area is covered by whiteish scars, and cuts that would be very apparent.

-bs

Shave my legs?

Not that I'm afraid or anything, but shaving my face takes enough time as it is. If I had to shave my legs, well, dang, man, that's just too much darn work!

I fall under the gender of "male", which means no shave legs. If you shave your legs and are a guy, why dont you take some female hormones and grow breasts and all that stuff?






Gender......Sex.....whatever!!!

Ummm... Klein... "gender" is a grammatical category. It refers to the difference between the sexes, not the sexes themselves. You could be "male" [sex] and of indeterminate gender.

Originally posted by KleinMp99
If you shave your legs and are a guy, why dont you take some female hormones and grow breasts and all that stuff?

You see, 'K', those of us who shave our legs are confident enough in our masculinity that we don't rely on outward appearances to define our gender. Therefore, we don't need penis extenders like rottweilers, 4wd pickups with lift kits, excessive biceps, or hairy legs to measure our manhood.

However, were I a downhiller, I might resort to such measures to assuage my own insecurities and assure my place in the men's locker room.

Now then, don't be so sensitive. I'm only kidding.:D

Originally posted by WoodyUpstate


You see, 'K', those of us who shave our legs are confident enough in our masculinity that we don't rely on outward appearances to define our gender. Therefore, we don't need penis extenders like rottweilers, 4wd pickups with lift kits, excessive biceps, or hairy legs to measure our manhood.

However, were I a downhiller, I might resort to such measures to assuage my own insecurities and assure my place in the men's locker room.

Now then, don't be so sensitive. I'm only kidding.:D


Good reply dude. :beer:
Not good in a bad way, like good that it might have hurt some feelings, but good in a funny good way....

Originally posted by KleinMp99
I fall under the gender of "male", which means no shave legs. If you shave your legs and are a guy, why dont you take some female hormones and grow breasts and all that stuff?


Does that mean that if I choose not to shave my legs I have to take testosterone? Or does it just mean I'm a lesbian? Really, I'd rather just wear a badge.

Ellie

Well, I went down hard in the middle of the street yesterday. I don't shave my arms (just can't go that far) and the difference between cleaning my leg rash and arm rash was significant. Plus, the wounds look completely different, it's like the hair contributes to the injury somewhat. The worst one is on my hip though, man those hurt. Adds a little masochistic pleasure to my day at work though, he he he.

I shave my legs for cycling and have done so for over 15 years (I'm a young 50 year old). I don't really care what other people think. It feels better, looks better, is easier to clean road-rash (been there a few times). My spouse likes it, my 20-something kids think dad is cool and I'm very confident in my masculinity.

I recently read in Men's Journal magazine that there is a trend in young men to shave not only the legs, but the chest and arms too. Makes the abs look more defined (if you have decent ones). Have you ever noticed that those guys in the infomercials on TV for exercise machines and guys in magazines almost always have smooth-hairless bodies. I think cyclists are just on the leading edge of fashion and just don't know it.

Well, I'll do just about anything to improve my cycling performance but I have a hard time believing that shaved legs will improve the aerodynamics of my bike when I never ride without at least rear panniers (loaded) and a bike shop in the trunk bag, three water bottles, a night rider classic, a handlebar bag full of snacks and fenders. smooth legs would be just another thing I'd have to take care of. Or, am I missing something?

Shaving does not make you more aerodynamic!!!!!! :D :D