RubeRad

OK, if this is becoming a show-your-hairy-legs-and-bike-related-bloody-knee thread, I am compelled to show my pic and link to my story.



Months later, the knee is doing great; the big cut with the stitches actually healed a lot better than the scrapes on the upper shin -- I still have slightly-painful scar tissue there.

And I was hairy through the whole ordeal, and it made no difference at all. (I didn't bandage the scrapes, and the stitches only wore gauze with gentle medical tape for a day or two)

SethAZ 

Btw I like my bushy blond arm and leg hair, and so does my wife. I can actually feel it waving in the breeze on my fast rides, so I know it's having some small effect (probably smaller than it feels), and I've never really felt compelled to shave it off. I'm going to shave it all off today, though, for the 107 mile Tour de Tucson, which is tomorrow. Why am I doing it? I don't know. Why not? Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Mostly I think I'm just interested in the experiment. Gonna ride this way and see how it feels.

leeinmemphis

after a motorcycle wreck a year ago I had to deal with road rash. My hairy legs were a real pita to deal with when keeping it all clean for it to heal up. Ever since I've kept mine shaved just in case I had another case of road rash. I went down on a bike this spring and got some rash on my right calf. It was much easier this time around to deal with it. I'm a recumbent guy for the most part but it's a nice precaution that paid off at least once for me.

rideorglide

Last year, first ride out with my then-15 yr old son, so MTBs instead of road.

Was having a conversation, and there's this longitudinal seam in the road...you can see next to my foot how the seam falls into a depression on the side near the kerb.

Now the seam happens to be in just the place you want to ride ... not too close to the kerb.

As I was yakking with junior, I inadvertently let the tyre/tire hook up with the seam in totally the wrong way, and was just that bit too far out of balance in relation to the seam to correct — whammo splatto.
In retrospect, not a good road choice for cyclists, but it stands between us and the small piece of local MTB-worthy trail.

Glad I was not going too fast: but 200# of me never hits the pavement that lightly, going slowly or not.

Yours, however, with it's 8 or 9 stitches, looks like it was worth a trip to the ER...unless you do your own needlework?

RubeRad

Well, I had to sit around for an hour while my wife rode home and came back in the van (I was fortunate enough to crash very near some road access), so I figured if i survived that long, it couldn't be all that much of an emergency. Went to urgent care instead.

Homeyba

It didn't make difference because you didn't bandage it up and you didn't have to scrub it out. btw, I believe leaving it open like you did is the best way to let it heal. Since you're sharing, this happened to me at the start of the Race Across America a few years back. Nearly 100 stitches a bunch of roadrash and a broken elbow. Shaving made it way easier for me to get out of the hospital, get back on the bike and finish the race with as little difficulty as possible.


My crew thought it was funny to hang a handicapped placard on the back of my bike

me riding all bandaged up in Colorado

rideorglide

Ouch, that's just plain nasty. You really did a job on yourself there.
With the perspective I have from other sports I do, by comparison, us cyclists are right up there in the top echelon of the league of masochists.

RubeRad

You rode across america with a broken elbow? Kudos to you, sir!

Homeyba

Yeah, it actually happened 85+/- miles from San Diego (only 2960 miles to go). I was cruising along at 35+mph when a van right hooked me. I taught her a lesson though. I dented the side of the van real good. Actually, the broken elbow wasn't too bad I ride most of the time in my aerobars so there wasn't a lot of pressure on it. The big hemotoma's on my elbow's were more problematic. You should have seen the ER Dr's face when he was describing doing a skin graft to cover that golfball sized hole in my knee and I said "if you do that, how am I going to ride my bike?" He just looked at me and said "you won't." I figured my modeling days were over so I asked him what would happen if we just left it heal itself. It turned out pretty good. I have to say that the Dr's at the hospital in Brawley did an awesome job stitching me back up. In fact the Dr. who did the actual stitching was a former Olympic volleyball player. I had an EMT on my crew who was awesome and kept really good care of me.

WalksOn2Wheels

To add to my earlier post, I just remembered the main reason I took the plunge. Similar to another above poster, I had a motorcycle accident and had a hell of a time taking care of the wound with all the hair matted into it. For small scrape and stuff, hair is really no big deal. But when you have pizza-leg, that's another situation entirely. i've got a nasty picture, but will go ahead and refrain from sharing.

Erwin8r

Aww, come on! You can't bait us like that then leave us hanging! Lol!

So, back to my original point, I'm actually going to shave them tomorrow morning. I figure the winter wear (trousers over cycling shorts) will keep me from shocking the world and I can get accustomed to doing it...

Chitown_Mike

I don't know if anyone asked, but has any guy waxed?

Just to stir the hairy pot some more.....

bbbean 

Yes. It beats shaving.

RubeRad

Steve Carrell did in 40-Year Old Virgin

Astrozombie

That's nothing.................has anyone ever gone in for a "Full waxing"?.............. That hair can get really annoying

Erwin8r

Uh, no... Images of Deuce Bigelow spring to mind... Lol.

MiddleAgeMan

I've done a full-body shave (except the hair on my head of course) a couple times. I'm really hairy genetically, maybe two steps away from a chimpanzee. I pretty much got tired of vacuuming the hairs off the bathroom floor every other day, so I decided to try shaving it. I liked the bare feeling (as did the wife) and was pretty satisfied. The only issue is that to do it completely it takes me almost two hours and I can't do my back by myself. It's a lot of effort to have to do every week or every other week and with three little kids time is a commodity that I don't really have enough of. I'll probably get back to doing it every so often in the spring, but for now I have to stick with the hair.

RubeRad

Razor on a stick?

Roomba/Norelco AUTORAZR? (just lie down on your stomach and take a nap, let the device roam...)

Goat? (see Roomba/Norelco above)

Myosmith

Hope you don't mind, I saved that photo for reference for our trauma simulation. Here is some fake injuries I've done over the years. All are based on photos like yours.

Homeyba

No problem, just realize that is an after getting out of the hospital pic. There were almost 100 stitches on my thigh between my knee and rear end.

sirupate

Funny discussion. I shave my chest and my wife does my back, but darn, once you begin, where do you stop? Just that amount takes more time than I'd like to spend tending to such things. I'd have to add another 30 minutes a week to keep up with my legs. Then what about my hairy arms?

My first good road rash as an adult may be a deciding factor. Hopefully it won't come to that.

bmontgomery87

Every 4-6 weeks I take my beard trimmer and just do absolutely everything. Can be done in 15 minutes or so, just need someone to do the back.
I'm super hairy as well and everything looks better cut short, but shaving takes some serious time.